Perception

Warnings: Rated M for violence, language and sexual situations/adult themes. Naruto and its characters are owned by Kishimoto.


Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed so far! I’m so flattered by the positive response for this fic.

Special thanks to Serenanna for listening to my frustrated rambling as I stared blankly at a half-finished word document for hours, and for the input and advice that helped me get over the hurdle that was Chapter 5.

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Perception by Cynchick
Chapter Five: Tightrope

Sakura woke reluctantly the next morning, her eyes dark and shadowed from a fitful sleep. She’d had nightmares of being chased; hunted by snarling, predatory wolves with glowing red eyes. She had felt their hot, panting breaths on her back as she ran. She would stumble, feeling the sharp brush of air as their jaws snapped inches from her flesh as she struggled to her feet. On an on it went, until her body demanded respite and she finally fell into a deep forgetful slumber.


She could tell by the dim grayish light coming in from the dirty window that it was still morning, though what hour she couldn’t be sure. It sure wasn’t one she would ever choose to be up at, she knew that much at least, but her rough night made good sleep impossible. At least she wasn’t full of aches and pains today, the warm blanket over her back had protected her from most of the chill. Wait…blanket?


Sakura looked down in amazement at the rest of her body. She did have a blanket over her! What in the world…She was dumbfounded. Someone, one of her captors, had come into her room in the middle of the night and covered her with a large woolen blanket. The fact that they had come in and stood over her sleeping body and she hadn’t woken was completely ignored in favor of the baffling and unpredictable gesture, as if one of them was concerned for her well-being.


That idea was ridiculous of course. She was sure they just didn’t want her to get pneumonia or something from sleeping on the cold hard floor and make herself a burden to them. That or they were so freaked out by Itachi’s violent episode last night that they’d temporarily lost their minds. Whatever the case, she wasn’t about to go asking around to find out who had done it and why.


She sat up and pulled the heavy blanket around her shoulders, adjusting to being awake in her usual slow, groggy way. She realized that she had been overconfident in her behavior while captive; relying on her captors’ professionalism and the small amount of respect they seemed to have for her to grant her leniency in her attitude. Kisame seemed to enjoy the banter between them. Even Deidara seemed a bit more laid back despite his anger about his broken arm. And Tobi, well, he didn’t seem to count for much did he? It was easy to forget he was even there. But provoking Itachi like that had been monumentally stupid of her, and she was only alive now because she needed to be. He was insane; a homicidal sociopath. He had killed his entire clan save one, and spent the next twelve years tormenting and provoking that sole survivor until he too was close to insanity. If Itachi could cut down his own mother in cold blood, what made Sakura think she was safe around him?


She remembered his expression of unbridled rage, how vicious and predatory he felt hovering over her like death’s shadow, and her blood turned cold thinking about what he might have done to her if she wasn’t central to his plan. She was safe from death for the time being, but there were many horrible things that could be done to her if her captors felt inclined to do so. Sakura had done all the research she could on Akatsuki and its members and knew something about their ways. Kisame was brutal and probably a sadist as he had a penchant for mutilating his defeated enemies. Deidara had a very short temper and was easily provoked to violence, and liked to destroy things to see the terrible beauty or “art” in chaos. But Itachi was the most dangerous of them all, except for their leader she assumed. The Sharingan user was cold and calculating, the master of mindfucks. He killed not out of anger, but because some part of him rationalized that they should die. He showed no feelings of any kind, not because he hid them like most shinobi strived to do, but because he didn’t have any.


At least that was what she thought until last night. He was capable of at least one feeling and she had felt it very, very acutely. From the looks on the other Akatsuki’s faces last night, he had never reacted in open anger like that in front of them before, and that worried her. Surely he’d had worse things said to him by an enemy, so what had she done or said to cause such a reaction? Did he have other emotions hidden somewhere deep inside, and if he did were they as intense and extreme as his anger? Was that why he was always a blank slate? She shuddered at the thought.


Last nights events had her thoroughly spooked. From Itachi nearly killing her in a blind rage to his comrades’ alarmed reactions and the mystery of her new blanket, she had no idea what to make of things. She would definitely have to be more cautious about what she said and did from now on; she didn’t want to ruin the small amount of freedom she had gained with her nasty temper.


The situation was ironic: she had been given permission to move around the facility and for the most part do as she pleased, but after last night she was intimidated and more than a little freaked out and she found she didn’t want to leave the minimal sanctuary of her room.


Well that was just too bad. She was a shinobi, and she was being allowed roam freely in enemy territory. Not that she expected to find anything terribly useful here, or that they would be foolish enough to leave anything for her to find in the first place, but what kind of ninja would she be if she didn’t use this opportunity to her advantage? No, she needed to stop acting like a frightened animal, bury her fear deep inside, and do her duty.


That still didn’t mean she wanted to encounter one of her captors anytime soon. She grabbed her backpack, which she had taken to using as a pillow, and carefully and quietly opened her door. The chakra seal hadn’t been removed yet, so she knew someone was aware of her movement and she just hoped they wouldn’t come out to see what she was doing as she stepped tentatively into the hallway. She practically tiptoed toward the bathroom, still feeling like she was sneaking around despite the fact that she had been given permission to come out. She entered and closed the door quietly behind her. She noticed for the first time that the door had a lock, and she stared at it for a moment in indecision before turning the small lever. Of course it wouldn’t keep anyone out if they really wanted to get in, but it would stop them from walking in on her by accident. The last thing she wanted was for one of her kidnappers to get a look at her goods.


