Perception

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

WOW! Such a great response to the last chapter! I knew you guys would like it, and thank you so much for all the awesome reviews. Keep ‘em coming, people! :D

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Perception by Cynchick
Chapter 8: Moments in the Dark


Deep in her subconscious, Sakura felt the prickle of her senses telling her there was danger, and the tiny voice in the back of her mind was screaming for her to wake up!


She shot up in bed with a start, ready to fight, and was immediately slammed back down. Chakra flowed to her fists as she struggled against the unknown presence pinning her. Her knee connected with something solid and she heard a low pained grunt, before a hand clamped over her mouth tightly to muffle her angry protest, and she heard her name whispered harshly in a voice that was newly familiar.


“Sakura! Wake up and calm down damn it!”


Sakura immediately stilled at the hissed words and focused her eyes on the large black shape over her. It was Deidara. He was pushing down on her sternum and pinning her to the bed with his right forearm. A forearm that she was currently digging painful bruises into with her chakra laced fingers. His chakra was completely masked, hence the reason she hadn’t sensed his presence until he was right over her and had only woken on pure instinct. His hand released its hold on her mouth once it was clear she recognized him and stopped struggling. It briefly occurred to her that he was far more powerful than he looked if he could hold her down with one arm.


“Deidara…” She released the death grip in his forearm and realized her knee had been pushing roughly into his side and jarring his hurt arm, and she relaxed and quickly moved it away. She couldn’t see his face in the dark, but she was sure he was feeling it and was probably more than a little ticked.


“Shh. Mask your chakra, yeah.” she did instantly, her instincts telling her not to question it. He backed away from her quickly and stood in the center of the room. “Grab your stuff and come with me. Hurry.”


Always prepared for something like this, she quickly pulled her boots on, grabbed her backpack and moved silently to Deidara’s side. She realized now that it wasn’t his presence that had triggered her ninja instincts and woken her. The house was dead silent as usual in the middle of the night, but there was an air of calm alertness that told her something was amiss and to trust what he was telling her. She looked up at the blonde man next to her and whispered, “What’s going on?”


His one visible blue eye focused on her intently. Despite his calm outer appearance he was on high alert. “Hunter nins.” He whispered in reply. He tilted his head in the direction of the hallway and moved out of the room silently.


Sakura followed just as noiselessly, and they walked the short distance down the hall to the stairs, where Deidara jumped over the banister and landed on the bottom floor with only a slight rustle of his cloak. It was to avoid making the old steps creak, so Sakura followed in the same way, making even less noise as she had no oversized articles of clothing and two hands to brace her landing.


The other three Akatsuki were waiting in the foyer. All had their chakra masked completely and had that same sense of alertness and even a bit of anticipation. Sakura smirked inwardly. Only S-class psychopaths like Akatsuki would get excited at the prospect of fighting a squad of elite hunter nins. Were they going to make a run for it, or stay and fight?


Her question was answered when Kisame whispered gruffly. “We’ll go find and take care of ‘em. Stay alert in case a couple slip past us and be ready to go when we get back.” He was speaking to Deidara, and the blonde nodded tersely.


“Tobi, go conceal yourself outside and keep watch, yeah.”


“Alright, Deidara-senpai. I won’t let you down.” He opened the front door and faded away into the night.


Itachi looked at Deidara and spoke softly. “If we’re not back in thirty minutes, leave.” His crimson eyes seemed to radiate some inner light among the shadows of the house and his gaze turned to Sakura, watching her intently for a moment before handing a small bundle to Deidara with a pointed look.


The blonde Akatsuki nodded. He grabbed Sakura by the upper arm firmly, but not harshly, and steered her down the hall of the lower floor. With slightly more caution than their mask-wearing comrade, Itachi and Kisame moved outside and disappeared into the dark night.


Deidara led Sakura silently down the dark hallway by the arm, past the study and toward the very back of the house. The pouch Itachi gave him was slung over his arm and brushed her elbow as they walked. She heard the clink of metal and wondered what was in it.


He let go of her to open the door of a room at the end of the long hall. He indicated for her to go in before following after and locking the door from the inside. Sakura looked around in the dark and guessed they were in the master bedroom from the size of it. She walked to the large bed and pushed on it to test the springs for creaks before sitting down. Deidara stood in the middle of the room, his body tense and alert for the smallest sounds or movement. “Where are they?” she whispered, barely loud enough to hear.


His trained ears did hear, and assumed correctly that she was talking about the hunter nins. He silently moved closer to her so he wouldn’t have to talk too loud. “In the woods a few hundred yards from the house, yeah.”


Sakura nodded, watching the blonde man’s profile. He looked irritated, and she had a feeling it had less to do with the fact that hunter nins had found them, and more to do with the fact that he had to stay behind and baby-sit the hostage instead of go out and ‘play’ because of his still-broken arm. It was clearly hurting again, if it had ever stopped, because she had jarred it with her knee when he came to wake her. She could hear the strain in his voice, see the tension in his body and the way he held his left arm tightly to his side, and even a thin sheen of sweat at his temples. Being both the fun-spoiling hostage and the cause of his injury, Sakura began to feel just a little bit bad for him.


He noticed her watching him and looked down at her, wordlessly handing her the pouch Itachi had given him.


