I've had this story up before, but I took it down thinking that it wasn't that good. I've decided to put it back up and continued it. I've made small changes and made it longer also.

Naruto does not belog to me, unfortunately.

Sakura stood on a tree branch, her hand pressing against the bark. Rain was pouring down. The girl had on her usual attire. Her red shirt and shorts with the skirt-like material over the shorts. Though her attire was hidden by the cloak she was wearing. the cloak was just a simple black cloak with the hood up, nothing more. She had been given a mission to spy on Akatsuki, to see what they were planning.

"Sakura, you don't have to do this. We have other shinobi that could take your place in this."

The pink haired girl smiled over at the Hokage as she made sure she had everything before slipping on her bag, a reassuring smile placed on her face. "Tsunade-shishou, I'll be fine. It's about time I show everybody I'm not as weak as they think."

Tsunade was about to say something but she saw her apprentice run out the door, "Tell Naruto I said bye, and also tell him not to get himself killed!"

Thinking back on it now, the pink haired kunoichi didn't think this was such a good idea. She was risking her life to get information. She wasn't even ANBU level yet! It had been three years since Naruto left to go find Sasuke. Each day she told herself that Naruto would come back, bringing Sasuke with him. While those three long years passed, Sakura had trained. She had currently been training to get into ANBU. Tsunade knew Sakura would get into ANBU easily, but she never suggested it. It were missions like these that she didn't want Sakura taking. Sakura's techniques were for healing, not killing.

Sakura pursed her lips together. No. She wasn't the weak girl from all those years ago. The girl who didn't have enough strength to stop her Sasuke from leaving. The girl that always had to be protected. The girl who always ended up having to be saved by either Sasuke or Naruto or have to watch them fight. She even remembered back to the chunin exams during the second part while Sasuke was against Orochimaru. She was yelling to Sasuke about him being a coward and not doing anything. What was she doing? She was watching from a distance, not doing anything to help otherwise.

Thinking back to those days, she knew how hypocritical she was when she did those things. She shook her head, looking down below and then looked off towards the distance. She could see something that resembled a cave. She knew that had to be it. That had to be the Akatsuki's base. There was nothing else besides the cave, save for the trees surrounding it.

There's most likely a genjutsu place on it so that to anyone else, it'd look just like an ordinary cave. Sakura thought, nodding to herself. If she had't looked closely, she would have over looked it. On this mission though, she couldn't afford to over look anything.

Sakura jumped down from the branch, landed perfectly on her feet.

"My my, if it isn't Haruno-san."

Sakura froze, tensing up as she slowly turned her head, seeing Uchiha Itachi standing there. An emotionless look was placed on his face as usual. But then again, it wasn't like Sakura wasn't expecting emotion. That was one thing all Uchiha's seemed to have in common. Or at least, Itachi and Sasuke. Sakura glared upon seeing the elder Uchiha.

She clenched her fist, as if ready to punch him. He ... He's the one ... He's the person who has caused Sasuke-kun so much pain ... He's the reason Sasuke-kun left!, Sakura thought angrily. Even with Sakura glaring at him, the Uchiha didn't flinch, didn't move, didn't blink. He just continued to stare down at the pink haired girl calmly, his scarlet eyes seeming to pierce through her as if she were merely a small child.

For that short moment, it seemed as if time had stopped. The only reason Sakura knew time hadn't stopped, was that the rain continued to fall. After a few seconds of just standing there, Sakura reached back for a kunai and threw it at him, jumping back into the air. Itachi calmly knocked it away with his own kunai that seemingly came out of nowhere.

"Behind you."

Sakura's eyes widened, glancing over her shoulder. There the Uchiha prodigy was. Sakura looked forward for a moment. Sure enough, where Itachi had previously been standing, was empty. She went to elbow him in the stomach, but he merely caught her arm before slinging her into the ground as if she were just a mere rag doll. Sakura groaned, standing back up as Itachi landed on the ground with ease. She ran forward, attempting to punch his face but Itachi calmly grabbed her by the wrist and slung her into a tree, again, like a rag doll. Sakura forced herself up, only to get kicked in the side and crash back into the tree.

