--- Acceptance ---

-- Chapter 1: Captured --

- Ita/Saku-

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Eighteen year old Sakura Haruno was currently sitting on the floor of the training grounds. Sweat dripped down the side of her forehead as she let out raggedy, uneven breaths. She had been training all afternoon and was finally done with training for the day. That's what she had dedicated her life to; training. Ever since Sasuke left, ever since that dreadful day that she was left on that stone bench, she has trained non-stop. She promised to become the best kunoichi out there and promised to make everyone who called her weak or useless, eat their words.

In the process, she started getting distant. It didn't help that Naruto was never around. He was always on missions or out training with Jiraiya. In fact, the last time she saw him was nearly two years ago. She started to get lonely and upset. Team 7 to her- was officially broken, beyond repair. Sasuke had left, Naruto was always out somewhere, Sai didn't have emotions and Kakashi was usually out on a mission. Where did that leave her? Where was she supposed to go? That is when she decided to just keep training and become the best she could be. She would no longer stand in the background being weak, useless, defenseless ...afraid.

She is now the ANBU captain of Squad 1. She is also the head medic, surpassing Tsunade. With her achievements, Sakura has become one of the strongest ninja around. She always has to be careful because she is wanted by many of the bad guys out there. Naruto doesn't even know that she is now ANBU, because she took the exam while he was out training. She has gotten very powerful over the years.

As for appearances, Sakura looks much more different and has grown. She grew her hair out, so now it rested on her mid-back. Her emerald eyes are still so mesmerizing, but she lost all that sparkle, shine and happiness that used to be shown in them. She grew another two and a half inches. Her face looks more mature and she always has a hardened expression shown on her pale face. Her newly developed curves are shown even with her outfit over it. She was indeed beautiful, too bad that she was too intrigued by her training to bother with dating.

Sakura raised her head up as she heard footsteps approach her. Before her stood Ino, slightly out of breath. She continued to pant before opening her mouth to speak;

"The hokage wishes to speak to you, Sakura," said Ino.

Sakura nodded her head. She wiped the sweat off her forehead as she got up from the ground. She brushed off some of the dirt as she made her way towards the hokage's office. She walked passed Ino, not saying a single word to her.

'What could Tsunade want with me?' pondered Sakura. 'Maybe another mission? I just came back from an S-ranked mission yesterday. Well, I guess that doesn't matter. ANBU are always sent on missions. Especially now that war might break out between Konoha and Sound.'

Ino looked at Sakura's retreating form and frowned, "You've changed so much Sakura...I admire how strong you've become, but I hate how we don't even talk anymore. Do you really have to push everyone away?"

Sakura stopped in her tracks, but didn't turn around to face Ino.

"Sasuke always pushed me away," said Sakura in a harsh tone. "He never accepted me. When I asked all the Jounin Senseis if they could help me train, they never accepted. Why? Because I was too weak." said Sakura bitterly. Ino was taken back by Sakura's tone of voice. "None of them thought I would be able to get stronger. Not even my own sensei, Kakashi. When I asked all my supposedly friends if they could help me train, they never accepted. They always claimed to be busy. Yet, I know...that all of you were thinking the same thing, 'She's too weak, she won't be able to get any stronger. Why waste my time training with her?'. So, it was up to me to train on my own. Tsunade and my ANBU team were the only ones who helped. I showed all of you, I could be strong. I am strong and now all of you expect me to accept your friendships and crap, when you couldn't even accept me when I needed you most? Ha, that's rich."

Ino swallowed hard, guilt ran all throughout her body. Why? Because what Sakura said, was in fact true. They all had thought her to be the weakest out of the Rookie Nine. Ino had never taken the time to really think about it. The way Sakura put it, she made it sound...bad. She didn't know that it was her fault as well as everyone else's that Sakura was now so cold and distant. She thought it was just because Sasuke left her. She thought it was because Team 7... no longer existed.

"So, that's what all of this is about..." started Ino softly, "Acceptance?"

"That's exactly what this is all about," answered Sakura calmly as she started walking away, not even sparing Ino a single glance.

A single tear slid down Ino's face.

When Sakura made it to the Hokage Tower, she knocked lightly on the door.

