Dawn of the Artists: Chapter 1

Dawn of the Artists
_{Chapter 1}

It was her first mission in ages. Sakura Haruno, along with her partner Neji Hyuuga, were assigned on a mission to collect a very important package from Suna. They had been travelling for a long time now, their legs were aching and their water was just about finished.

"Sakura," Neji started "Look over there, it's a village. We should probably make a stop there to get some more supplies."

"Yes, I agree" Sakura answered. Neji nodded and the two of them headed towards the small village.

As they took their first step into the village, both of them gave out a sigh of relief. "Alright, Neji you get some rest while I get the supplies" Sakura commanded

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

And with that Sakura was off. 'Okay so where can I find a shop that sells the supplies a ninja needs for a journey' she thought before stopping at a shop which sign read "Ninja Supplies Shop".
"Sounds good." Sakura stated and walked in.

The man at the counter wore dark clothes and a hat that covered his face almost completely. "Excuse me sir," Sakura started and the man looked up.

"Yes miss?" he asked

"Do you have any water?"

"Yes miss." he repeated and picked up a box "How much?"

"Two please"

"10 yen"

'Wow. Expensive water. It better be good then' she thought as she handed her yen over to the man. He looked at her as if to ask if she needed anything else, and she caught sight of his brown eyes. "Exuse me again, but have we met before?" she asked. She could of sworn she had seen those eyes before!

"No miss, I don't believe we have" he said before giving out a evil chuckle that freaked Sakura out a bit.

"W-wha-!" Sakura felt someone behind her tightly wrap their arm around her arms and waist and cover her mouth with a thick cloth. 'What's going on?!'

The man at the counter took his dark cape and hat off and 'SASORI?!' Sakura gasped underneth the cloth.

"Sasori-danna, how we gonna get her to the bird, yeah?"  a blonde man said as he struggled to keep Sakura from kicking him in the balls. Sasori looked around a bit, but soon picked up a large, empty potatoe sack.

"Put her in this." he said, a sly smile grew on his lips. Sasori handed Deidara the sack. While Deidara had to use one of his hands to take the sack from Sasori, Sakura managed to get the cloth off her mouth.

"No! Please! I promise I won't kick or do anything! I'm claustrophobic! I swear! you can even carry me in that if I misbehave!" Sakura exclaimed.

Sasori narrowed his eyes, "Promise?"

Deidara's mouth dropped to the ground. Promise?! How could his danna trust this brat, unless, unless he had a soft spot for this girl. A smile spread across his face. He now had some blackmail.

"Promise," the pinkette said.

Sasori shook hands with her and tucked the sack somewhere in his cloak.

The three of them walked out of the shop. Both of them firmly holding Sakura's wrists incase she didn't keep her promise. They led her through a quiet street, then through an alley way that led to a hole in the wall around the small village. The two men kept walking, draging Sakura with them. Finaly, they reached Deidara's explosive bird.

"So Sakura," Sasori started "We have something to ask you."

Sakura didn't have a good feeling about it. "Join the Akatsuki, or your friend, Neji, will not make it out of the village. And one by one your other friends shall die as we wait for you."

"Why do you want me to join anyway! I'm weak!" Sakura spat at them

"Not true, you defeated me once. Besides we need a medical ninja in the base and I hear the kyuubi kid has a thing for you. He'd be so upset if you left. He may come looking for you."

Sakura looked down. There had to be another way. "Is there a way a can not join the Akatsuki and not have my friends killed?" she asked

"No, yeah." Deidara answered

"Was that a yes or a no?"

"It was a no. Betray the Akatsuki after you join and your friends and family's lives will taken because of your choice."

"Fine." Sakura mumbled

"Pardon?" Sasori questioned

"FINE! I'LL JOIN YOUR STUPID GANG!" she yelled at them and banged her fists against the tree.

"Good, now get on the bird, yeah!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Written by ZukoAdmirer*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sakura climbed onto the bird in the distance she heard a faint, "Sakura?" she recognized the voice. It belonged to Neji, the person that life was at stake. She turned her head.

She realized when she turned her head the two S-class criminals tightened their grip on her.

She turned her head back and her name was still being repeated by that one voice. After they had taken off Sakura Haruno didn't look back.

Sakura quickly became sad, why her? There were many other medic-nins. And also how did she not recognize them? And she bought water and never got what she purchased!

"Hey! Why couldn't you choose another medic-nin, if you haven't noticed I stick out like a sore thumb!" she said, then she added, "And where the heck is my water!?"

Sasori reached into his cloak and pulled out a bottle of the precious liquid that she was thirsting for.