Sakura took it from him with curiosity, and heard the clink of metal on metal again as she opened it and her eyes widened. Inside the pouch were all of her confiscated items. Her shuriken holster and wrappings, all of her kunai, wire, senbon, medical herbs and poisons from her apron; everything was there. They were giving her weapons back?


Deidara saw her look of surprise and smirked when she looked up at him in shock. “It’s not your toys that make you a threat; it’s those fists of yours. Besides, I’m not some hero, yeah. If any of those nins get in here you’re gonna have to fight for yourself.”


Sakura gave him a wry smile. “Fair enough. Do you think they found this place by chance?”


“I don’t know, yeah. We can’t stay here anymore, though, after this. We should never have stayed here, but it’s not my mission.” he muttered sourly.


Sakura began quietly refilling her medic apron and re-arming herself. She continued to steal glances at the blonde man who appeared to be either concentrating intently or deep in thought. The part of his hand that could be seen under the long sleeve was trembling slightly. The naturally compassionate part of her was getting harder and harder to ignore, especially since he had been rather nice to her the last few days, all things considered. He obviously hadn’t found a healer with the skill to fix it, and she knew he likely never would. “Hey…”she said quietly, and he glanced in her direction. “I’m sorry…about your arm. Not for breaking it in the first place, you deserved that. But for aggravating it earlier.”


He didn’t turn to look at her fully, and from this angle she couldn’t see his face through the curtain of his hair. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine, yeah.”


“No, it’s not fine. Even if I weren’t a medic I could see that.” She stood up and buckled her apron, and then moved silently to Deidara’s side. “You have really impressive willpower to manage so well, but I know how bad it really is, I’m the one that did it after all.” she said cautiously.


He did look at her then, and he was frowning. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to rub it in like that, hmm?”


“I didn’t mean it like that. Here.” she sighed and reached for his hand.


Deidara started in surprise and jerked away from her slightly. “What are you doing?”


She furrowed her brow and looked into his pale eyes impatiently. “Nothing to freak out about damn it, now let me see your hand.” She reached for his hand again.


He didn’t pull away this time, but continued to look at her warily. As gently as she could, she held her palm under his with one hand and carefully lifted the sleeve of his cloak with the other. She frowned a little at the sight of her own handiwork. It wasn’t as swollen as it should have been, and she figured he’d either found someone to do that minimal task or he knew a little medical jutsu and was keeping it down himself. However, the rest looked awful, with dark red and purple marks all over his hand and wrist from bruising and inflamed nerve endings. It was painful to look at, and she couldn’t imagine how it must feel or how he could keep from screaming every time he brushed against his own sleeve.


His jaw clenched as she delicately tested the surface of the injury with her fingers, but he gave no other indication of pain. His eyes widened but he said nothing as her hand began to glow a faint bluish-white and she looked up at his face reassuringly before pushing her chakra under his skin. He closed his eyes tightly at the intrusion; the chakra used to probe and inspect was different from healing chakra, it was slightly intrusive and almost always uncomfortable to areas of the body already over-sensitized by injury.


She frowned deeper as she assessed the damage she had done. Every bone in his hand and wrist was broken or fractured. All thirty five of them, plus one in his forearm. She had no idea it was that bad or she might have asked to look at it earlier. Her mind made up, Sakura withdrew her chakra and gently grabbed him by the elbow. “Come on.” she whispered, and began to walk him toward the bed.


He complied almost dumbly, too confused by her actions and in too much pain to protest. She sat on the bed and pulled him down by his sleeve to sit next to her. She held him gently by the wrist and pulled up his sleeve again, this time to the elbow. He blanched, but still said nothing. Looking at his exposed forearm, she noticed that in several places there was scarring that looked like burns or that the skin was ground off. Gaara did this, she knew, because Lee had the exact same scarring on his arm and leg. Of course Deidara didn’t have access to medics like Tsunade or herself, so his scars were much darker than Lee’s.


Without thinking about it, she scooted a bit closer to him and placed his hand on her own thigh for support so she could work with both hands. He didn’t complain, so she gathered chakra to her hands again and set to work. He watched her hands begin to glow a faint green, and immediately emitted a relieved sigh as her healing chakra instantly soothed nerves and numbed the pain. He looked at her with a strange expression. “Isn’t this going against masking our chakra? Why are you-?”


She cut him off with a playful smirk and threw his own words back at him. “Hey, if those hunter nins are able to find us it won’t just be because of this, and if they do I’m not gonna save your ass, you’re gonna have to fight for yourself.”


He laughed softly before closing his eyes and enjoying the soothing feel of warm chakra healing his arm. They were silent for a few minutes as Sakura worked, before Deidara hesitantly spoke. “Uh…sorry about earlier.” she looked at him, confused. “For you know…that.” He held up his other hand for her to see the lips there. “I just didn’t want you to yell out, yeah.”


Sakura’s eyebrows shot up in understanding: by clamping his hand over her mouth to keep her silent, he had technically kissed her in a warped sort of way. She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, and she was sure he hadn’t intended it as more than as a means to keep her from giving them away. In fact, he didn’t even need to be apologizing, and she wondered why he was. She laughed softly and shook her head. “I know. Don’t worry about it.”