"Come in," called out Tsunade's voice from the other side of the door.

Sakura cracked open the door and walked inside, shutting the door behind her. Tsunade looked up from her desk and her face became serious when she saw Sakura.

"You called for me, hokage?" asked Sakura.

"Yes," answered Tsunade as she opened up a scroll. "You will be put on a very important mission. Wait for the others to come and then I will start explaining."

Sakura simply nodded her head.

'I knew it,'thought Sakura. 'Ugh, how many missions do I do in a month? 18?'

After about another two minutes, Neji, Shino, Rock Lee and a shinobi named Ryuu entered the room.

"Now that you are all here," started Tsunade, "I can begin. Sakura Haruno, ANBU captain of Squad 1, you are to lead your team in this mission. You are to escort a very important man to Sand. I'm sending you guys to do this because this is a very dangerous mission. There are many elite ninja out there that are after him. Not only that, but the Akatsuki are heard to be around the outskirts of Sand. You will meet this guy, Takasho Naritu, near the front gate at 7:30 a.m tomorrow."

'This mission will take at the most five days,'thought Sakura. 'Sand is about two days away, considering the fact we have to slow down a bit for the man we're escorting. We're most likely going to rest in Sand for a day, so that's three days right there. It would only take about a day and a half or something to get back to Konoha but, we might run into some trouble along the way. So I'm guessing, five days at most. Well, I'm going to have to pack like four pair of clothes. I can't stand being dirty.'

Sakura nodded her head, "We'll be back at most, five days. We will notify you as soon as we've arrived to Sand."

"Good," replied Tsunade. "You're all dismissed."

--

Sakura arrived at the front gate wearing an ANBU mask shaped like a cat, over her face. She wore her usual attire underneath her black cloak and hood. Her usual attire consisted of a tight black tank top underneath a red mesh top and black shorts that stopped a little more than above her knee with a red skirt over it that had small slits at either side of her hip, so that it was more comfortable to fight in. She also wore black combat boots and black long gloves. She wore her sword, which was given to all ANBU, across her back as usual. She had the twisting ANBU tattoo placed upon her left arm. She wore her leaf headband that was engraved with the leaf symbol of Konoha on the very top of her right arm.

She had her pouch filled with kunais, shuriken, senbon and other weapons, tied on her left thigh. She had a few other pouches tied around her waist so they ended up being placed behind her, on her right side. One of the pouches had some of her medical materials, the rest had weapons. She carried her bag of extra clothing, medical supplies and the tools and material that she would need for when they camped out of a town or village.

As she stood at the front gate waiting for her teammates, she saw a man that looked about 40 years old, standing there looking at his watch and carrying about two to three bags.

"You must be Takasho Naritu," stated Sakura.

He seemed a bit surprised when he saw her. Well, he didn't see her because her mask was covering her face, but he was frightened to see someone come out of nowhere. He must have been paying too much attention to his watch.

He nodded his head, "That's me. Are you one of the ANBU that will be escorting me back to Sand?"

"Yes," responded Sakura. "I am the captain who will be leading the squad. Everyone else should be arriving soon."

As if on cue, Neji and Rock Lee arrived.

"Why, what a beautiful day it is," said Lee. "Isn't it, Sakura?"

There was a sun out and fresh air all around. The feel of the calm, warm breeze was enough to make you feel at peace. Sakura didn't get to answer Lee because Ryuu and Shino arrived, meaning the whole squad was there.

"Now that everyone is here, I'll assume you're all ready," said Sakura, in a tone full of authority. When leading her team, she acts like a true captain- commanding, but not all that strict . "We will be taking our leave now. Remember- this man, Takasho- getting him to Sand safely and unharmed is our top priority. If we're ever to run into any danger, Shino and Ryuu, you guys are in charge of making sure nothing happens to him." Shino and Ryuu nodded their heads. Sakura turned her head and faced Neji. "Neji, you and I will be the ones to fight the enemies away. Is that all clear?"

"Yes," they all answered in unison.

Sakura nodded her head and soon, they were out of Konoha. They were able to escort Takasho to Sand in the time that Sakura predicted, two days and they stayed an extra day. It was now the afternoon and they were near the outskirts of Konoha. Shino, Ryuu and Lee all jumped from tree branch to tree branch, trying to get to Konoha as soon as possible. Neji and Sakura stayed behind everyone else, moving at a much slower pace.

