Hey! its been awhile haha. really sorry. but uh hopefully this chapter will make up for it. i made it longg.

Is it confusing when you read it? Please let me know. Thanks! ENJOY! Love Charia :3

Deeper

Light emerald eyes popped open in realization that she had been sleeping. Sakura woke up abruptly in a room with an unfamiliar feeling to it. She felt like she was trespassing someone else's territory. Someone's personal space.

She was the foreign object. And she obviously did not belong here.

No one but Akatsuki should belong here. And suffer in this dreadful place.

She was the only one in this room. A bedroom, she simply stated. Their was no doubt in her mind that she was in the infamous Akatsuki base. Funny how many have wanted to find this place, and here Sakura never wanted to be in this position. Forced to be a part of this dreaded, loathed organization. She hated it. Her loyalties laid elsewhere. And they were going to stay there. She sometimes wondered where Sasuke's loyalties lied. Surely not with Orochimaru, she hoped. Did he and Team 7 not share a strong enough bond? Sakura thought they had one until that day Sasuke left.

I'll make him see that he can't break away from us that easily. I'll beat his sorry ass if I have to. Then I'll heal him enough to where he can stand, and I'll beat him again!

Her fist clenched. Her teeth grinded together.

She snapped out of her thoughts to observe the room. The lights weren't on or maybe there was none. There were no direct sign of windows or perhaps it was too dark to tell. She blinked several times so that she could maybe see outlines of objects, but oddly she couldn't see well enough.

Damn! How can it be this dark? The walls must be painted or something.

She sat up carefully in bed and hastily felt her clothing first. Her fingers felt the rough cotton fabric, and she gave a short breath of sweet relief. Her black shirt and gray pants were still intact. Just a few tears here and there from combat.

Somehow the thought of rape forced its way into her intelligent mind. Then, it was possible that the Akatsuki had found out her new secret. She was a girl which meant she was going to die soon.

I've got to get out of here. ASAP.

She shifted the little weight she had to get off the bed. With no squeaks. No noise.

Then, she hid her own chakra signature successfully as usual. Her flawless chakra control proved to be useful for hiding in situations like these.

Sakura closed her eyes, listened and scanned for incoming chakra signatures.

Clear. Ok, now where's the goddamn door.

With one hand extended, she walked toward a expected wall. Her finger tips touched lightly on what seemed to be the top of a wooden dresser. She felt the dresser was layered with dust. As she searched for any objects on this dresser, a sudden bit of pain shot through her hand. She brought a finger to her lips and sucked the excess blood off her finger that had grazed over the sharp blade of a kunai. This slight pain was meaningless compared to what she was used to, and easily brushed it aside like she always had been.

She quietly grabbed the handle of the lonely weapon and held it in her hand. She couldn't understand why they left a weapon in the same room as her, surely the Akatsuki were smart enough to not leave something like this. Unless...

The grip on the kunai grew tighter.

They are underestimating me.

That was her personal pet peeve. When she was underestimated.

I'm not weak.

Those words ran through her head like they had many times before.

She gritted her teeth in anger, chocolate eyebrows scrunched together. She ran her hands and followed the wall until she reached a door.

In the darkness, she felt the doorknob. Her fingers touched the cold metal and grasped around it. With her back against the door and a kunai raised with one hand, she turned the knob slowly. Light beamed through the crack, blinding Sakura for a second before she opened the door wider. She was now looking at a small hallway with black walls made of stone. She walked over to the other door.

Interesting. Behind this door was...another door. She half joked, half observed. An image of Kakashi-sensei flashed through her mind.

"You want to know what's behind this mask? Well, behind this mask is...another mask!"

She smiled sadly as she scanned the next room for any chakra signatures, then she opened the door.

This black room was vacant. Sakura searched the room with her eyes. There were three things she had noticed in this particular room. One: the walls were indeed black. Two: there were two other doors. Three: it smelled like...fresh clay?

She stepped inside, kunai raised to defend herself at a moment's notice.

The lights were on this time, a single bulb hanged from the ceiling. It was wierd. This room was extremely different than the one she was in.

It feels...homely in a way.

There was just a simple twin sized bed with some furniture to match. Medium sized brown bags stacked on a table and saw what smelled like clay. There were white clay sculptures of birds and spiders all laid out neatly on the table as well. Curious, she walked over to examine the artwork closer. Embracing the artistic composition, she thought they were beautifully done. Then, she frowned in thought.

A sculptor? Someone in Akatsuki makes sculptures?

She wasn't aware that the members of Akatsuki had any particular hobbies. She liked sculpting as well, but unfortunately she wasn't very good at it. Making quite a mess was all she did.

I wonder who made these.

She glanced at the brown bags of clay and it clicked.

A doorknob clicked.

Alarmed, her head whipped around with the kunai she obtained in her firm grasp. From where she stood frozen and tense, she had only hoped that this person wouldn't kill her right on the spot. She watched as the door opened and gulped loudly when she met with familiar eyes traced with eye liner and long, straight blond hair. She blinked once, then twice.

Deidara.

She recognized him. The man who she assumed had knocked her out since she figured that the crazy orange masked man was too nice to do it. But she want revenge for that. Now right now at least.

Not when he was standing naked right in front of him.

...

...

(A/N: JUST KIDDING! xD)

Well, practically.

There was a clad white towel hung around his thin hips, covering his own precious "art".

Normally other women would fawn over the sight of the blond man, but bhe didn't care about what he was wearing at the moment. She needed to get out of there. Sakura stared right at the man's grey eyes that widened at her unexpected appearance in his room. He was oddly surprised.

