DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

My first story! Please be kind! Lots of reviews please~

Updated June/July of 2012: Ugh. It's horrible! I can barely read what I've written without wincing. Yes, this story has been up barely a year. But I still want to edit it. So here I go.

Chapter One: Captured!

Sakura woke with a groan. Her entire body was aching and she couldn't quite remember what had happened. When she attempted to put her hand to her head, she found that her arm was stopped. Wait- What?

Her eyes flew open. Looking up at the sky and wriggling her body, she discovered she was tied head to toe. Now the memories came back to her. Elder Chiyo. Sasori. The battle. She had taken out the evil Akatsuki member, but Elder Chiyo had been killed in the battle. Sakura felt a stab of sorrow. The woman had been… nice. A respectable old woman that had seen much bloodshed in her life yet kept fighting.

But what happened afterwards? Sakura attempted to lift her head, and felt a hammer hit the inside of her skull. Now she remembered. Sasori, with his puppet body, had resurrected himself while Sakura had tried to save Lady Chiyo.

Sakura had dodged his blades, aimed at her vitals in attempt to kill her, just as he had killed Elder Chiyo- his own grandmother! The mechanical coils coming out of his body had finally snatched her tiring body, wrapping themselves around her torso as she had leapt away from a spray of poisoned needles. She had bruised her arms hitting the steel bands wrapped around her to no avail as Sasori reeled her in.

"Going somewhere?" he had mocked as she was brought face to face to his emotionless mask.

"What are you gonna do now?" she taunted, kicking her legs to no avail, pausing as Sasori's face neared hers. "Does that nose of yours grow into a dagger Pinocchio?"

"Ha! The doomed kunoichi makes a joke!" he smirked, admiring the kunoichi's fiery green eyes. "But you are hardly in a position to make such accusations, my pretty."

"Oh but I do believe I am." Sakura smirked back at him. "What are you gonna do? Kill me? I do believe you were going to do it anyway."

"You have fire, I'll give you that." Sasori nodded. "It's a shame to kill such a promising kunoichi. And with your strength, you would have surpassed lady Tsunade herself. Such a shame."

Thinking of Tsunade, Sakura's mind clicked. With an imaginary light bulb turning on in her head, Sakura remembered going through the forbidden techniques that the Godaime kept hidden at her house. At the time Sakura just wanted to learn about the techniques so she would be able to defend against them should one of her enemies use them. Now one in particular came to mind. Sakura hoped she remembered enough of the technique for it to work; at least she had paid more attention to it then the others because she had found it so peculiar.

It was complicated, but thankfully didn't require too much chakra; she was already low from the battle as it was. Sakura refocused on the killer in front of her. "Yes," she agreed with Sasori, "I'm not too keen on dying. Thankfully, that won't be today."

Sasori's eyes widened in shock, at first from Sakura's brazen statement, then when she shot pinpoints of chakra through the mechanisms of the coils around her, weakening the metal long enough for her to break through. Sakura leapt away as Sasori tried to recapture her.

"Give it up already!" he called. "You can't last much longer!"

"Oh yeah? Well I sure as hell ain't going down without something for you to remember me by!" she taunted, a wild gleam in her eyes.

Already Sakura was running around the cavern, dodging Sasori's attacks while secretly placing notes with signals all around the cavern where he couldn't see them. She paused now and then to carve the necessary symbols onto the walls, painting them with her blood when she didn't have enough time.

"Time to stop playing with me!" Sasori growled as she kept dodging his attacks almost effortlessly. "I am nearing the end of my patience with you!" He threw more explosives at her, which Sakura dodged deftly, and even shot one back to Sasori, distracting him long enough for her to get close to him.

Sakura leapt on his back and painted the sign on his back and forehead with her blood, then let him fling her off him. She rolled as his mechanical arm stabbed into the ground where she had been a second earlier. Sasori loomed over her; he hadn't noticed the symbols painted onto him, so preoccupied with the quick kunoichi.

"You are making things very difficult for me, girl!" he seethed.

Sakura chuckled as she met his eyes with her wild gaze. "It's about to get even more complicated, Akatsuki!"