"Sakura," Neji suddenly called out.

She turned to look at him, "What is it?"

Neji was glad that he had a mask covering his face; otherwise she would have seen the light blush that appeared on his face.

"I... need help with something," said Neji uneasily. He obviously wasn't used to asking someone for help.

"With what?" questioned a curious Sakura. She raised a thin eye brow behind her mask. 'Since when did Neji Hyuga need help with anything?'

"It's about... Tenten," replied Neji uncomfortably. He knew he just had to mention hername and Sakura would understand what he was talking about. It took some time, but Neji finally opened up to Sakura. When Sasuke left he was actually there to comfort her, for some unknown reason. They became really close friends and Neji was one of those few people that actually helped Sakura improve. Only Tsunade, Neji, Lee and Shino agreed to help her. That's why those three were on her team, not only because they meant a lot to her, but because they were all very strong.

To his surprise, he heard her laugh lightly. That was the first time in a long time, that he had heard her soft melodic laugh.

"Just ask her out already," said Sakura.

"H-"

"Oh no," said Sakura as she stopped in her tracks. Everyone else stopped and looked at her suspiciously, wondering why she stopped. They were all alert. "I sense four powerful chakra signatures coming our way. They're really close- about two miles. Their chakra is really powerful, it may be the Akatsuki. Neji, use your byakugan to find the ninja and their location."

"Byakugan," said Neji as it looked like veins popped out near the sides of his eyes. "It's the Akatsuki! They're approaching us at a fast rate! They will reach us in about five minutes or so if we don't move now!"

"We might not be able to take them," said Sakura. "Let's get on our way to Konoha! Hopefully we can escape before they reach us!"

Their sandaled feet didn't even make any sounds as they swiftly sped through the trees. They may have been ANBU, but the Akatsuki were extremely powerful and if one of those cloaked Akatsuki was Itachi Uchiha, they would all probably die. Considering the fact he had become an ANBU at age thirteen and he has the Sharingan.

Sharingan is the advance bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan. It is associated with the ability to copy your opponent's ability, control your opponent's mind with illusions and also grant the user ability to read genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu by analyzing and predicting the pattern of their movement and stop it. Sharingan is activated when a member of the Uchiha clan is in life threatening situation. Except for Mangekyou Sharingan, an Uchiha needs to kill their closest friend in order to obtain this.

To put it simple, they would be in grave danger if they went against a sharingan wielder- especially one who has obtained the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Sakura was now in front of her Squad, leading them to a faster way to get to Konoha. They just had to go through a forest and then they would reach the front gate of Konoha.

"Move!" demanded Sakura as she jumped onto a high branch of a tree five feet away from the one she was just standing on. They all did as told and were glad that they did because a Kunai with a paper bomb attached to it was thrown there and blew up the whole tree.

They were all separated now and watched as four figures with black cloaks that had red clouds on them appeared in front of them. Sakura saw a fish looking guy- Kisame Hoshigaki, a guy with long blond hair- Deidara, a guy with red hair and a puppet in his hand- Sasori and to her horror, a guy with bloody red Sharingan eyes- Itachi Uchiha.

'Dammit,' thought Sakura. 'We couldn't make it to Konoha on time. Doesn't matter we need to fight to our best ability, my top priority is getting my team to safety.'

"Captain," said Ryuu, not taking his eyes off of the four cloaked men in front of him. "What are your orders?"

"Fight back and try not to die," Sakura responded as she did some signs and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'I wonder what her plan is,' thought Neji. 'Oh well, we have to fight and hopefully make it out alive.'

"Itachi," said Kisame. "You take on that brat that just disappeared out of nowhere. I'll go after those guys."

He was pointing towards Neji and Lee, Neji grunted and got ready to fight as he jumped down from the tree. Sasori went after Shino and Deidara went after Ryuu.

'Where'd that guy with a cat mask go?' wondered Itachi, not in the mood to play any games.

He looked around, his Sharingan was already activated. There wasn't a time when he deactivated it, which is why his eye sight was becoming a huge pain to him.