She undressed quickly and turned on the water. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror out of the corner of her eye, she turned to look fully at what caught her attention. The bruises on her abdomen from her battle in the town square were beginning to fade to an ugly yellowish-blue, but there were new ones; ghastly purple bruises on her neck from almost being strangled last night, as well as five oval marks on each thigh inflicted on herself in her panic. She quickly healed them, watching her reflection with a frown as they disappeared. The reason for their existence was not something she wanted to be reminded of every time she looked in the mirror.


As much as Sakura wanted to enjoy the hot, steamy shower, she didn’t think it would be a good idea to linger. She showered quickly, brushed her teeth and got dressed. There was no choice but to wear the same clothes as yesterday and she made a mental note to find some way to wash her garments as soon as possible.


She slipped quietly back into her room and closed the door. Not feeling daring enough to wander around in the eerily silent house anymore, she sat down and brushed out her hair. After that was done, she began to absently sort through and inspect the rest of her belongings, reading the medical scrolls she memorized long ago, just trying to keep herself occupied. Of course that didn’t keep her busy for long and after a half hour she found herself sitting there, doing nothing. With nothing to do but stare at the walls she soon found herself thinking about her situation again and starting to worry over Naruto and what would happen when they found her, but that was pointless and wouldn’t get her anywhere.


Eventually, boredom defeated trepidation and Sakura was once again quietly sneaking out into the hallway. There was no need to be so cautious, but the silence around her made her reluctant to make noise and the less of a chance to run into a random Akatsuki the better. Especially one in particular.


She brought her pack with her again, intent on finding a way to wash her clothes. From what little she knew about farm houses, she guessed she would find what she was looking for in the back of the house or outside. She made her way downstairs taking care not to creak the steps, through the dust covered sitting room and toward the doorway she assumed led to the kitchen. She passed the dining room, and flashes of last nights events invaded her mind, making her pulse quicken slightly with nerves. She angrily pushed the memory away as she found herself in what was indeed the kitchen.


It surprised her that she hadn’t sensed anyone around as she moved through all of the common-use rooms. She knew they hadn’t left her alone, but she couldn’t feel any of their signatures nearby. Maybe, like her, they were just not morning people and were still asleep.


The kitchen was well lit and spacious with an island breakfast bar in the middle, common for this type of house she supposed as it was meant for large families. There was no laundry room attached to the kitchen but there was a door that led to a back porch. Sakura opened it and found herself in the large walled-in yard she had seen from her window. The morning air was crisp; it was almost autumn and every day was a little colder than the last.


She looked around the yard for a sign of what she was looking for. The only things in sight were an old chicken coop that was half collapsed, and the large shed she had seen from her window. She stepped off the porch and made her way to the shed. She walked slowly and casually, looking back over her shoulder at the second story windows as she moved to see if she was being watched. She didn’t want anyone to think she was trying to run away if they saw her moving around outside so quickly, especially since she was wearing her backpack, but the windows were all empty. Of course they believed her when she said she wouldn’t run; you can’t lie to someone with a Sharingan. Their ability to see details others might miss and to read every minute expression and tell-sign on a person’s face was a big part of why the Uchiha were the main police and investigation force for the civilian population of Konoha, before Itachi killed them all.


The lock and latch on the door of the shed was corroded and covered with rust, but it had been recently forced open. Sakura took that as a good sign that there was something useful in here, and pushed the door open with some force and a loud grating creak.


She found what she had been looking for in one corner of the shed against the wall. She didn’t expect a place this old and run down to have a washing machine, especially not one that worked, so as she took off her pack and walked over to the large bucket and washboard she set her face in a small frown and resigned herself to manual labor.


Pulling the tub out from the wall and setting it down under the water pump, she told herself it could be worse. She had washed her clothes in streams before when out in the field, and this wasn’t her first time using an old fashioned washboard. As a genin assigned to D-rank missions, one could find themselves doing all sorts of tedious tasks, including other people’s laundry. The last time she did this she was twelve, and at eighteen she hadn’t found it to be any more enjoyable, but it couldn’t be helped and it was better than smelling awful. With one last eye roll at finding no soap or detergent, she set to work.


When she was finished, she laid her wet clothes out flat on a bench next to the wall since the clothes line next to the shed outside was in disrepair and useless. She shoved her undergarments into her bag. Those she would let dry out in her room; she just didn’t feel comfortable leaving them out for any random S-class criminal to look at.


Even though it had been at least an hour since she went looking for the washroom, there was still no sign of any Akatsuki as she made her way back to her room. If they were this good at hiding without even trying it was no wonder Team Kakashi had such a hard time tracking them down. The old fashioned clock on the living room wall didn’t work anymore so she had no idea what time it was. It was the sort of cloudy overcast day that made it impossible to tell as the sky remained a constant, unchanging grey.


Back in her room, she set her bag down and stood in the center with her hands on her hips. She was so bored she could scream, and at the same time too nervous to go roam around and find something to do. The contrast of emotion was ridiculous and made her want to burst into loud laughter. She wondered if this surreal form of captivity was some sort of bizarre torture method. Maybe she was just losing her mind.


After several minutes of aggravating indecision, she decided to go out again and try to find some sort of bed so she didn’t have to sleep on the floor anymore. There were several bedrooms aside from her own, so maybe there was a spare bed or futon somewhere. If nothing else she could pull the dirty worn out cushions off of the couch downstairs and use them. She imagined herself beating the couch cushions against the wall to get the dust out and laughed. She could just haul the entire couch up to her room but she didn’t think that would be such a good idea as she and the couch were likely to fall through the rickety staircase. The mental image of that made her laugh again, and she laughed even harder when she realized the other occupants of the house could probably hear her cackling to herself like a madwoman.