She slid under him as his steel arms lashed out, using her kunai to draw a light line in the ground. Five more times she drew light lines in the ground under him, dodging the snake-like coils. They had caught her a few times, drawing more blood from her. But the blood covered the pentagram she had drawn, obscuring it from Sasori's view.

"Bitch!" Sasori hissed as she jumped, landing on one of the metal arms and used it to launch herself into his face, knocking him back into the middle of the pentagram. He was momentarily stunned. Sakura began the incantation.

"By blood, let me open the doors to the divine powers." She began. 'Kami this sounds so cliché', she thought to herself with a mental giggle.

Sasori recovered and lashed out at her. Sakura kept inches out of his range, yet kept circling him to keep him in the middle of the casting. The fact that circling the target and that she had to circle him anyway to keep herself alive was not lost on her. A grim smile appeared on her face as she kept chanting.

"Reverse all that goes against the origins of this creation." She kept a tempo with the incantation, even with blades pelting at her. "By mine own blood, so let it be!"

"What the fu-" Sasori stopped as he covered his eyes.

There was a bright light as Sakura felt the jutsu or whatever suck her dry of her chakra, her mouth opened in a silent scream as the chakra was rent through her flesh, not even channeled from its proper points. She heard the faint sound of Sasori yelling in anger, but it was far away. All the symbols she had painted and carved channeled her chakra and even Sasori's chakra, which was being sucked from him as well. The chakras were focused on the source of Sasori's being, penetrating his soul.

Sakura's mind faded to black just as the light began to recede…

~~~Flower of Konoha~~~

And now Sakura was bound and lying in the middle of the forest, staring at the sky turning shades of rose and orange as the sun set. She huffed. Someone must have captured her after she passed out. Wait. Sakura groaned.

Sasori must have recovered and captured her! Obviously he wanted her alive to ask her how the hell she had turned him back into a genuine human. Sakura smirked. She was never going to tell him. The Akatsuki could torture her all they wanted, and maybe she would even cave and tell them what she did one day. But Sakura was the star pupil of Lady Tsunade herself. She could take torture, if only long enough for Konoha to realize she was taken. And even if Sakura did give in to the torture, the jutsu, spell, whatever it was supposed to be, it was irreversible.

Sakura frowned. Tsunade would kill her if she were here. It was a huge risk casting a jutsu, and a forbidden one at that, and having no idea what the outcomes could be and using the last of her chakra. The amount of chakra that was sucked from her could have killed her alone. And collapsing during her only opportunity to escape Sasori? Tsunade would skin her alive!

'But Tsunade isn't here', Sakura reminded herself. And she was alone. Sakura looked around, wondering where her captors were. Should she let them know she was awake, or pretend to still be unconscious when they returned? She thought it safer to pretend to be unconscious. Then she could listen in on their conversations and figure out what they were going to do, where they were going, and hopefully figure out how she was going to escape.

Sakura realized she had been thinking of her captors as 'they'. She was sure Sasori would be one of her captors. But how could she be sure his partner had survived his own fight against Naruto? Sakura's mind was quiet for a second. She refused to believe those thoughts as an omen. At least that's what she kept telling herself.

Sakura heard the rustling leaves before the men entered the clearing. Her eyes were closed, and she kept her breathing even as if she were still sleeping. Behind her someone threw another log on the fire, and it hissed as warmth flared on her back.

"Still asleep I see." Said a familiar voice. Fear flared in Sakura, but she kept her face still. That was the voice of Sasori's partner, Deidara Iwa. He had been a dark blonde, with intense blue eyes and a devilish grin. From what Sakura remembered from her brief glances at him, his hair had flopped to cover the eye patch-like thing on his left eye. Half of his hair had been pulled into a ponytail.

Oh and she remembered another thing- His hands had mouths on them. Ew. Sakura suppressed a shiver, and sincerely prayed to any god that would listen that his hands never touched her. She sensed rather than felt him lean over her to get a better look. Her prayers became more desperate.

"She's the one who ruined you, Sasori?" his jolly voice sounded closer to her than she had expected. Sakura almost flinched, but steeled herself to stay still.

"Shut up, Deidara." Sasori's deep voice communicated his displeasure at his partner.

Deidara laughed. "She doesn't look as strong as she really is, then. Such a pretty thing. It's a good thing you didn't kill her. I'm going to enjoy this lovely."

Now Sakura shuddered, though very faintly, hoping no one noticed the movement. Apparently no one did as she heard Deidara's footsteps shuffled away from her and towards Sasori's voice as he spoke.

"I only brought her so she will tell me how she… did this to me." Sasori growled. "Once I have what I want from her, I'm going to give a slow, painful punishment. And after that I'll kill her."

"Aw." Deidara sighed. "You're so brash, danna. How about a deal?"

Sasori didn't answer, but Sakura could imagine him nodding to Deidara to continue.

"How about when you've gotten an answer from her, instead of ruining that pretty skin of hers, you just give her to me?" Sakura could just imagine Deidara licking his lips. She shuddered again.

"She deserves to die." Sasori's voice was without emotion. Not that Sakura was expecting him to care for her well-being or anything, but it would have been nice to hear a direct 'no' from him. Even she could tell that Sasori was leaving the option open for Deidara.

"Thank you, Sasori." Deidara chuckled.

"That wasn't a 'Yes'." Sasori snapped.

"But neither is it a 'No'." Deidara said at the same time Sakura thought it.