Another few minutes of silence passed as she mended each fractured bone and torn ligament. The bones of the hand and wrist were very small and the process of restoring and resetting them was intricate. Deidara appeared to be deep in thought again, and was staring at his other hand resting on the bedcovers, or perhaps the covers themselves. She couldn’t see his face past his long bangs, but she heard him speak softly to no one in particular. “I hate this place.”


Surprised by him making such a personal statement, she leaned a little closer to get a better look at his turned face. “What happened here, Deidara?” she asked gently.


The blonde man turned to face her, his expression a strange mixture of emotion. He looked at her for a long moment, deciding. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. He made an amused sound and raised his eyes like he couldn’t believe he was actually going to tell her, and then he quietly began to talk.


“I was born in this house, yeah. I grew up here with my parents and my older brother. It was pretty normal I guess. We even had a dog. We grew crops and sold them at the market a few miles from here, and my mother made beautiful clay sculptures and sold them too, yeah. She was the one with the bloodline limit, though I had no idea what that was back then. My brother and I had it too, and she taught us how to make the clay and mold it. We didn’t think anything was different about us because we kept to ourselves and I didn’t really know anyone else. I guess we were pretty happy, yeah.”


He was quiet for a moment as he stared at her hands on his arm. He frowned at what he was about to say next. “I was seven when one night I was woken up by the dog. He was barking like crazy, and then he yelped and went silent. I got up to go see what he was doing but before I could my mom ran into my room and told me to hide. I could see she was scared, yeah. She told me not come out no matter what I heard. So I hid. And I did hear things; shouting…crashing, but I stayed hidden and waited for someone to call for me or find me, yeah. But no one ever did. I don’t know how long I hid… hours I guess. After a while I couldn’t take it anymore and came out. I was scared and I wanted to find my parents and brother. I did find them, yeah. And they were all dead.”


Sakura’s eyes widened and she gasped a little. Deidara still wouldn’t look at her. “There was blood everywhere, yeah. It trailed down the hallway so I followed it into my brother’s room, and that’s where I found my family. They had been dragged in there from where they had been killed and laid in a row on the floor.” His frown deepened as he no doubt could still see that moment clearly in his mind. “My mother and brother’s hands had been cut off…it was…” he trailed off and shook his head as if to rid himself of the images forever burned into his memory.


Sakura’s chakra paused in its task and her fingers curled around his forearm as if to comfort. He turned to face her then, and saw her luminous jade eyes glisten with unshed tears. “Deidara…I’m so sorry.” she whispered. To see such a horrible thing…at just seven years old; her heart broke for the boy he had been.


Deidara shook his head with a dull smirk. “Don’t…” he trailed off, not knowing how to respond to her compassion. He sighed heavily and though he had already answered her original question, he decided to continue his tale once he felt her chakra in his arm again. “I was so shocked I just sat on the floor in that room, yeah. I don’t know how long it was before they found me.”


“Who?”


“ANBU. Though I didn’t know what they were and when I saw their masks I was afraid they were going to hurt me and I tried to fight them, yeah. Then the captain came and talked to me.” His eyes narrowed angrily. “He said they had heard of some rogue ninja in the area and came to investigate. He said that’s who had killed my family. He said…” His lip curled in a snarl as he spoke and his other hand gripped a fist into the bedcover. “He said hat he was sorry they didn’t catch them in time. He told me that I was safe now, and that he would take me back to his hidden village with him.”


“And that’s how you became a shinobi?” Sakura asked gently.


He nodded. “They took me back to Iwa and gave me to some people with the same bloodline limit. They said they were my mother’s family and they would take care of me from now on. I was immediately put into the academy. Nobody even asked me if I wanted to become a ninja, yeah. It was just done for me. I grew up like that in Iwa, and because of the war with Suna eventually all of my clan died and I was the only one left. That’s when things started to get…unpleasant, yeah.”


He saw Sakura raise her eyebrows. “The Tsuchikage wanted me to have a bunch of babies as soon as possible to restore the clan. He didn’t even want me to get married first, yeah. He wanted me to basically screw everything that walked and build myself a harem or something.” Sakura snorted softly, and he smirked at her. “I know, yeah. Most guys wouldn’t complain about something like that, but I didn’t want to be used like some fucking prized pony put out to stud. I don’t even want kids, yeah. And I was only thirteen then. He said it was my duty, but I still fought him on it. On top of that, he told me I had to limit the ways that I used my art; that I couldn’t just blow things up whenever I felt like it. Tch. Like he even knows what art is, yeah. That old bastard didn’t like my art or my bloodline, yet he wanted a bunch of people with the same jutsu under his control? It didn’t make sense, so one day I got ahold of my classified ANBU file to find some answers.”


“You were ANBU? At that age?”


He raised his sleeve higher to show her the faded tattoo on his shoulder. “Mmhm. But that’s not important, yeah. What matters is what I read there.” His face darkened again. “It wasn’t exactly what I’d been looking for, but I finally leaned the truth, yeah. My mother had been an Iwa kunoichi. When she fell in love with my dad, a civilian, the clan freaked out and forbade her from marrying him. She was pregnant with my older brother, and the elders said if she didn’t leave my dad they would take the baby when it was born and cast her out of the clan. So they ran away together. No one knew where they were for ten years, then one of the clan members who was on a mission near the town we lived close to saw her selling sculptures at the market and told the elders.”