She was laughing so hard at herself and her situation that she had to lean against the wall for a moment to catch her breath. Oh yeah; she was definitely going crazy. She stood up straight and wiped the tears from her eyes, sobering somewhat once she realized that checking the other rooms for a mattress meant actually going inside them, meaning she’d have to open closed doors that could reveal an Akatsuki’s bedroom. She didn’t think barging into her captors’ personal quarters was very conducive to staying alive. She would just have to use her instincts and hope luck was on her side.


Making the assumption that they probably wouldn’t stay in a room too close to hers, she moved to the first door down the hall and cautiously felt for life signs inside with her chakra. She couldn’t feel anything and she held her breath. Tense like a coiled spring and ready to jump out of the way should she suddenly find multiple kunai flying at her face, she tentatively reached for the door handle.


Her eyes went wide and flew from the handle upwards as the door was suddenly opened from the inside. She found herself staring into a swirling orange mask and her heart skipped a beat. So much for luck. She didn’t know if he had heard her outside or if he just happened to be on his way out, but it didn’t really matter did it?


She was close enough to see the glint of a dark eye behind the one hole in the mask, and she took a step back quickly. “Ahh, excuse me.” she stammered. It was in her nature to apologize for intruding, but she had to remind herself of the situation and that this man had tried to hurt her. And paid the consequence for it, Inner Sakura pointed out smugly. The knowledge that this particular Akatsuki wasn’t exactly comfortable around her helped to keep her from panicking. She wasn’t snooping and hadn’t done anything wrong, so she composed herself and looked him in the eye, as much as she could through a mask. “I didn’t think anyone was in this room… I was just looking for an extra mattress.” she justified.


He didn’t answer right away. His body was slightly tense, and she got the feeling she may have startled him as much as he had her. When he finally spoke his voice was quiet. “No one’s using that room over there,” he pointed to a room across the hall to the right. “I think there’s a spare bed in it.”


“Ok. Umm….thanks.” she muttered and she nodded as she turned toward the indicated room.


“You’re welcome.” he replied quietly.


Sakura just kept walking, feeling odd about the strange masked man.


“Sakura-san…” his voice called out to her softly, and she turned to look at him with slightly widened eyes. “You could just stay in a different room now…if you want.”


Well, duh…why didn’t she think of that? She was a bit thrown off by his politeness toward her, especially since she nearly killed him three days ago. Apparently Itachi wasn’t the only one with manners. She blinked and nodded her head at the idea. “Maybe I will…” she looked back at him, her expression a mix of apprehension and appreciation. “Thank you, Tobi-san.”


He straightened, as if he wasn’t used to people addressing him like that. “You’re welcome, Sakura-san.” he said again, and nodded once before closing the door.


Sakura stood in the hallway, staring at nothing. It could have been worse…a lot worse. It could have been Itachi’s room. This was all getting way too weird. She blinked several times before finally moving to the other door. When she opened it and entered the unoccupied room, the events in the hallway were completely forgotten and she immediately frowned, her mouth hanging open in indignation. Those bastards! Why couldn’t they have dropped her in here? Unlike the room they put her in, this one was fully furnished with a bed, an old dresser and a worn out armchair. There were even curtains on the window! That settled it. Her mind made up, she flounced her way to her shell of a room, grabbed her backpack and the wool blanket, then flounced back down the hall to the new room and shut the door.


She plopped on the bed with a huff, and promptly sneezed from the dust cloud that rose to greet her. Her former room was dirty, but this one was far worse due to the furniture gathering more dust than four walls and a floor could. She looked down at the dusty quilt covering the bed, running her palm over the tacky floral print. The fabric was the same as that of the armchair. It was hideous; a gaudy pink floral pattern on a mustard yellow background with smaller flowers jammed in anywhere they would fit. The entire thing was trimmed in dirty, graying lace. No wonder this room was unoccupied, she couldn’t imagine any man wanting to sleep in here.


Well, at least now she had something to do. Cleaning up this awful, tacky but furnished room would take up quite a bit of time. With more eagerness than she had ever felt at the prospect of housework, Sakura forced the window open and began to clean. Yes, she was definitely going insane.

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A little while later, Sakura had managed to make the room somewhat presentable. She’d used the hideous comforter as a dust rag for the rest of the furniture, then shook it out from the open window before stuffing it in one of the dresser drawers, deciding to keep using the wool blanket that had mysteriously appeared over her last night instead of the filthy, smelly bedcover. She then shook out the sheets and remade the bed. There wasn’t much else that could be done after that, but she was satisfied and figured they wouldn’t be staying here much longer anyway.


She calculated that it had been about three days since she was taken hostage. They would be expecting her return tonight, and by tomorrow night they would send an ANBU team to investigate. The Hokage knew her apprentice well enough to know that if she had been held up or the mission was taking longer than expected, she would have found a way to send a message. With no word from the ever-reliable Sakura, she would know immediately that something wasn’t right, especially for a mission as supposedly simple as hers had been.


She had no idea how far they were from the abduction scene, or if they were even still in Grass country. She knew from experience that Akatsuki could travel incredibly large distances in very short time; they could be almost anywhere by now. They wanted Naruto and Sasuke to find them, but Itachi had also said they intended to move. Did that mean they were leading them somewhere specific, or did they just not want to be found here for some reason? She thought for a moment of what life as a missing nin must be like. Always on the run, always moving, trying to avoid both ANBU hunter nins and civilian bounty hunters. Their plan must be to lead Naruto and Sasuke to a remote place, where they were less likely to encounter outside interference from random shinobi or hunter nins. There were several countries and territories with no affiliation to a hidden village, some with no form of government whatsoever. They would likely head to one of those.