~~~Flower of Konoha~~~

Naruto and Kakashi met each other back at the place where Sakura had fought the Akatsuki member. The battlefield was a mess, with broken puppets everywhere and Elder Chiyo's body still lying where she had fallen. Both shinobi had been unable to find any clue as to where Sakura had gone.

"They have her!" Naruto growled, his face angry and worried at the same time.

"We need to get Elder Chiyo's body back to the village." Kakashi soothed him.

"Not without Sakura!" Naruto yelled at him, beginning to pace, throwing his hands into the air in random directions as if to emphasize his distress.

Kakashi gripped his shoulder to keep the idiot from running off. "Naruto, if Sakura were anywhere near us we would have sensed her. And we are both injured; no shape to go looking for her. We would only put both her and ourselves in danger. And we can't just leave Elder Chiyo's body here. Her village needs to know."

Naruto ground his teeth and clenched his jaw. Kakashi was right. The jounin walked over to Elder Chiyo's body and picked up the battered old body carefully.

"Come on, Naruto." He said. "That sooner we get back to the Leaf village the sooner we can begin to rescue Sakura. Grab Gaara-sama and let's head out."

Naruto glanced back at the battlefield and shut his eyes, trying not to imagine what might happen to Sakura. "Let's be quick then." He mumbled, grunting as he lifted Gaara's muscular body that had to weigh as much as himself. Naruto glanced worriedly at his friend, unused to seeing the redhead asleep. But Naruto's heart eased a little when he took not of Gaara's even breathing, and thanked the gods for small mercies.