By this point, her back was really starting to hurt. She forced herself up again. She glanced forward, Seeing Itachi's foot aiming towards her face. She held her arms up in time and pushed off of his foot before taking out a kunai and slashed at him across the chest. Her eyes widened as his form turned into a log. She turned her head, only to have him kick her in the back and sent her forward, throwing shuriken at her as he did so. She skidded across the ground, groaning.

She was regretting ever going on this mission now. She sat up, pulling out a shuriken from her ankle. She winced, feeling how deep it went in. Light green chakra engulfed her hand as she pressed it against her ankle, healing it. She couldn't use too much chakra. She'd need it for fighting.

Itachi blinked as he watched her calmly. He couldn't help but smirk after a few minutes. Of course, that smirk was hidden by the collar of his cloak.

The hood of Sakura's cloak had fallen, showing her pink hair which came down a little below her shoulders. She no longer wore it long, but it wasn't exactly short either. She didn't like the fact that she had pink hair some times. It stood out too much. Well, to her anyway. She pursed her lips together, narrowing her eyes as she looked at Itachi. She wasn't going to lose here. No. She couldn't and wouldn't.

She stood up, clenching her fists, her jade colored eyes staring at Itachi's scarlet ones. She knew what Itachi's eyes could do. But she knew he wasn't going to use the Mangekyo Sharingan on her. To him, there was probably no need to. She wasn't worth the Sharingan's power.

Or that's what he thought.

The pink haired girl lunged forward, determined to at least inflict some damage on the elder Uchiha. If she died here, she'd die fighting. She took out a kunai, determined to harm him and threw it at him. He merely caught it and threw it back at her. Sakura felt it go into her shoulder, her eyes widening as Itachi leaned forward, pushing the blade in deeper. She placed her hand on the kunai, trying to force it out of her, though Itachi's force was stronger. She glared at him, trying to kick his feet out from under him. He simply jumped back and landed on the ground calmly as Sakura pulled the kunai out, throwing it to the side. She glared at him intently. She lunged forward again and stopped half way. She smirked to herself and thrusted her arm into the ground, causing cracks to form and go Itachi's way. She continued to smirk, a 'Ha! I win' look placed on her face as Itachi fell down into the depths of the earth, or how deep the hole went anyway.

"You missed, Haruno-san."

Sakura tensed. There was no way he could have survived that. Though, she guessed he used a clone. She glared at him out of the corner of her eye and went to kick him, only to have him disappeared. She frowned, a frustrated sigh escaping her lips. She hated to sound like Shikamaru, but Itachi was becoming troublesome by now. And she was quite tired of his disappearing acts.

She looked all around her, trying to find him. Her green eyes scanned the area for his chakra signature. Nothing. She soon tensed, feeling the presence behind her. Stupid Sakura! Stupid! You let him sneak up on you!, She thought, ready to punch him but she felt him hit her in the back of the neck. She fell forward, waiting to hit the ground, but she never felt the impact come.

Sakura groaned as she rose her head a bit. Her head was pounding and her body ached. She leaned her head back, feeling it make contact with a wall. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, sighing to herself. At the moment, her mind was in a haze. What happened? She asked herself as she kept her eyes closed tightly, concentrating. Her mind was blank at the moment and nothing was coming up. After a few seconds it hit her--

Or actually..

a shirt and some pants did.

She looked towards the direction they had come from and saw the man who had kidnapped her. She clenched her fists a bit, now remembering what had happened. She started taking in her surroundings. It looked like she was in a cell. She would have tried to brake down a wall or something at the moment, but she couldn't feel any chakra going into her fist like intended to.

"Don't even bother trying. Kisame drained your chakra before you woke up. Get dressed."