"Drink as much as you want we have plenty," Sasori said bluntly, she didn't care right now about anything but hydrating herself.

She hastily unscrewed the top of the water and drank most of the water in one breath. She pulled the water down from her lips and took a breath. Then she returned to her water and drank the rest.

When she finally looked up she noticed Deidara was starring at her.

"That was the fastest drinking I've ever seen, un!" he said, looking almost astonished.

"Trip from Konoha to Suna?" Sasori asked, almost like he actually wanted to know, like he wanted to make conversation to pass time.

Sakura simply glared at them. They had at least released her hands because they doubted that she would commit suicide just to get away from them. Obviously they didn't know her well enough. She actually might consider jumping of a giant clay bird to escape these freaks, a freak with mouths on his hands and another that turned himself into a puppet.

She sighed, she was now a fugitive, and if she didn't want to be killed she better start to toughen up and act like one.

Still on their way to the Akatsuki hideout, they had camped on Deidara's bird, it was safer when they could start flying as soon as they needed to.

Sakura had actually had one or two friendly chats with each of the criminals holding her hostage. Other then that she tried to stay away from them and distance herself from them as much as possible.

Sakura woke up, this night they had spent in a small clearing in a very large forest. Sasori and Deidara were still sleeping.

She had the chance to run away. But what happened if they caught her again, or were able to hurt her friends? Did she really want to take that risk?

She didn't have time to answer that question herself because a ninja and appeared from behind the trees.

He went to attack Deidara first. Sakura jumped in front of him and gave him a light kick to wake him up. Sasori had already jumped up and was summoning one of his puppets.

The man had obviously known about Sasori's jutsu because he quickly fired off two kunai to slow him. One of the kunai hit him in the chest while the other had hit him in the arm.

Blood spilled from his wound quickly. Sakura wanted to help but Sasori summoned the puppet and began the attacked.

The man realized he wouldn't be able to get near Sasori so he started to fight Deidara.

Deidara realized this and created a explosion with a smoke so his enemy couldn't see him.

When the smoke was cleared away Sakura and Sasori both became ready to attack.

Instead Deidara had killed him and had also picked up quite a few cuts and bruises.

Sakura looked at Sasori, "Do you need me to heal you?" she said pointing at his cuts.

"Isn't that why we kidnapped you?" he said a harsh tone.

"Then lay down would you?" she answered matching the cold tone he had given her.

Sasori laid down and waited until the young kunouichi had finished healing him. He knew she had just saved both of their lives, he knew they had accidentally given her the chance to run away, and he knew that Sakura Haruno hated their guts.

"There. All finished, Deidara do you need your cuts healed?" Sakura asked in a little softer tone, but Sasori could still sense the annoyance in her voice.

"I can handle it but I think I would be better off with it healed." Deidara said sighing.

Sakura stood up and walked over to him. She went through the same procedure she did with Sasori.

Sasori looked away, lost in thought, Sakura had saved their lives, he should treat her better. But he never had ever had any interest in friends, Deidara was just his partner. But Sasori decided he would try and treat her better, now that he saw she could probably wound them both and then escape.

"Where and why did you learn to become a medic-nin?" Sasori asked almost inaudible.

The question had taken Sakura and Deidara both off guard, "Oh, it's a long boring story, nobody should care about it. I mean it's just isn't that interesting." Sakura replied.

"It's okay tell me, we have to travel another day or two and I'm sick of only hearing Deidara's stories so tell me."

Sakura didn't feel like she probably should have, she didn't feel like he was trying to find her weakness, he just wanted to pass time and listen to stories he hadn't heard before.

Deidara had them get back onto the clay bird and they were off in the air again.

Sakura told Sasori what she knew would have no use to him and also the things that she had to tell somebody, she wasn't sure if he was listening or not but she was just glad she was finally able to let her true feelings out.

Sakura realized she had been talking to Sasori for a whole day, occasionally he would actually respond and ask questions, but she felt better and she was able to sleep well for the first time in a while.

Sasori shook her awake and muttered an almost silent "We're here."

Sakura woke up and jumped off the bird Itachi and Kisame were the two that greeted Sasori and Deidara upon their return and looked at her quizzically.

Sakura knew why, they were expecting the young kunouichi to kick and scream, to try to escape, to try and plead with them not to hurt her dear friends, well she had something to say! She wasn't the same idiot she was before! She was much stronger!

"We're expecting the mission went well," they glanced at Sakura again, "This way," Itachi had added.