The Akatsuki must really need to succeed if they were going to this amount of trouble in their planning. They were all very talented and smart, and because of it were also somewhat arrogant. They had always taken a headlong, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach when going after a Jinchuuriki in the past. Even Itachi had operated like that before; the first time he had come after Naruto he and Kisame had just shown up one day in Konoha, but their target wasn’t even in the village.


Three days since her abduction. Konoha would know of her capture within the next forty-eight hours, she was fairly sure. Depending on how far they had taken her from the town where she’d been kidnapped, her team would be here in three, maybe four days. She knew how fast Kakashi and Naruto could move when driven, and Sai was no slouch either. Kakashi would use his dogs as well, and that would cut their search time by half. If the Akatsuki were as well prepared as they seemed, then they would move from here within the next two days.


A loud gurgling noise coming from her stomach interrupted Sakura’s train of thought. She hadn’t gotten around to eating yet today, a bad habit of hers when she was preoccupied. She could only guess that it was some time after midday, and wondered if her captors kept a food supply or if they always got takeout; she just couldn’t imagine any of them actually cooking. Deciding to find out, she left her room and headed downstairs again.

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She immediately tensed up just outside the kitchen entryway when she felt another presence and realized it was occupied. Her first instinct was to turn around, go back to her room and just deal with being hungry, but he already knew she was there and scuttling away to hide wasn’t something she wanted to be seen doing.


Steeling her resolve and taking a deep breath, she walked into the large kitchen and saw Deidara sitting on one of the stools at the island counter. His back was to her and she was grateful he didn’t turn to look at her entrance, but he was quite aware of her nonetheless.


Giving the other shinobi a respectful distance, Sakura moved around the island to the opposite counter near the refrigerator. It was so quiet that she could hear the low thrum of the large appliance next to her. She wondered how this place could still have electricity and figured it was probably running on a generator.


There were several containers of take-out on the counter in front of him, and the large paper bag they had come in was pushed to the side. Deidara hadn’t looked up from his lunch, continuing to slowly chew his food like he didn’t notice her watching him. But he most certainly did notice; the small twitch of his eye was a clear indication of his annoyance.


He took his time in finishing his mouthful, then raised his gaze to acknowledge the woman across from him. “Something I can help you with, hmm?”

Once she got a good look at his face, she was surprised by how haggard he looked. His dark cloak was open in front, his youthful features were drawn and pale, and his eyes had dark circles under them like he hadn’t slept. Sakura had seen that look before in her patients, and her practiced gaze noticed the way he held his left arm in his lap, his elbow pressed firmly to his side. He hadn’t found anyone to heal his arm. She had pretty much demolished it and without a skilled medic it would never heal properly on its own and he could never use it normally again. It was obvious he was suffering intense pain and she was impressed with his control. She didn’t exactly pity him, but she couldn’t bring herself to find sadistic satisfaction at her handiwork anymore either.


Old habits kicked in under his icy blue glare, and she bit her lip and fidgeted with the hem of her shirtfront nervously. “Mind if I join you?” she asked tentatively, glancing at the food cartons in indication.


The look he gave her in response told her that yes, in fact, he did mind. She briefly entertained the thought of snatching a carton and making a run for it, but decided against it in favor of acting like the strong mature jounin she was. She waited for him to tell her to get lost, but after a moment he sat back with raised eyebrows and audible sigh, gesturing abstractly at the food in front of him in a way that said ‘fine, whatever.’


She moved closer to the island counter and looked over the food. Picking up a carton of shrimp tempura and clean chopsticks, she backed up and lifted herself up to sit on the countertop across from the missing nin. He went back to eating and she quickly followed suit. Tempura was her favorite and she dug in greedily.


The next few minutes held the most strained silence Sakura had ever found herself in. What could she say to the villainous blonde weirdo that had killed her friend Gaara who just happened to be the Kazekage, and tried to blow up the entire village of Hidden Sand? ‘Nice weather we’re having…sorry I killed your partner. Can you eat with those freaky mouth-hands or are they only for blowing things up? How does it feel to have all of the bones in your hand and wrist broken at the same time? Did I break a tooth?’ She had to repress the urge to giggle at her ridiculous thoughts, and realized that the man in front of her had quite a few good reasons to hate her so she was a bit surprised that he tolerated her presence at all. Any of those topics were likely to get her a kunai or two in a very unpleasant place, so she remained wisely and awkwardly silent.


After a while Deidara took to watching the kunoichi in front of him. She was young, though probably only a year or two younger than himself. She was quite pretty, though not the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. His artistic mind picked apart every detail of her appearance. Heart-shaped face, straight even nose, proportional lips with even teeth. Her forehead was kind of wide, but not unattractively so. Attractive figure, although rather athletic with hips wider than her chest, but overall quite nice to look at. It was her hair and eyes that made her stand out. Her hair was such a unique shade of strawberry-blonde it was actually pink, and her eyes were nothing short of exquisite; large and almond shaped with thick lashes that were surprisingly dark for her pale coloring, and they were the most stunning shade of jade green he had ever seen. He knew she would definitely stand out and draw attention away from more traditional beauties. He wondered what Sasori-danna had thought of her…and he concluded that she wouldn’t be such a bad sight to see as ones last.


If Sakura noticed his appraising gaze she didn’t let on; at the moment she was happily gorging herself on fried shrimp. It was clear she would eat the whole container if allowed. Deidara’s face took on his trademark frown-pout. “Don’t eat it all, yeah.”


The pink-haired kunoichi looked up from the carton she had been fixated on at the sound of his annoyed voice. “Heh, sorry.” she said, hopping off the counter and setting the container down on next to the others. “It’s my favorite.” She picked up another container, this one full of yakisoba noodles, and hopped back up on her counter.