Sakura gasped. “They…oh…”


The blonde man confirmed her suspicion with a nod. “The file said my mother had stolen important scrolls containing secret doton jutsu,” Sakura’s heart skipped a beat at those words. She was pretty sure those scrolls were currently sitting in her backpack not a foot away. She made her face blank as he continued. “So the Tsuchikage gave the order for them to be retrieved and for my family to be ‘taken care of’, yeah. It was the ANBU that found me who killed them. When they found me they figured I was young enough to take back to Iwa and merge back into the clan, yeah. The ANBU captain that day was my uncle. I never knew.”


Sakura was frowning right along with him. “That’s so horrible. It’s just…completely despicable. It’s even worse than the way shinobi used to be treated in Suna. What did you do when you found out?”


He looked at her with a sadistic smile. “I blew up the Tsuchikage’s tower with him in it, yeah. Then I left.”


Sakura wasn’t that surprised at his answer. “Did he die?”


“Unfortunately not.”


She nodded. “So that’s how you became a missing nin…I can’t really blame you for leaving, or for your reaction. What did you do then?”


He shrugged. “I perfected my art, yeah. I found people who were willing to pay me to create art all over Earth country, usually terrorist groups. They paid well, and I was allowed to practice my art freely, so I was happy, yeah.”


Sakura raised her brow and smirked a little. Every time he said ‘art’ she had mental images of entire cities burning to the ground. She supposed he had a good reason to be, but he was more than a little insane. So were half of her friends, she mused, and mentally shrugged. “What made you join Akatsuki, then?”


“I didn’t have much choice, yeah.” Sakura blinked in surprise, and he shrugged again. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that Leader likes to find members with bloodline limits or unusual jutsu. Leader had heard about my art and sent Sasori-danna, Itachi and Kisame to recruit me. I didn’t want to be part of another establishment, but Itachi made a deal with me that I would only have to join if he beat me in a fight. So I agreed, which was stupid now that I think back on it.”


Sakura smiled in understanding, and he continued. “It was those damn eyes of his, yeah. I had never heard of or seen a Sharingan before, and he caught me in a genjutsu the minute I first made eye contact with him. I almost blew myself up because of his tricks. I knew they wouldn’t leave me alone, and they said I could practice my art freely and I would have a wider range of opportunity to do it, so I joined.”


Sakura nodded slightly. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the knowledge that he had basically been forced into joining Akatsuki, or what it might mean on a larger scale. She tucked it away for later pondering. They were quiet for a minute, the steady green glow of chakra flowing between them. After a while she looked up at his face curiously. “Why did you tell me?”


He met her eyes with a strange expression and didn’t answer immediately. “I don’t know. I may still decide to kill you for it later, yeah.” he smirked.


Se chuckled softly. “Don’t worry; I’m good at keeping secrets.” And she was; for some reason people tended to trust her and she had a bit of dirt on just about everyone she knew.


He sighed tiredly. “I have a lot of reasons to hate you, yeah. You killed Sasori-danna, and because of that I was stuck with that idiot Tobi. You also screwed up my arm even worse than the Kazekage did. But for some reason I don’t feel like blowing you up. I think in a way you remind me of myself, yeah. Of how I might have been if things hadn’t turned out so fucked up for me. I think that’s probably why I told you, yeah.”


Sakura smiled. “Yeah... I think…I feel the same. I mean, you did kill Gaara, and when we found him you were sitting on his fucking chest…you’re generally quite an asshole, you know. But we do seem to have a lot of similarities, and if my life had gone a different way then maybe…I think I may even have a worse temper than you. But I don’t think I would be blowing things up with clay though.” she ended teasingly.


He smirked. “No, you’d be blowing people up from the inside with chakra, yeah.”


She smiled again and smacked him lightly on the arm, and he blinked in surprise when it didn’t hurt. She sighed tiredly. “All done. Let me see the other arm.” She grabbed it without waiting for a reply and quickly healed the dark bruises she’d put there when she struggled with him a little while ago.


Deidara gave her a small smile. “Thank you.” he said softly. She had a feeling he meant for more than just his arms.


“You’re welcome.” She released his right arm and picked up the left one again. She turned it in her hands and bent the wrist and fingers, making sure they were all working properly. She sucked in a breath and made a face as she looked at his palm; two of the teeth in the mouth had been knocked out. He was looking at it with the trademark frown-pout. “Uh…I don’t know if I can fix this…” she said timidly.


He wasn’t surprised, and raised his eyebrows cynically. “You can’t.” She looked like a kicked puppy, and he sighed heavily. “Forget it, yeah. It’s not the end of the world.”


She stared at his hand for another moment before letting go, and he began to flex and rotate it on his own for the first time in a week. After a moment she fixed him with a devious smile. “I guess now you’ll always have something to remember me by.”


He stopped what he was doing and stared at her. His expression was clouded and unreadable, and he watched her quietly for a long moment. Finally he smiled, and a moment later the smile turned as devious as hers had been. “I guess so, yeah. Maybe I’ll have to give you a similar memento.”