And with that, the door closed.

So that was why she ached all over. Her chakra had been drained from her body just recently. She looked down at the clothes that were in her lap. Just a plain mesh clad shirt and some pants that resembled the type of pants Kakashi wore. She sighed a bit and glanced at the clothes she had on at the moment. They were torn and looked like she had been wearing them for weeks. How long have I been out? She asked herself as she slowly stood up and began getting dressed. The clothes actually fit her well. The pants hung loosely just below her stomach. The shirt was a bit larger than her usual shirts but it was tolerable. She folded her original clothes and placed them on the ground just as the door opened once more.

"Tsuuuuunaaaaaade!"

Tsunade sighed irritably as Naruto burst into her office, yelling at the top of his lungs. "What is it, Naruto?" She asked as she continued look over the papers she had been looking over.

"I can't find Sakura-chan! I haven't been able to find her at all since I got back! I wanted to ask her to eat ramen with me.." Naruto whined, upset about how he was going to miss probably his only chance to eat with Sakura.

"Ever consider that she might be hiding to keep from eating ramen?" Tsunade asked as she arched an eyebrow, though she knew something was up. Sakura hadn't come by once in the past few days.

Naruto frowned. "Be serious, Tsunade-baa-chan! Sakura's missing!!"

"I think you've made that clear." Tsunade mumbled as she pressed her fingers against her temple, trying to drown out his yelling.

"Well, what are you gonna do!?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade didn't get a chance to answer seeing as Naruto kept going.

"I'll go find her! I'll go get Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Lee, Chou--"

"No."

Naruto blinked as he stared at her in confusion. "No...?"

"I'll send ANBU to look for her." Tsunade replied calmly as she kept her eyes on the papers in front of her.

Naruto clenched his fist. "How can you be so calm!? Sakura-chan could have gotten captured by anybody and you're just--"

"Exactly." Tsunade interrupted as she finally looked up at Naruto.

"Then why aren't you letting me go after her!?" Naruto shouted.

"She could have gotten captured by anybody, Naruto. We don't know what we'd be up against."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Tsunade was hiding something and he knew it. She knew what was going on. How could she be so calm in a situation like this!? Sakura was missing! He clenched his fists and stormed out of the office.

Tsunade sighed, looking out the window. Don't tell me you got captured by them, Sakura.

Sakura blinked as she watched who stepped into the cell. The person had long blonde hair, some of it up in a pony tail while the rest was down. The person also had eyes the color mixed between blue and green. She wasn't sure of the gender of the person who had just walked into the room she was in. They looked like both a female and a male.

Sakura bit her lip for a moment as she stared at this person, pursing her lips together. Why didn't Itachi come get her? But then again, maybe it was better that Itachi hadn't come to fetch her. After a few minutes she saw a smirk grace the person's features.

"So you're the girl Itachi-san found, yeah." She then knew by how this person talked that it was a boy. By how he talked, he seemed like he wasn't as brutal or cold as Itachi, so that made Sakura even more happy that he came instead. "Come on, un." He said as he began walking. Sakura, doing her best to move her feet fast enough, followed after him.

As they walked down the hall, Sakura would catch glimpses of him staring at her, which made her uncomfortable. She could feel his eyes still on her so she decided to start a conversation, trying to lighten the seemingly now tense atmosphere.

"May I ask who you are?"

He grinned. "I'm Deidara, yeah. And if I remember correctly, you're Haruno-san, right?"

Sakura nodded. "Um, yeah. Though I'd rather be called by Sakura."

His grin was hidden by his collar, but she knew he was still grinning by the way his visible eye that wasn't hidden by his bangs closed.

"Alright, yeah."

She smiled a bit then blinked. "Hey, Deidara? Why am I here?"

Deidara gave her a confused look as if she had just asked one of those questions that seemed so obvious, you should already know the answer to them. "You're joining the Akatsuki of course, yeah."

"WHAT!?"