Although not exactly friendly, the small verbal exchange seemed to lighten the tension between them somewhat and Sakura felt comfortable enough to try and talk to the sulking Akatsuki. “Are we still in Grass country?” she asked, not knowing if he would answer her question, or even talk to her at all.


“Nope.”


…


…


“Where are we?” she prodded hesitantly, hoping he wouldn’t snap at her to shut the hell up.


“We’re in Earth country, yeah.”


The look on his face and the derisive tone in his voice was clear indication of his opinion on their current location. Sakura glanced briefly at the shinobi’s black hitai-ate, the symbol for Hidden Stone with the deep elongated scratch across it half visible under his long blonde bangs. “I’m sure you’re not too thrilled with that.” she remarked dryly.


“Hn.” was all the answer she got out of the Iwa missing nin.


Deidara was very different from Kisame. She got the feeling that provocations and thinly veiled insults were almost welcome with the shark nin. He seemed to enjoy the banter and teasing, liking to get a rise out of people and respecting those who could give as good as they got. But Sakura sensed almost immediately that that sort of interaction was not as welcome with the explosives master, either because he really despised her or he just didn’t enjoy being made fun of. Perhaps his thoughts and emotions just ran a bit deeper than Kisame’s. Whatever it was, it appeared she would need to be more sincere and on the level with the blonde if she wanted him to respect her at all.


Why his respect or any other Akatsuki members’ was important to her she wasn’t quite sure. She supposed it was probably because they were some of the most powerful shinobi in the world. Their respective skills and abilities were phenomenal, and that’s why they were such a serious problem to all the ‘do-gooders’ of the world. The small, egotistical part of her usually fed by Inner Sakura was always seeking acknowledgement from those whom she deemed worthy of esteem in some way, be they friend, enemy or otherwise.


She could admit that she wanted them to respect her and recognize her power and intelligence. If they could be cool and professional about this whole situation then so could she, or at least she would try her hardest, since the “situation” did involve the potential deaths of two or more people that she loved. Respect between them would keep things from getting ugly around here, and keep them from doing unpleasant things to her.


Her entire captivity so far had been strange, and today was the oddest yet. The entire day she had felt as though she was walking a tightrope, balancing tediously between reason and insanity, trying to remain steadfastly defiant without provoking anyone’s wrath.


Discussing Deidara’s feelings about being back in his native country was clearly a taboo subject, so she dropped it before she made him angry and resumed eating her lukewarm noodles. There wasn’t as much tension in the air as there was earlier, but the silence was still awkward. He had finished eating already, but showed no indication of getting up. She had figured he’d want to get away from her as soon as possible, but he just sat there apparently in deep thought as he was still wearing the pout-frown that she was beginning to think was almost cute. Maybe he was still there to show her that he wasn’t the one who should hurry up and leave.


A moment later, she heard sounds from the other room and looked up to see Kisame enter the kitchen. He took in the scene before him and flashed another pointy-toothed grin as he set Samehada against the wall with a heavy thud. “Well, look who’s out and about!” he chuckled, looking back and forth between his blonde comrade and the kunoichi with amusement. “I didn’t think I’d find the two of you together, especially not sharing a meal.”


Sakura shrugged in response. Deidara just rolled his eyes.


“Where’s Tobi?”


“Around.” Deidara answered, clearly not caring where his partner was at the moment.


Kisame looked over the food selection and grabbed one, leaning back against the same counter Sakura was sitting on top of and turned to look at her fully. “Are you enjoying your extended leash, princess?” he asked mirthfully as he eyed her in close proximity.


His invasion of her personal space was a tactic to make her uncomfortable, not because he wanted to be near her. She refused to squirm and looked at him dispassionately. “It could be better. Is there anything to do around here other than draw finger paintings in the dust?”


The shark-man snickered. “Don’t know, ask him.” he tilted his head toward the less than talkative blonde ninja.


“Why?” she looked at Deidara curiously.


“Because it’s his house.” the shark answered simply.


Sakura’s eyes widened as she stared at Deidara, who was glaring at Kisame, obviously not happy that he was running his big pointy-toothed mouth. “It is?” She couldn’t help it, she was really curious now.


“More like my family’s home, yeah. Anyway, nobody’s lived here for years.” His last words had a tone of finality to them; this subject was finished and asking anymore personal questions would lead to somebody getting hurt.


“Oh.” she murmured, not really knowing what else to say.


The three ninja sat in silence for a minute, one eating, the other two just staring into space. After a moment, Deidara noticed the smirk on Sakura’s face and frowned. “What’s so funny, hmm?”


The kunoichi looked up at him and smiled slightly. “Oh, nothing. I just never would have taken you for a farm-boy.”


The blonde’s scowl deepened. “Well, there’s a lot about me you don’t know isn’t there?” he snapped.


Sakura frowned back at his bad temper. Jeez, relax! This guy clearly had some deep-seated issues. “Likewise,” she muttered indignantly. She hopped down from the countertop, taking care not to brush against Kisame as she did. Putting the half empty carton back with the others, she was about to leave the room when Deidara spoke again.


“There’s a study in the back of the house. Maybe there’s a book in there or something, yeah.”


Sakura stopped in her tracks. She nodded thoughtfully at the suggestion, surprised by his cooperation, however grudging. “Thanks.”


The blonde Akatsuki acted like he didn’t hear her, and she quickly continued on her way out. She made it three steps when she abruptly bumped into something solid blocking the doorway. Startled, her eyes took in the black and red cloth of an Akatsuki cloak before moving up and meeting the dark crimson stare of Itachi. The small space between them was filled with a tension so acute that she could almost feel it like a vibration, and she jumped back as if she’d been burned.