She broke into a grin. “Are you flirting with me again?”


He didn’t answer her question immediately, simply chuckled lightly. “You wish, yeah.” he said after a few seconds.


“Hah!” she retorted, and stuck her tongue out at him.


“Don’t start that with me, yeah. You’ll definitely lose, especially since I can use both hands now.” he teased.


“Pervert.”


Deidara just smirked and returned to testing his fixed arm.


Sakura remembered what Itachi had said before leaving and she looked at her blonde companion. “How long has it been?” she had lost track while she was healing him.


“Almost half an hour, yeah.”


“Do you think they ran into any trouble?” Why she cared enough to even ask, she wasn’t sure.


Deidara snorted. “I doubt it.”


“What happens if they don’t come back in the next few minutes? We leave?”


“Yeah. We’ll grab Tobi and head for the next base. The others will meet up with us when they kill or lose the hunters. It’s happened before, yeah.”


She mused on that for a moment. “What happens if they don’t show up? I mean, say for a moment they are killed or captured, however unlikely. What will happen then? You said this isn’t your mission, so there would be no point in holding me hostage anymore...”


He smirked at her. “Sorry, hellcat, I don’t think you’ll get that lucky, yeah.”


She frowned, and was about to ask him about the hellcat thing when she felt rather than heard something outside the room. He felt it too and immediately tensed and stood up off the bed, reaching for a kunai. She followed silently and reached for her own weapons. They stood together in the center of the room, waiting tensely.


Deidara relaxed suddenly and stood up straight. A moment later she felt the chakra from the other three Akatsuki outside and realized they had released the hold on it and were waiting for them to come out. Sakura quickly grabbed her backpack and followed Deidara down the hall to meet the others.


As they entered the foyer again, her nose was immediately hit with the strong smell of smoke, dirt, and underneath it, blood. Must have been a hell of a fight, she thought. None of them appeared to be injured, so it wasn’t their blood she smelled.


Itachi looked at her and his eyes traveled down to her apron and lower to her leg holster before returning to her face. She read nothing in his expression, so different than the one he’d worn only a few hours ago when he’d almost kissed her. She mentally shook herself; now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. He looked away and addressed the others. “Five minutes.” was all he said, and all four of them took off for different parts of the house to grab their gear, leaving Sakura alone in the dark entryway.


She used the opportunity to pull out her dark traveling cloak and put it on. It was the coldest part of the night in the few hours before dawn and they were much farther north than her native climate. The four Akatsuki returned in no time, and the five of them sped across the fields for the nearby forest. They paused for a moment when they got under the cover of the trees. The forest was still eerily quiet; the creatures that had gone silent at the sounds of battle had not yet come out of hiding. Sakura saw something strange from the corner of her vision and stopped dead in her tracks to stare in morbid fascination at the corpse of one of the hunter nins a few yards away, completely decapitated with a dark pool of blood staining the ground beneath him.


She grimaced at the gruesome sight and turned away, looking back in the direction of the farmhouse as Deidara walked past and stopped next to her. She saw him smirk as he looked at the house in the distance, and her eyes widened as she watched him make a quick hand seal and mutter the word “katsu!”, before the house exploded in an enormous ball of flame.


He’d left a fitting parting gift for his bad memories, and was watching his childhood home burn with a look of dark satisfaction. Sakura watched the flaming house for a moment with her mouth agape, before turning her eyes to the architect of this tragically beautiful moment of art. He met her gaze, and they shared a moment of silent understanding. He would say it was to destroy evidence and make sure no one ever used this place again. She was the only one who would ever know the real reason, and she gave him a grim smile.


They turned away to find Itachi staring at Deidara darkly. Kisame and Tobi were behind him watching the blonde man as well. That explosion was sure to alert any ANBU or hunter nins to this place in no time. Deidara returned Itachi’s glare with a look that said it was his house and he had every right to do what he did. The two Akatsuki stared each other down for a long moment, before Itachi turned away and leapt into the trees. Kisame, Tobi and Sakura followed. Deidara turned and took one last look at the burning ruins of his past before leaping after his companions, and the five of them sped away into the night.

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Sakura didn’t think she’d ever run so hard in her entire life. They were practically flying through the trees, feet barely landing on branches before pushing off again, and each leap seemed to stretch forever. She was amazed by their speed and even more amazed with herself for keeping up with them.


She wouldn’t be able to for much longer though. She’d used quite a bit of her chakra to heal Deidara and was draining even more by jumping through the trees at such an enhanced speed. But she’d be damned if she would complain or show weakness in front of these guys. She was a jounin, a student of a Sannin and Hokage, a member of one of the top teams in her village and she would suck it up and act like it.


It was nearing dawn. They had traveled for hours, never staying in the same direction, zigzagging, circling around and cross-cutting. It seemed like a waste of time and energy, but she knew this was how they operated as missing nin, and why they almost never got found. They were being extra careful this time because of the attention Deidara’s little ‘work of art’ was sure to attract. ANBU must be all over that farm by now. They would find the bodies of the hunter squad in the woods and if Stone nins operated like Leaf, there would be a massive search mission. She wondered how they planned to leave a trail for her teammates to find and still make sure none of the ANBU cells picked it up too.