When Sakura appeared they started fighting. In a blink of an eye three shuriken were thrown at her, she was able to dodge all but one. It grazed the sleeve of her cloak and gave her a small scratch on the arm. They started fighting using taijutsu, he was a bit too fast for her, but she was able to keep up with him for the most part. He knocked her against a tree. Then out of nowhere she disappeared in a puff of smoke, he was having some trouble with finding her.

"Looking for me?" asked Sakura as she appeared behind him and raised her leg to kick him.

He was able to turn around in time and he countered her attack by catching her leg. What surprised him was when she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'That was a clone?!' he thought surprised. 'How come my Sharingan didn't see that?! Dammit, my eyes are really messed up!'

"It's your eyes isn't it," mocked Sakura as the real Sakura soon appeared in front of him. She moved her fist forward to punch him and he moved slightly to the right, trying to dodge her attack. Sakura punched him on the shoulder. He wasn't able to move on time, she was quick; the quickest opponent he has ever faced but still, she was not quicker than him. He never knew anyone who could land a hit on him, no matter how small the blow was, it had been a while since someone caught him off guard. He heard a bone crack on his left shoulder from the impact of her fist on his shoulder. Sakura smirked from underneath her mask.

'He enfused his fists with chakra, dammit. How does he know about my eye?' wondered Itachi. 'Who is this guy? That's it, no more games. I have to end this.'

Itachi disappeared from her sight. She looked around, trying to find his chakra signature.

'Dammit, I don't sense it,' thought Sakura. 'It's like he disappeared...completely. But I know he didn't, he's a master at genjutsu. But this isn't a genjutsu; the others are still fighting the other Akatsuki. Where the hell did he go?!'

Neji was bleeding from his lip as he tried getting up from the ground. Kisame had taken some of Neji's chakra with the huge sword of his, Samehada. Neji was winning the battle in the beginning but, he can't do much when he's lost most of his chakra. Lee was too fast and had no chakra, so Kisame was having a hard time fighting him.

Kisame cackled in that weird way of his, "Don't worry, I'll cut you up to ribbons and make sure this is over soon!"

Clay birds were the specialty of Deidara; he kept throwing clays at Ryuu that would explode. Ryuu kept jumping from tree to tree, trying to avoid getting blown up. At first, since he hadn't known about the explosions- a bird hit his arm and it was now bleeding uncontrollably. He felt like he was going in and out of consciousness, as the blood kept seeping out.

Sakura noticed Ryuu's fatal wound and quickly went over to him. Itachi was like nowhere around so it didn't matter. She quickly went over to Ryuu and pulled him away from the battle area. Deidara laughed and kept following them. Sakura hid her chakra and told Ryuu to do the same as they hid behind a big tree and she tended his wound. She had to reconnect some bones, so it took a while and a lot of concentration.

"Ryuu," said Sakura. "Run back to Konoha as fast as you can and inform the first person you see about the Akatsuki. Don't stop for anything, we'll handle it from here. I'll send the others right behind you!"

"Okay!" said Ryuu as he went on his way to Konoha.

Deidara appeared in front of Sakura.

"Looks like the other brat escaped," said Deidara. "Guess it's just you and me, yeah"

"He's mine," said Itachi as he finally appeared, this time behind Sakura. A knife held against her neck.

"You're no fun, yeah" muttered Deidara as he went over to where the others are.

"Ready to die?" asked Itachi.

"Not quite," said Sakura as she slipped down out of his grasp and kicked his shin, trying to trip him. She wasn't able to trip him but, she was able to escape from his grasp.

She knew she couldn't fight him alone for long. It wasn't that she wasn't strong. She knew, however, that he had been trained in far more jutsus than she had. She threw five shuriken, watching them hit the tree that had been behind Itachi as he disappeared. She felt his presence behind her as she did hand signs really quick and whispered; "Blossom Blades".

Soon Itachi found himself surrounded by cherry blossoms, and he didn't see her anywhere.

'Cherry blossoms?' Itachi's eyes narrowed. 'What the-?'