The other two Akatsuki watched the interaction warily, not sure what might happen. Sakura didn’t notice their gazes as hers was focused over the Uchiha’s shoulder. His attention was entirely on her, again, and she flinched under the intensity of his stare. “Excuse me.” she said very quietly.


After what seemed like an eternity, he shifted his weight to the side of the doorframe, just enough for her to get by. His eyes followed her as she moved past him quickly and out of sight.


Sakura fled the kitchen as fast as she possibly could without running. Itachi’s presence was so overwhelming up close, and it didn’t help that he had successfully scared the wits out of her more than anyone else ever had. She cursed herself for not paying better attention to her surroundings. She was in the presence of enemies damn it! She didn’t know how the older Uchiha managed to sneak up on people like that with such a powerful aura, but she would be more careful from now on; she definitely didn’t want that to happen again.


Shaking her head to compose herself, she made her way to the other end of the house, intent on finding the study Deidara had mentioned.

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The small campfire cracked and hissed as Karin poked at it aggressively with a long stick. The bored kunoichi adjusted her glasses and frowned over the flames at Suigetsu, who raised his head and glared back at her, curling his lip to reveal sharp pointed teeth. For the last two hours he had been honing the edges of his enormous stolen sword with a whetstone, and the sound was driving her crazy.


The sound of metal scraping on stone was the only sound heard in their small campsite for hours now. They weren’t normally this silent, but the last few days things were…different. She couldn’t stand to talk to the Mist nin across from her so she remained silent and withdrawn. She never had much success in conversing with the other member of their party, but right now it was out of the question for the same reason she refrained from fighting with Suigetsu tonight; their arguing wouldn’t be tolerated when their unofficial leader was like this. It was common for Sasuke to have bad moods and sit around brooding, but Karin had never seen him this bad before.


She raised her eyes to the trees overhead, the light of the high full moon just barely illuminating the figure seated on one of the large branches several feet above their campsite. The tomboy kunoichi could feel his dark, brooding aura even from this distance, and she knew his foul mood was due to what they learned in that town a few days ago.


The three rogue ninja walked into the large town just as the sun was beginning to set. It was a busy market day judging by the vendor stalls, but that wasn’t what had people milling about and talking so noisily.


It was immediately clear to their eyes that something big had gone down here, and only a few hours ago by the look of things. The rumors of an Akatsuki-related disturbance appeared to be true after all. After walking through the heart of town for a few minutes, they came upon the scene of the commotion.


“Whoa!” Suigetsu remarked as they took in the sight before them.


They were in what looked to be the city center, or what was left of it. The open plaza was large and paved in an elaborate mosaic, now in ruins thanks to the gigantic crater in the center. On the far side of the square, one of the buildings was half collapsed from some enormous impact.


The three moved closer to the rubble, taking care to avoid the masked ANBU that could be seen weaving through the crowd, no doubt conducting an investigation. It wasn’t clear if they were Grass nin or from some other village, possibly Leaf since they were so close to the Fire border. Either way, the rogue trio made sure no to get too close.


“What the hell happened here?” Karin asked under her breath.


“It looks like a bomb went off…” Suigetsu remarked, more to himself than an actual reply to the kunoichi.


“Ooh, maybe it was that Deidara guy? You know, that one Akatsuki that blows things up. What do you think Sasuke-kun?” she asked, looking over at their still-silent companion.


Sasuke looked annoyed, as much as his face ever showed any emotion nowadays, probably because whatever Akatsuki were here, they were obviously gone now. “No, it wasn’t caused by him.” Little did he know he was only partly right.

“How do you know that?”


“There are no burn marks or charring to indicate an explosion.” he explained impatiently, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “This was caused by a massive impact of some kind.” Was this really done by Akatsuki? If it was, had his brother been here? He didn’t care what their business in a place like this was, he just wanted to know if Itachi was anywhere close by so he could finally find him. But Sasuke was curious to know what had caused such damage.


Karin grabbed the elbow of an elderly woman standing a few feet from them. “Hey, old lady,” she said rudely “Do you know what happened here?”


The woman frowned and took in Karin’s less-than-respectable appearance, noticing her equally delinquent looking companions as well. This kind of commotion always brought out the riff-raff. “There was some kind of big battle between some ninja, I suppose you would know more about that kind of thing than me, girl.” she answered with disdain, looking her up and down before snatching her arm out of the younger girl’s grasp.


Sasuke walked over to the two females and stood in between them before Karin did something unpleasant to the older woman. “Excuse me, Baa-san, but can you tell me more of what happened?” For all his arrogance, Sasuke had been raised with manners and knew how to use them when he needed to.


The elder woman turned her attention to Sasuke, taking in his handsome face and authoritative manner, deciding maybe this one wasn’t so bad after all. “Well, what I heard was, this medical ninja showed up in town this morning looking for one of the city councilmen, saying they were here to treat him for something and that they had come all the way from the ninja village in Fire country. Isn’t that odd? Healer-ninjas…I didn’t even know they existed. Kind of a contradiction don’t you think?” Sasuke merely stared at her. “Anyway, this ninja-doctor or whatever shows up on the councilman’s doorstep wanting to cure him, only he wasn’t sick in the first place, so the medic was turned away. That’s when it happened.”


…


“When what happened?” Karin asked impatiently.


The old woman glared at Karin before returning her attention to the handsome man, her dramatic pause being lost on the rough looking group. “Well, the ninja-medic was attacked by a bunch of other ninja just outside the councilman’s home. They got in a huge fight and caused all this ruckus. That’s the councilman’s house over there, what’s left of it anyway.” She pointed to the half-collapsed townhouse across the way.