She could feel the signs of exhaustion setting in, but refused to acknowledge them. She would not look weak in front of her captors, not when they were just beginning to respect her, and she knew they had good reason for their haste. If any nins did find them, Sakura was no better off than the Akatsuki members as Stone nins were notoriously hostile to outsiders. She didn’t want to be caught by them any more than the other four.


They had stopped for a while a couple hours ago. Not to rest, but to scout their intended destination. They had been forced to leave the farm ahead of schedule because of the hunter nins, and didn’t know what they would find at the place they planned to take Sakura next so they waited in a small clearing and sent Tobi to find out if it was safe to stop there. The masked ninja had apparently learned some spying and reconnaissance techniques during his time as Zetsu’s lackey and could travel underground at rapid speeds.


No one spoke as they waited, and Sakura took the opportunity to rest, without looking like she was resting, and regain some of her energy. Tobi returned some time later, popping out of the ground like a jack-in-the-box and informing them that their intended hideout was in fact not clear. There were ANBU swarming all over it, he told them, they were all on the move because of the explosion and dead hunters they left behind. They would have to keep moving and find another place to stay. That information had elicited a string of curses and finger pointing from Kisame, mostly aimed at a very un-repentant Deidara, who told the shark man matter-of-factly where he could shove his opinion.


They moved out again, and were currently running at the same rapid speed as before in a generally north-western direction. They were still misleading and made sure to conceal their trail, but less so than before as the need to find cover before daylight urged them on.


Sakura was nearly out of energy and it was becoming increasingly difficult to land securely on the tree branches. She was also starting to lag behind slightly, though if any of the Akatsuki noticed they didn’t give any indication. Several minutes and a few miles later, Sakura’s body had finally decided to rebel against her determination. Her foot landed unsteadily on the branch below her and she couldn’t channel the chakra fast enough to avoid slipping.


She didn’t fall, but she stumbled and had to stop completely to regain her footing and not crash headfirst to the ground. She felt someone land on the branch next to her, and though their landing was soft and sure-footed, she still hadn’t completely regained her balance and had to throw her arms out to steady herself. A pair of strong hands grabbed her waist from behind to brace her, and she turned her head over her shoulder to see Itachi giving her a discerning look. She hadn’t noticed he was behind her; he must have swung back around to mask their trail. The others noticed the pause and stopped as well.


Without moving his hands or waiting for her to speak, Itachi simply lifted her at the waist and dropped to the forest floor with her. Sakura emitted a small huff of surprise at the abrupt action and clasped her fingers around his wrists in an almost-attempt to remove him as they landed much quieter than she would have expected for the extra weight. She glared at him over her shoulder and was about to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing when the other Akatsuki dropped down from their respective trees to join them.


Sakura could feel his body heat radiating into her back, not to mention he still hadn’t removed his hands from her waist. The others were right there, and she was becoming uncomfortable in more ways than one. He may or may not have thought so as well, but he moved away all the same and stood across from her. “What’s the problem, Sakura?” he asked blandly.


“Nothing, I’m fine.” she replied resentfully.


Kisame scoffed. “No you’re not. Even I can see that. You’re obviously exhausted.”


“I said I’m fine. Shouldn’t we keep moving?”


Deidara stepped in discreetly. “We should stop at the next town, yeah. We need to find a place before daybreak anyway.”


Itachi glanced at the blonde for a second and then moved closer to Sakura, as if visually assessing her condition. “You shouldn’t have this much trouble keeping up with us. You are a jounin, are you not?”


Sakura scowled menacingly at the Uchiha, and was about to retort hotly when Deidara stepped in again. “It’s because she’s low on chakra, yeah.”


The others looked at Deidara, then back at her. Itachi inspected her again, his eyes moving over her like he could see her chakra through her skin. He probably could. “Why?” he asked.


Kisame made an amused noise that sounded almost like a giggle. “Yeah, Deidara. What did you do to her while we were gone, hmm?”


The blonde glared at the shark man in outrage. “Nothing, you sick fucking pervert! She healed my arm, yeah.”


Kisame’s eyes widened. “She did?”


“Yes, she did.”


“Why did she do that, Deidara-senpai?” Tobi chimed in.


“Hey! I’m right here, goddamn it, why don’t you try asking me?” Sakura snapped at the men.


Itachi hadn’t taken his eyes off of her during the entire argument. “Very well, why did you?” he asked quietly.


The others turned to look at her now as well, and Deidara eyed her sharply. She sighed in annoyance. “It’s like I told him; if any of those hunter nins had gotten into the house, I wasn’t about to fight for both of us.” That wasn’t the only reason, but the rest of them didn’t need to know what had gone on in that room. Her answer seemed to satisfy the others, and Deidara blinked a couple times and looked off into the trees.


Tobi chuckled. “That would be pretty interesting; seeing Sakura-san do all the work while Deidara-senpai just stood there like a lame horse.”


Sakura saw Deidara’s head turn toward his partner with eyes blazing, and the next thing she knew Tobi went flying ass over end into the nearest tree. He stalked toward the slumped-over ninja ready to make good use of his newly restored fist. “Sounds exactly like what you do in every fucking mission we go on, Tobi!”