Soon the cherry blossoms stopped spinning around him and started flying towards him, he saw that they had sharp ends, like blades. He quickly did some hand signs and used Amatersu; it's a Sharingan spell that uses black flames that burn for seven days and nights. All the blossom blades quickly burned from the flames. During the time that the jutsu was being placed over Itachi, Sakura went over to the battle scene and saw that Neji, Lee and Shino were putting up a good fight, but they looked beat up and she knew they were running out of chakra. Well, Lee was just growing a bit tired.

'I'm not going to risk their lives,' thought Sakura.

"Retreat!" commanded Sakura, as she stood next to Neji.

"What?" asked Neji.

"You heard me Neji," said Sakura. "The three of you, retreat! That's an order!"

"What about you?" asked Shino.

"Don't worry about me," said Sakura. "Get your asses out of here, now!"

Neji, Lee and Shino reluctantly did as told.

"You better arrive in Konoha, safely," said Neji as he left.

Sakura was now surrounded by Kisame, Sasori, Deidara, and Itachi.

She swallowed hard as she looked at them. They didn't even see the hand signs she made because of how quick she did it. Soon they saw a red light engulf her. She spread her arms apart and the light hit all four of them. Making them fly back and hit their backs against a tree.

'Now I need to get the hell out of here!' thought Sakura as she got ready to leave.

A kunai was thrown at her and she jumped out of the way, but it hit her hood of the cloak, making it come off and revealing long pink hair. Her mask fell of with it as she cursed; there was no way she'd make it out alive.

She would just have to fight to the best of her ability. When she turned around, she saw that the four Akatsuki members looked a bit frozen.

"You were a girl, yeah?!" asked Deidara surprised.

"Well whadda ya know," said Kisame as he smirked. "They make cute little girls as ANBU captains now and aw she was kicking Itachi's ass for a moment too."

"Cute little girls?" questioned Sakura, with a raised eye brow. "I'm not one to mess with, fish-face!"

Kisame glared at her, "Wanna say that again?"

Itachi activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and to Sakura's surprise, when she turned to look at him, her world went black. There was a red and black sky, a white moonlight, as illusions started to appear. Itachi went next to her, to catch her once she would fall. She grabbed onto him and to his surprise, stopped the Mangekyou Sharingan and made his eyes go back to its normal midnight blue color. Still holding onto him, Sakura looked at Itachi with wide eyes. Her eyes blinked until she was aware of what she was doing and she let go of Itachi. Kisame, Sasori, and Deidara looked at her in bewilderment.

"No way...." said Deidara in astonishment, "Did she really just do that, Yeah?"

Itachi actually showed some of his surprise. Sakura tried escaping from him but he kneed her in the stomach really hard, causing her to bend over in pain and cough up some blood. He was going to punch her across the face but she quickly grabbed his wrist and stopped his hand from making contact with her face. She looked up at him- her eyes made contact with his and her eyes suddenly started to glow a lighter shade of green. After about five seconds, Itachi's cloak was all torn up and he was bleeding from multiple places on his body. If he hasn't been strong enough to pull away, he might've died from the doujutsu Sakura used on him. She just recently found out about her unknown bloodline limit. She didn't have enough chakra to keep it up though. Healing Ryuu's injury took a lot out of her.

Sakura healed the scratch on the side of her forehead, from when Itachi threw the Kunai and made her cloak and mask come off. Itachi didn't show it; but he was truly amazed at her incredible amount of power. He was also a bit pissed off at the fact that she did what no one else could, she stopped the Mangekyou Sharingan. He grabbed her from her neck and started choking her. She gasped for air. Kisame came from behind and drained out some of her Chakra before banging her head with his Samehada. She fell forward, into Itachi's arms- unconscious.

"She has too much chakra," said Kisame. He stared at the kunoichi in surprise and amusement. "I can't take it all out. Let's just kill her."

"No," said Itachi. "I have plans for this one."

'I recognize her,' thought Itachi. 'She's Sakura Haruno; head medic in Konoha, surpassing the hokage herself. Well, that explains the cherry blossoms from before and the fact that she knew about my eyes. She could probably heal my eyes....and she's friends with the Kyuubi, she can be used as bait. We'll be needing this one.'

Deidara still couldn't get over all of the shock.

"I can't believe what just happened, yeah," said Deidara.