“Can you tell me anymore about the other shinobi?” Sasuke prodded.


The woman eyed him suspiciously. “You sure are curious about all this. Are you one of those investigator ninjas running around here?”


“Something like that.”


The old woman shrugged. “Well, I was over on Market Street when I heard this loud crashing sound, and came running over here with the rest of the market crowd. It was the craziest thing I ever saw. There were four really mean looking ninja ganging up on the poor medic. They were all wearing big dark cloaks with red clouds on them. One of them had a huge sword like your friend there.” She pointed at Suigetsu.


The Mist nin had only been half-listening, but his head snapped in their direction at the mention of the huge sword. Sasuke also tensed up at her words. It had been Akatsuki, and one of them had been Kisame. That could only mean that Itachi had been here as well. He wanted to find the trail fast, and was tempted to take off then and there, but the woman wasn’t finished.


“I guess they were some kind of famous bad guys. But the really crazy thing was, all this damage wasn’t caused by them.”


“What do you mean?” Sasuke prodded again, getting annoyed with the old woman’s flair for the dramatic.


“The medic ninja from Fire country, what is it…Leaf Village I think it was… she did all of it.”


“She?” Suigetsu asked incredulously, making Karin roll her eyes. Sexist pig.


“She sure did! That hole in the councilman’s house…that was from her kicking one of those cloaked ninja straight through the wall. From about fifty feet away mind you! And the big crater there, she did that too, just stomped her foot down and BOOM! Never seen anything like it. It looked like she killed the one she kicked into the wall, but no one knows for sure since they carried him away when they left.”


“What happened to the medic?” Karin asked, and the old woman was too excited to glare again.


“Oh, the rest of them got involved and beat the tar out of her, then they took her away with them. I guess they wanted to kidnap her all along.”


It wasn’t hard to figure out why a group of missing nin wanted a medic. Sasuke was calculating how much they would be slowed down by their hostage and if he left now maybe he could catch up tonight. His thoughts were interrupted by the old woman speaking again.


“Such a shame,” she shook her head sadly. “She was such a young, cute thing, with the prettiest pink hair… I hate to think about what they might do to her.”


Sasuke’s eyes widened in shock and he exhaled sharply. Pink hair? It couldn’t be…No, it wasn’t possible…but his logic told him that yes, it most certainly was. From Konoha…pink haired kunoichi…it couldn’t be…


“Pink hair…are you sure?” he asked the old woman. The other members of Hebi looked at him in surprise; was that…alarm in his voice?


The woman scoffed. “Of course I’m sure! How could you mistake something like pink hair?” she answered, then stepped back with a gasp when she saw the handsome man’s eyes flash red and he disappeared in a blur.


“Shit.” Karin said in concern.


“What the fuck?” Suigetsu added in confusion.


The old woman gasped again when the remaining two shinobi streaked away after their leader.

It had taken hours for them to find the trail, and several times they got caught up and had to circle back to locate it again. There had never been a trail before and the fact that there was this time meant either they were in a big hurry to get away, or they wanted to be followed. If they did leave the trail on purpose, they sure weren’t making it easy to find with all the circling and dead ends, meaning they only wanted highly skilled shinobi to be able to tail them.


Sasuke huffed in anger from his perch in the tree. They had been following the Akatsuki trail, his brother’s trail, for two days. They had lost the trail again a few hours back, and it was too dark to find it clearly so they were stuck waiting until morning.


The more he put all the facts together the moodier he became. Who exactly did the Akatsuki want to follow them? Why did they kidnap a medic? Aside from the general usefulness of a medic nin, Sasuke could make a few educated guesses. He suspected that his brother was having eye problems, because Sasuke was starting to have them himself. While he was with Orochimaru, since he couldn’t trust anyone at any time, his Sharingan had been almost constantly active - something it was not meant to do. He began noticing the side effects a couple of years ago, though his were minimal and usually it was just his eyes feeling very tired. Itachi had kept his Sharingan activated constantly for over a decade, so he must be having serious problems by now.


However he knew that this was no random attempt to snag themselves a medic nin, for whatever reason. From what the old woman had told him it had been a carefully designed trap specifically for that medic. Sasuke scowled deeper, remembering the woman’s words. Pink hair…from Konoha. He had in his life only ever seen two kunoichi with pink hair. One was Tayuya, who was long dead and definitely not from Konoha. The other was…his stomach clenched tightly at the possibility. “…Sakura…” he whispered softly to the night, his frown deepening.


Sakura a medic nin? That he could believe; she had always had excellent chakra control and she had the empathetic personality to be a healer. But Sakura fighting the Akatsuki? Haruno Sakura doing all that damage with her bare hands? That he found hard to believe. Sakura had always been miles behind him and Naruto in terms of skill and power, he couldn’t believe anyone could grow so much, and Sakura never had much potential to begin with. The old woman had said it looked like the kunoichi killed one of her attackers. The idea of Sakura killing an Akatsuki was ridiculous. Not his Sakura. Wait…his Sakura? Where the hell did that come from?


Loathe as he was to admit it, he did consider Sakura to belong to him, in an abstract way. She had been a sister to him, as much as Naruto had been a brother. An annoying, pestering, crybaby of a sister and a loud, obnoxious moron of a brother, but they were all he had. Even if they hated him now, a part of him would always think of them as his.


Sasuke knew what he was doing by thinking of Sakura as incompetent and weak, of no value to people like his brother and the Akatsuki, making it impossible that it had been her in that town square. He knew he was just making excuses to ease his own mind. He had no idea how much she may have changed over the years and the truth is it was entirely possible. In fact, it was damn near certain. How many pink-haired kunoichi from Konoha with the potential to be medics were there?