Tobi jumped up and started backing away from the enraged blonde with his hands raised pleadingly. What came out of his mouth was completely the opposite of his body language however. “What? Do all the work while you—OW!” He was cut off by another whack from Deidara.


“I’m surprised Zetsu never ate your stupid ass! When are you ever gonna fucking learn, hmm?” Tobi started to run around the small area, Deidara stalking after determinedly.


“Sorry, Deidara-senpai! OW! Don’t hurt me! Tobi is a good boy!”


“You say that every time, but you keep saying stupid shit, yeah! You can’t be that retarded.”


Sakura almost laughed at their antics. Tobi was as bad as Naruto, maybe even worse. Was this what it looked like when she chased him through the streets of Konoha?


“Enough.” Itachi said in a quiet but inarguable tone.


The partners stopped, though the blonde gave Tobi one last punch to the head for good measure, and returned to the group. Tobi made sure to stand several feet away from the blonde man and rubbed his skull. “Are we going to find an inn, Itachi-san?” he asked.


“Hn.” was all he said in response to the question. He turned to his own partner. “Kisame, carry her.” He said, not once looking at the kunoichi.


The shark nin scoffed. “Why me? Why don’t you carry her?”


Sakura had had enough. “No!” she growled indignantly. “Absolutely fucking not! I will run by myself.” The others watched her outburst of defiance with mild surprise. She sighed and ran a hand through her short pink locks. “I’ll be fine if I can rest soon and at least regain some of my chakra. I won’t fall behind I promise, I don’t need to be carried like some damn toddler.” she finished tiredly.


Itachi regarded her for a long moment, and she held his gaze, tired but determined. “Fine.” He said, turning away. “We will stop in the next town.” He jumped back into the tree.


A weary smile graced her lips at the small victory, and she followed after the Uchiha.
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A few miles later they reached the edge of a small town and slowed to a walk as they entered to avoid suspicion. As if five cloaked figures materializing out of the fog in the dim, pre-dawn light could ever look un-suspicious. Fortunately there was no one around to see them at this hour.


The town was poor and run down, and they headed for the seediest looking area they could find. Sakura knew what they were doing by entering the slums; they were seeking out the kind of establishment that was more accustomed to receiving clientele of their sort: lowlifes, criminals, fugitives and just bad people in general. Businesses that catered to the underbelly of society never asked too many questions, keeping their mouth shut and their purses open.


It didn’t take them very long to spot out just the sort of place they needed; a shabby little inn tucked into a back alley that barely looked like an inn from the street. It was too small to have many rooms, meaning it would have fewer guests, and that was perfectly fine with them.


The five of them entered the dingy establishment and stood in the dimly lit lobby. If you could call it a lobby, since it was so small the five of them barely fit and personal space was invaded all around. The four Akatsuki formed something of a barrier around their pink-haired captive, their larger forms and bulky cloaks shielding her from any prying eyes that may be about and preventing a possible escape attempt at the same time.


A moment later the innkeeper appeared from the door behind the counter to greet them somewhat irritably. He was a short, scrawny little man with a graying greasy comb-over that failed miserably to hide his baldness, and he fixed the dangerous looking group with beady dark eyes and cleared his throat before addressing them. “How can I help you?”


“We require rooms.” Itachi answered coolly.


The sleazy looking innkeeper looked at the Sharingan user and clearly saw something there that made him uncomfortable. He cleared his throat again nervously. “Ah, of course. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can accommodate all of you.”


“What do you mean?”


“Well you see, there are…” he raised his chin and tried to peer over Itachi and Deidara to get a look at the pink head just barely visible n the center of their cluster. The two men in front shifted to block his view, the blonde one glaring menacingly. The innkeeper lowered his head timidly. “uh, five of you. Unfortunately I only have two rooms available at the moment.”


Kisame scoffed. “You mean there are that many people who want to stay in this shithole?” he muttered under his breath, but loud enough for the grubby little man to hear.


The innkeeper fidgeted uncomfortably, not daring to retort when he saw the giant man’s unnatural appearance and even scarier sword.


Itachi shifted, instantly drawing the innkeeper’s attention again. “That does not matter. We will take the rooms.”


“Of course, sir.” The little man said a little too eagerly, and began to shuffle around behind the desk for the registrar and room keys. As he gathered what he needed for business, he tired to peek over their shoulders again at Sakura. “Your name for the log, sir?”


“I trust you are a professional man who does what is in the best interest of his livelihood and respects the privacy of his clients.” Itachi’s words were polite and business-like, but the underlying threat was quite clear all the same.


The innkeeper shrank back from his snooping immediately. “Yes, sir. Discretion is how we operate here. Your business is your business, of course.” he said nervously and put the unsigned logbook back under the counter.


“Good. Then we have an arrangement.” He placed some bills on the counter, much more than was needed, but such was the cost of privacy and discretion.


The shifty-eyed man snatched up the money greedily and exchanged it for two room keys. “Rooms nine and ten, up the stairs and to the back. Enjoy your stay.”


Itachi merely grabbed the keys from the counter and walked away, the shady innkeeper already forgotten and beneath his attention again. Kisame smirked, showing the innkeeper a flash of pointed teeth before following his partner. Deidara’s glaring gaze lingered on the already-intimidated man as he turned to follow. He placed his hand flatly on Sakura’s back, firmly and quickly guiding her away. The innkeeper’s beady eyes watched them suspiciously as they left.