Her feet sprinted across the room and made it to the other door in what Sakura assumed was Deidara's room, she intentionally and effortlessly yanked the doorknob off the door and kicked it open in two swift movements.

But before she could dart through the open door, there was a sudden blur of black and blue and soon Sakura found her neck an inch away from the tip of a bandaged sword. She analyzed the owner of the weapon.

Blue hair and skin with shark-like teeth and gills.

Emerald green eyes glared at the fish-man she was examining. Placing a face with a name.

Hoshikagi Kisame.

She had seen this man before in a bingo book she found in Tsunade's office when she first started to become Tsunade's apprentice. On the other page, his partner Uchiha Itachi was listed as well.

Sakura fell limp when the man firmly pressed his sword against her throat. The medium amount of chakra that she regained overnight was shaved away to where she had barely a sliver left.

"You restore chakra pretty fast," Kisame began as his arm hooked over his shoulder, placing his bandaged sword against his back. He was wearing the usual Akatsuki attire and Sakura was inwardly glad that she only saw Deidara in a towel. If it was anyone else, she would most likely be killed or died of disgust. (A/N: If that's even possible? :/)

Clenching her fists and gritting her teeth hard, she struggled to get up from the floor. She wasn't going to show that she was weak. Kisame eyes widened a bit, seeing how he simply extracted nearly all of this boy's chakra yet he made efforts to move.

"Impressive," he complemented, "Many would have a hard time feeling their arms and legs after what I just did to you."

Sakura heard some shuffling and looked up. Deidara walked over to her, fully dressed in the Akatsuki attire minus the cloak and grabbed her arm to place it over his shoulders, "He wasn't gonna to go far, Kisame."

"Well, I'll have you know that I don't like uninvited guests, Deidara," the man replied before picking up the kicked down door and placing it back where it was.

Deidara helped Sakura walk to the "family room" of the underground hideout. Although Sakura ended up being stubborn and had silently refused any help from him, he guided her nonetheless.

In the "family room", the walls and floor were made of black rock. Some couches were placed around the large room and a few light bulbs hung from the ceiling.

Sakura came in stumbling almost, cruising against the wall like a baby just learning how to walk. She didn't even bother to see or notice the other people in the same room. Deidara followed behind her, greeting everyone inside the room with a nod.

Itachi, from where he sat on one of the couches, glanced over to the two entering the room and continued to sharpen his katana.

Kazuku glanced over as well before continuing to mark off several peoples' names off a list.

"Ugh," she groaned as she sat down on the hard rock floor, her back leaned against the wall. She looked sideways and waved her hand at Deidara, asking for him to lend his ear.

Deidara stared at her for a moment and he too bent one knee to hear Sakura whisper, "Could you lend me some chakra? Like you did before," she asked, quietly.

Oh yeah, I suppose it wouldn't hurt, un.

He lifted his mouth-hand to her small wrist and licked it. Sakura felt her spine tingle from the cold saliva and incoming flow of fresh chakra. She felt her muscles relax from the sensation and her head cleared up a lot better than before. She closed her eyes and breathed outward, "Thanks."

"Thanks."

Deidara looked at Sakura in amazement as he took his hand away. He took this time to actually study this person's features.

He's so short...like Danna. So small.

He glanced at her face.

A thought ran through his head and left instantly as it came... It was something along the lines of pretty.

Deidara blinked and shook his head. The movement made Sakura's eyes open from which the blond turned away and stood.

I'm being an idiot.

Sakura opened her eyes to see Deidara walking away and stood as well. She smiled at her new strength, clenching and unclenching her hands for a bit.

A sudden urge to spar coursed through her body and she turned to the right to see Deidara plopped in a couch, looking asleep.

I guess I'll ask someone else.

She turned away from Deidara to see who else was in the room, searching for a sparring partner.

One man looked scary mysterious. He felt her eyes on him and turned his head to meet her eyes. Green meeting green.

Sakura inwardly shrunk back thinking, DAMN... HE LOOKS CREEPY.

She broke eye contact and turned to see the back another man. His long black ponytail looked...appealing to Sakura. He was sharpening a katana from the looks of it.

At least he looks human.

And so she walked over to him.

Itachi heard footsteps heading his direction, he stopped what he was doing.

"Will you spar with me?"

The Uchiha turned his head and met green eyes that widened in recognition before reverting back to normal size. Itachi noticed this, but decided to ask questions later. Right now he was curious as to whether this boy was powerful as Tobi had proclaimed.

And so he stood.

AND DONE! Thank you for reading! Next chapter preview: :3

Hesitant fingers grasped the cold metal of a doorknob. She exhaled deeply as a bead of sweat lid down her temple, her eyebrows furrowed together.

She had been summoned earlier by Leader. The message given to her from Tobi. The man had busted into her room, waking her in the process.

"Leader-sama asks for you to come to his room," he said happily and left in a second after that.

Sakura got out of bed and made her way to his room. She didn't want to keep the Akatsuki leader waiting if she wanted some things to go her way.

She walked through Itachi's room, she was glad he wasn't there, and the kitchen and through some halls to be here. In front of Pein's room.

Her mind couldn't imagine what his room might look like, not that she cared. Opening the door, she peered into the darkness of the room like she opened a door to a black hole.

One step in and you'll never come back.

No light. Her eyes couldn't see anything still, but she wasn't scared.

You need me for something to let me live this long. You need me.

With that she walked inside. The door closing behind her.