Entertaining the idea that it was Sakura for a moment, what did they want her for, specifically? Ransom? Bait for someone else? There was no way it was just coincidence. And as much as it pissed him off to admit it even to himself, he knew it wasn’t to bait him. Nobody would think to do that since he had never indicated that she meant anything to him. And Itachi didn’t give a damn about fighting him, he knew. He could have come after him at any time over all these years if he did. Every time he had encountered his brother in the past, Itachi had only paid attention to Naruto and completely ignored Sasuke until he had been attacked by him. It was a few years later before Sasuke learned why; Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed inside him and Itachi had orders to collect him for his organization.


Everything snapped into place for the Uchiha then. That was the answer; Sakura had been taken by Akatsuki, by Itachi, in order to lure Naruto out into the open and capture or trade for him. Most likely they would kill Naruto or whatever it was they wanted to do and keep Sakura anyway as their personal medic, or worse.


Sasuke’s eyes flashed red in the darkness, unable to control the flare of anger inside him. Damn it! Why did this always happen? For the first time in six long years he had a clear path to his brother, and of course it had to be complicated by his old friends being involved! The twig he had been fingering snapped in his hand. Damn those two! How did they always get to him, make things difficult for him? Sakura was in the hands of his twisted brother, suffering who knows what sort of horrors, and Naruto was sure to go after her once he found out. Sasuke had seen the ANBU in that town, and he was pretty sure some of them had been Leaf nin. They would find out soon enough, and Naruto being the dobe he always was, would probably run straight into the Akatsuki’s trap. They were both going to end up dead or worse. For the first time in many years, Sasuke was concerned for someone besides himself. He couldn’t quite admit it, but he couldn’t hide from it either.


He was certain that he would be meeting up with his old teammates very soon. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, or what could happen when they did meet. Would they try and force him to come back with them? Would they try and get in the way of killing his brother? He hoped not, because he didn’t think he could bring himself to fight them again like before. If they ever understood him just a little, if ever they cared about him, they would let him find closure with his past. They had gotten in his way before, but he knew they meant well. They did care about him. They had fought for him before, had tried to save him at the risk of their own lives. Maybe, if they were all lucky, if he survived the coming confrontation with his brother, he could return the favor.

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Sakura lay in her bed facing the window, her back to the door, thinking about the day and trying to drift off to sleep. After the tense events in the kitchen, she had spent the rest of the afternoon holed up in the study near the back of the house on the bottom floor. After snooping through the shelves and drawers of the old desk she’d found several books worth reading. Having nothing better to do, and having had enough of hanging out with S-class criminals for one day, she curled up in the old armchair in the study and read to her hearts content, sort of.


What had surprised her were the scrolls she found under a panel in one of the desk drawers, the hidden compartment no longer hidden since the wood was warped with age. Some of them were jutsu, and she wondered what ninja scrolls were doing in a farm house. She was sure they didn’t belong to any of the Akatsuki; it was obvious they had been in that drawer for some time. Kisame had said this was Deidara’s family home, and the blonde ninja had confirmed it. Were they all ninja, and if so what were they doing living in a farm house and not in Iwagakure? Only Deidara would know the answers to those questions, and Sakura didn’t think she’d have much luck finding out. She’d taken the scrolls of course, and hidden them in the inner lining of her bag. She was a ninja after all, and they might be useful for something, maybe information, once she got back to Konoha.


Suddenly her senses prickled and she heard her door click open. She didn’t turn around, remaining still and breathing evenly to feign sleep. Speak of the devil, she thought, recognizing the intruder’s chakra; Deidara was standing in her doorway looking at her. After a moment he moved inside and it sounded like he was near her dresser. She heard a soft shuffle, like he had set something down on the bureau. He turned then, and she could feel his eyes on her back. He snorted under his breath and walked back to the doorway.


Sakura knew he knew she was awake, that was why he snorted; laughing at her failed attempt to fool him. She heard him stop in the doorway and turn to look at her again. Another soft rustle of fabric, and along with it she heard that distinct whoosh of a kunai being thrown.


It was aimed at the back of her head, and she caught it easily. Without turning to look, she flipped it in her hand and threw it back. Deidara caught it several inches from his face, impressed that she had such good instincts and precise aim with her back to him and not looking. For the first time in the three days since they had taken her captive, he smiled, and chuckled softly as he left the hellcat to her beauty sleep.


Sakura was smiling as well. On the surface it had appeared to be a stealthy attempt on her life, an open threat or intimidation tactic, but Sakura knew it for what it was. She was born and raised in a ninja village, and she understood ninja ways. He wasn’t trying to hurt or kill her. In fact, she took the kunai thrown at the back of her head while she was supposedly sleeping as a compliment. He wasn’t allowed to kill her, and that wasn’t why he did it. Hurling a deadly weapon at her skull while her back was turned was an indication of respect. It indicated that he knew she would catch it, a testament of her skill as a ninja. He wouldn’t have done it otherwise, because to accidentally kill her would surely get him into a shitload of trouble.


Now that he was gone, she sat up and turned to see what he had been doing in her room. She looked at the dresser and couldn’t help the small sound of surprise that escaped her lips. There on the top of the dresser, neatly folded, were her clothes from the shed outside. What on earth compelled him to do that? She wondered, grinning. She flopped back down on her pillow with a silly smile. What a weird day.

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A/N: This chapter was really tough for me to get done, being that it’s all transitional stuff. I hope it wasn’t boring to read. The next one will make up for it.

Oh, and if you don’t remember who Tayuya was, she was one of the four Sound ninja that came after Sasuke and took him away in a barrel. She fought Shikamaru during the rescue and was killed by Temari.

Please review! See you soon!