The five of them moved through the no-ren curtain on the door to the side of the lobby and into the inn’s common room. It looked to be nothing more than a seedy bar with a staircase leading to the dark upper floor. They barely spared a second glance at the large empty room and headed up the stairs.


Sakura was about ready to drop, and was practically asleep on her feet. If Deidara’s hand wasn’t pushing her forward she probably would be. This place was a hovel, but she didn’t care where she was at the moment as long as she could sleep in a corner of the floor somewhere. Fortunately the place wasn’t that much of a dive.


They walked to the end of the hall just as the innkeeper had said and stopped. Their rooms were the last two in the back of the building, the hallway veering off in a T that led to the upstairs washrooms.


Kisame cracked his neck loudly. “So…how are going to do this?” he asked gruffly, implying the room situation.


Deidara shrugged. “I don’t really care, yeah.”


The shark man smirked at the blonde. “Well if we leave you alone with Tobi he’ll probably be dead when we wake up.” Deidara merely shrugged again; it was always a possibility.


Itachi handed one of the keys to Kisame, looking bored. “You three take one of the rooms, I will stay with her.”


Sakura snapped out of her exhausted stupor at that. Why did he say that? What was he thinking? She wanted to say she would prefer to stay with Deidara, whom she felt most comfortable with. She would even prefer sharing a room with Tobi over Itachi. But she knew any opinion she gave on the subject would raise too many questions and would probably be ignored anyway.


Kisame looked at his partner strangely. “Why are you volunteering to stay with her?”


Itachi looked at him blankly, but his voice held a slight tone of impatience. “Because I’m the one most capable of watching her, Kisame. Besides, perhaps I want to get away from your snoring.”


Deidara sighed irritably. “Whatever. Can we just decide already, hmm?”


Kisame shrugged indifferently and turned away with a grunt to open the door and go inside. Tobi followed him, and turned to wave in the doorway and say goodnight. Deidara shoved him into the room and out of his way, giving an appraising and almost wary look at the remaining two before going in and closing the door.


Itachi opened the door to their room and went inside, leaving it open for Sakura. She entered and he closed the door and slid the lock into place. There was no window so it was pitch black, but a moment later he turned on the light, but how he found it in the dark was a mystery to her.


The room was small and sparsely furnished with a nightstand and single armchair. It was shabby and obviously not cleaned often, but that wasn’t the biggest concern for Sakura. There was only one bed. She sighed and took off her pack, tossing it into the corner wearily. She stood at the foot of the bed, hesitant and uncertain about what to do next.


Itachi set his own pack down and took off his cloak and katana, setting them aside as well. He walked over and stood next to Sakura with a small smirk playing on his features. “Relax, Sakura.” He said smoothly.


She looked up from the bed at him. His close proximity was not helping to ease her mind despite his words. “How is this going to work?” she asked warily.


He raised an eyebrow minutely. “Are you really that uncomfortable? Would you prefer to sleep on the floor?” He almost sounded like he was teasing her.


She wanted to say yes, but the bed looked infinitely better. She was an adult and she could act like one no matter how weird the situation was. It wasn’t the first time she’d had to share a bed with a man, though it had always been one of her teammates and not an unpredictable sociopath. She sighed again. “No, it’s fine. I can deal with it if you can.” She would just…hug the edge of the bed or something.


She unbuttoned her traveling cloak and removed it stiffly, still on edge. Itachi took it from her hand as she was about to toss it over with her pack and leaned a little closer to her. “Relax, Sakura, and go to sleep.” He whispered. He moved away and draped her cloak over his on the back of the armchair before sitting down and crossing his arms over his chest.


She sat down on the bed and removed her boots doggedly before crawling under the covers. She lay there with the blanket pulled up to her chin, occasionally stealing glances at the occupant of the chair. His head was bent and his eyes were closed, and she could see under the curtain of his dark bangs that his brows were drawn in what looked to be a pained frown. Had he used the Mangekyou tonight against those hunter-nins? She guessed that he had and he was now paying the price. “Your eyes…they’re hurting you?” she asked quietly.


His eyes snapped open at her words and he glared almost balefully at her. “I am accustomed to it.” he answered dryly.


She waited a moment before continuing, not wanting to anger him. “You know, it wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t use the Sharingan when you don’t need to.”


He continued to stare at her darkly. “It’s none of your concern, Sakura. You should sleep and regain your energy.” he said quietly and closed his eyes again.


He was right; it wasn’t her concern, and she dropped the matter. No point in giving advice to someone who was just going to do what he wanted anyway. She glanced at him one more time before reaching over and pulling the chain on the bedside lamp, the room’s only light source. Her head hit the pillow again in an exhausted flop, her tired mind no longer caring about the rooms other occupant or where he slept as long as she could rest.

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A/N: Re-reading this chapter makes me sad. I don’t want to give spoilers but if you know what I’m talking about then…**sobs on your shoulder** =*(


Anyway. Another twist of fate forces the Akatsuki to change their plans! Sakura’s changing too, and you’ll definitely see more of that in the next chapter.