At least Gaara had survived.

~~~Flower of Konoha~~~

Sakura pretended to stay unconscious for the next few hours. From what she heard from them, they were headed back to the nearest Akatsuki base. But she couldn't pinpoint where that might be, so she had no idea what direction they were headed. Sasori carried Sakura's body over his shoulder in what was, in her opinion, a rather undignified fashion. Deidara was a very talkative person. From how he and Sasori acted together, Sakura guessed it was mostly to annoy Sasori. He referred to Sasori as his 'Danna', so that meant Sasori was the senior member in the partnership. She could also tell that Sasori was very pissed that he was now human, and out of most of his weapons, which Sakura herself had destroyed during their battle.

Che.

Deidara mentioned Naruto once, and Sakura was relieved to hear that Naruto had survived the battle. So the only person that had died during the battles was Elder Chiyo. And Sakura would soon join her, if she didn't get out of this situation soon. Again she berated herself for being so weak and collapsing like that. Deep down she knew that no one could have done better, Sasori was a worthy opponent, and she should be proud that she had accomplished a jutsu that few had ever done, let alone live through it. Yet her pride was still hurt.

Her own chakra was slowly recharging, and now Sakura gently felt for Sasori's, trying not to alert him. His own chakra, from what she could tell, was recharging as well, but was still very low. The jutsu had sucked him dry as well. At least she wasn't the only one here that was at her weakest. And she suspected it was the same for Deidara. One didn't fight Naruto without spending a lot of chakra. So everyone was recovering from the battles.

Ugh, this was so frustrating! If she only had more chakra, she could fight them off long enough to escape. But she knew her own limits. They were all exhausted. Sasori jumped over something and jolted Sakura from her reverie. Sakura bit her lip to keep from yelping, trying to relax her body before he noticed. They could have at least loosened the ropes when carrying her! The ropes were cutting into her arms and legs, and her nose was even with the small of Sasori's back.

'Nice butt.' Inner Sakura thought grudgingly.

Whaaaaa? Sakura could not believe that thought enter her mind.

Inner snickered. 'Even bad guys can be good looking. Remember that guy Tsunade had you assassinate a month ago?

'And I still slit his neck. So shut up.' She told herself. Sakura mentally rolled her eyes at herself. 'Talking to oneself was a sign of genius', she thought sarcastically. Well, it had helped her figure out problems many times, so she never saw it as a bad thing. Inner did help put things in perspective when she needed it.

Now Sakura mentally sighed. The Akatsuki would be getting suspicious if she didn't wake up soon. She wondered how that would go. Maybe she should just fake unconsciousness for as long as possible…

That would prove to be five more seconds as something jolted her very harshly. Sakura yelped as her eyes flew open and she found herself on her back in a bed of grass. She wasn't faking disorientation as she looked around confused.

"Where- where am I?" she demanded, ignoring the black dots in her vision and the dull throbbing in her head as she scrambled to sit up. She already figured out that Sasori must have thrown her down.

"Oh, awake sleeping beauty?" Deidara asked, smirking. "You sure took your sweet time."

Sakura glared at him. But then Sasori filled her vision as he crouched in front of her, his bright brown eyes cold and angry. His red hair was messier than when she'd last seen him. He was wearing brown trousers and there was a towel around his neck. Sakura wondered absently where his shirt had gone.

"What did you do?" he demanded without pretext.

"Do? Do what?" She asked innocently, daring him with her eyes.

"Do you want me to hit you?" he threatened, his deep voice coming close to a growl.

Sakura threw her head back and laughed bitterly. "Go ahead. I've been tortured before, Akatsuki. A couple hits are nothing!" the wild glint was back in her eyes as she glared at him. "Besides, even if you did know what I did, it's irreversible!"

Sakura laughed some more in his face until his hand smacked her across the face, sending her into the grass below.

"Don't ruin her face!" Deidara called teasingly. The criminal probably didn't have any problems with Sasori hitting a girl. Well, they did kill people for a living. Sakura knew she could never see any of the Akatsuki as a person. They were all monsters who were once men. Ruthless and uncaring.

"Shut up, Deidara!" Sasori snarled. "She's my prisoner! I'll with her as I please!"

Sakura laughed grimly as she spat out some blood. "Yeah, do with me as you please. It's not like I'm a person or anything."

"Bitch!" Sasori cursed.

"Real original!" Sakura spat back. "I bet you're just bewildered because you've been without a dick for so long that you don't know what to do with it!"

'Good one! Sasori zero; Sakura one hundred!' Inner yelled triumphantly, punching the air.

Sasori reeled back as if she had punched him in the face while Deidara howled with laughter, literally falling to the ground clutching his stomach. Sakura allowed herself a small smile, yet her eyes still glared at Sasori. But Sasori soon recovered, and with cold eyes he grabbed her hair in a fist and pulled her up. Sakura let out a sound of anger and pain. She was thankful for having such thick hair to dull the pain over being dragged up by her hair, but it still hurt like hell.