Itachi glared at him, making Deidara shut up.

'He's just mad that, that girl was kicking his ass, yeah!' thought Deidara.

"She's definitely one of the strongest kunoichi I've ever seen," said Sasori.

"I'm sure you heard of Sakura Haruno," said Itachi as he adjusted Sakura's position in his arms so that he was carrying her bridal style.

In a blink of an eye, he jumped on top of a tree branch and started running in the opposite way of where Konoha was. The other three members followed suit.

"She's the legendary Sakura Haruno?" asked Kisame, surprised.

"Well, that explains most things," said Sasori. "She was able to heal that guy that Deidara practically blew the arm off of. Her eyes...they glowed and something happened to Itachi. I wasn't sure if it was a rumor but I heard that she has some unknown secret bloodline limit. Also, she was able to stop the Mangekyou Sharingan and she was able to attack all of us by doing something, engulfing herself in light and then making it attack us. This is definitely the hokage's apprentice, Sakura Haruno."

"She's strong, yeah," said Deidara as he looked at her, as she "rested" in Itachi's arms. "And beautiful, I'd take her as mine any day, yeah."

--

Once Shino and Neji arrived to Konoha, they quickly went to the Hokage Tower. When they opened the door they saw that Tsunade looked a bit worried.

"Where's Sakura?" she asked as she jumped to her feet.

"She's still with the Akatsuki!" said Shino. "She ordered us to come back. We need to send help!"

"Help was already sent!" said Tsunade. "We must wait and see what news they bring. Dammit, she better be alright!"

Kiba and Hinata rushed into the room.

"She's nowhere to be found," said Kiba. "We arrived at the battle area, and it's empty. Akamaru and I couldn't track her scent; she's probably really far from here. My guess is that they captured her and took her with them...for some reason."

Tsunade's eyes went wide, as well as Shino's, Rock Lee's, and Neji's. Neji was about to leave the room but, Tsunade stopped him.

"Stay put Hyuga," she ordered.

"We need to go rescue her!" argued Neji.

"Don't talk to me in that tone Hyuga," snapped Tsunade. "Know your place! I'm going to assemble a team for this rescue mission. At least three ANBU squads have to go. Ryuu, you will not be going. The rest of Squad 1 will have to go help her. Your arm is damaged; you need to go to the hospital and then rest afterwards."

Ryuu was going to protest but, then decided against it, 'I sure hope your okay, captain.'

To Tsunade's annoyance and surprise, Naruto and Jiraiya barged in.

"I'm back!" said Naruto smiling happily.

He was surprised to see all of their upset and serious faces, 'What's going on?'

"Naruto, you can't come in like that!" hissed Tsunade. She was glaring daggers at him.

"Lighten up grandma Tsunade!" said Naruto cheerfully.

"How can I lighten up?!" asked Tsunade angrily. "Sakura has just been captured by the Akatsuki!" The grin instantly came off of his face. Jiraiya had a look of shock written all over his face. "You will be put on the rescue mission to go save her."

Naruto's eyes bulged out, "What the heck? The Akatsuki?! Why did they take her? What's going on? What do they want with Sakura?!"

"She was on an ANBU mission and they got amb-"

"ANBU?!" Naruto practically yelled.

"Stop interrupting her you idiot," said Neji. "The sooner she explains, the sooner we get to go save her!"

Naruto looked at Neji dumbfounded, 'Since when did he care so much about Sakura?'

"You've been gone for two years," said Tsunade in a calmer tone. "Sakura has become extremely powerful since then. She is ANBU captain of squad 1. She is also head medic. On her way back from a mission, the Akatsuki ambushed her squad. After some fighting, she ordered her squad to return. She never made it back and since her body isn't there and nor is there any bloodshed, we will assume they have captured her and they haven't killed her...yet. Right now I will assemble the teams to go find Sakura."

Naruto couldn't believe at how strong Sakura had become since the last time he saw her and he also couldn't believe the Akatsuki captured her. How dare they touch her! He would certainly make them pay. Naruto's fists clenched in anger, oh, he would definitely make them pay.

A/N: Hope you liked the chapter- please review!

-x Emerald Goddess Of The Night x-