"You will regret that, Konoha bitch!" Sasori said, punching her in the stomach. Sakura doubled over, gasping. He kicked her in the ribs, then grabbed her neck and jaw, forcing her to look at him. His arm was shaking from refraining from killing the Leaf kunoichi.

"You're just angry that I insulted your puppet-pride, and you can't come up with a comeback of your own." She sneered while she stared at his face, her body screaming in pain.

"Why you-"

"So easily goaded, Sasori." She scolded. "You seemed so much in control when we were fighting, but now you're panicking. Better watch yourself, Sasori. You may just blunder right into my hands."

"Ooooh I like this girl!" Deidara called between laughs.

Anger flared in Sakura. "Shut up!" both she and Sasori yelled at Deidara at the same time.

Sakura looked up at him, her eyes still full of that wild fire that had kept her strong for so long. If she could keep him emotional, he would be so much easier to control. And she mustn't underestimate Deidara either. Sakura knew she wouldn't be able to escape anytime soon. But she would study these men, and learn how best to manipulate them.

Meanwhile Sasori had stilled. Sakura could see she had hit a nerve with him, several, actually. He glared and kicked her hard in the ribs, then stormed off, muttering about bathing in the stream. Deidara was still laughing on the other side of the campfire. When he had recovered, he made his way over to Sakura.

"I have to give it to you, girl." He chuckled. "You are fierce. I haven't ever seen anyone throw Sasori off in such a panic. Not in a while, at least."

He produced something in his hand. It was small and white, and very suspicious looking. Sakura stared at him as he knelt next to her.

"Here." He pushed the thing towards her face. "Eat it."

"No." she said, keeping her mouth tight.

"If you want me to untie you, eat it." He sighed. "Look, you eat this, and I will untie you so that you can go to the bathroom and wash in the stream over there."

Sakura looked at him suspiciously. "What is it?"

Deidara shook his head, refusing to answer. Sakura sighed, and he quickly slipped the thing into her mouth. In her surprise, Sakura swallowed it. She cursed out loud.

"Motherfucker what was that?" she coughed.

"See? Not so hard. Now, don't attack me, I'm going to untie you now." He began to untie the knots, watching her body carefully for any signs of her muscles tensing for attack.

When the ropes fell away, Sakura jumped up and put six feet between her and Deidara. He quickly brought his arms up, expecting her to attack. He smirked at her. "Aw, don't be like that."

"Stay away." Was her response.

He shrugged. "Fine, fine. There's a stream for you to wash in over there. I promise not to follow or peek."

Sakura lifted an eyebrow at him. She was covered in blood and poison; she supposed bathing would be very welcome at this point. But she would rather take the chance to run away. She could always bathe when she was safe.

"And don't even think of trying to escape." Deidara said quickly, narrowing his eyes.

Sakura glared at him.

"What I made you eat was a tiny explosive." He said as Sakura gasped, looking at him with horror. "If you try to run, I will activate it. If you disappear for a long time, I will activate it. And only I can deactivate it. Now if you behave on our trip, when we get to the base I will deactivate it for you, and it will pass harmlessly through your system."

Sakura clenched her fist as he smiled like a mischievous boy. Without thinking, she was in front of him and punched him across the face. Her right hook sent him sprawling across the clearing they were camped in just as Sasori returned, his eyes taking the scene in lazily. In the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Sasori's mouth twitch in a small smile as he watched Deidara groan. Then he turned to her and approached.

"What are you doing untied?" he asked her angrily.

"Why don't you ask your partner over there?" she hissed, the spun around, calling over her shoulder, "I'm going to bathe. If you guys peek, I don't care about the explosive, I will kill you!"

Sasori turned to face Deidara, not bothering to help up the blonde. Whatever he had done, Sasori did not doubt that Deidara had deserved it. If anything, Sakura had beaten Sasori to it. He allowed himself to smile mockingly at Deidara as he stood. There was going to be a bruise there tomorrow.

"Explain." Sasori ordered.

"I made her eat a little explosive to keep her from running away." Deidara winced as he spoke. "Damn, that's some right hook. I see why she kicked your ass."

Sasori ignored the last remark. "Good thinking, although I don't think you should test her by trying to peek at her while she's bathing."

Deidara's attention snapped away from the direction Sakura had disappeared, smirking at Sasori. "You know you're curious."

"No, I'm not." Sasori scowled.

"Whatever you say." Deidara cackled, turning away to unpack some provisions.

Sasori glanced at where Deidara had been staring, and thought he caught a glimpse of pale flesh through the branches near the stream. 'Only making sure the girl wasn't running away.' He assured himself. But somewhere inside him, a part of him that had been dormant for so long cackled at him.

'Whatever you say.' It taunted.

Reviews reviews reviews pwease! ~

Update: Yay! Chapter 1 edited, nothing major, just some minor adjustments and a few tweaks here and there.