They followed them until they came to a large room. It was well decorated and furnished place. Sakura's mouth hung open slightly.

"Surprised criminal ninja have so much class?" Deidara asked with a smile.

"Who had the decorating ideas?" Sakura asked still stunned.

A female ninja walked in from another room, "It's my decorating style." she smiled.

"I'm actually glad to have another female ninja, but you better not disappoint me" she said starring at Sakura, "Sasori, bring the young girl her new Akatsuki uniform."

Sasori nodded and motioned for Sakura to follow him. He lead her to another grand room with a bed, dresser, and a mirror. On top of the bed lay a hat that she had seen Deidara and Sasori had used to cover their faces when they kidnapped her. She looked at it and then turned back to Sasori.

Sasori handed her a bundle and told her to put it on and that he would come back in a minute to make sure it fit well.

Sakura struggled at first, making sure all the buttons were lined up and that it was on right.

Finally she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said casually. Sasori walked in.

"So it fits well?" Sasori asked.

"Huh? Yeah it does, thanks." Sakura replied struggling with the hat to make sure she would be able to hide her face without being recognized.

Sasori lead her out of the room and showed her to Pein, the Akatsuki leader.

"Sakura Haruno, you are now officially an Akatsuki member and your two partners will be Deidara and Sasori," the man said before walking away.

Sakura glanced at her two new partners. They almost reminded her of Naruto and Sasu- NO! she couldn't think about that jerk! They were her new partners she would be going on missions with and she would deal with it.

-----------------------Written by PicturePerfector101-------------------------

Sasori turned to Sakura and said "You will have to share a room with me and Deidara, because you're on our team. I'll show you the way"

"Okay" Sakura said and followed Sasori in the direction of her new room. 'Naruto-kun, Kakashi-sensei, everybody, I'm so sorry.' she thought as she entered her new room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~A few days later~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first days in the Akatsuki hideout went by pretty fast, and Sakura learned the name of the other members that she didn't know except Sasori and Deidara. There was Konan, who was the only woman and actually the co-founder of Akatsuki. The leader was a guy named Pein, who had a LOT of piercings. Then there was Zetsu, a creepy plant-like guy with a Venus fly trap who could appear out of the wall if he wanted, Kakuzu, who was super strong and basically just cared about money, Hidan, who was Kakuzu's partner and also immortal. The last ''couple'' was Kisame, a blue shark guy with GILLS. Sakura shuddered when she thought of it. And last, there was THE Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's older brother, the one that murdered the whole Uchiha clan.

'Heh, what a weird gang' Sakura thought.

"Sakura-chaaaaan,yeah!"

Sakura jumped at the sudden voice before she turned her head towards the door seconds before Deidara came bursting in.

'He sort of reminds me of-' Sakura's thoughts were cut of by Deidara.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, we have a new mission now, un."

"Oh! We have?" she asked and furrowed her brows into a frown. She really wasn't to keen on going on missions for the Akatsuki. Who knows what kind of missions she would get. They were, after all, a group of S-rank criminals.

"Yeah, come on. We have to go to leader-sama's office now, un." Deidara said and went for the door.

Sakura stood up and followed silently while thoughts swirled around in her mind.
'I HAVE to get out of her.' was her last thought before she entered the dark room that belonged to the leader.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~In Konoha a few days earlier~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neji had succeed with the mission and returned to Konoha to report to the Hokage about what had happened. The reactions were astronomic. When Neji had told the slug sannin that Sakura had gone with the persons in Akatsuki cloaks she had first yelled so high that Neji swore that he was deaf for at least 3 hours later. Then she had proceed with throwing the first ting she found, a REALLY big and HEAVY book, at him. Of course he managed to avoid that one though, he was a Hyuga after all. And then she had yelled for Shizune and he was thrown out of the office. Wow, what a mess.

On Tsunade's office there were fully chaos. Sakura, their best medic nin, Tsunade's apprentice, was in the hands of Akatsuki.

"We have to find her, no matter what!" Tsunade said to the persons present in the room, which were Shizune, Kakashi, Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata and Kiba.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Akatsuki hideout, Pein's office~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Sakura entered the room, she saw that Sasori already was there. He stood silently by the wall, waiting for her and Deidara.

"This will be your first mission for the Akatsuki, Sakura-san. You better not mess up" the leader said.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~With the Konoha nins, present time~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six shadows were dashing through the forest of Konoha. Everyone trying to find a precious person. A best friend, a friend, a comrade, a student and an irreplaceable person.

~~~~~~~~Written by Kiss3c~~~~~~~~

~~~On the akatsuki mission~~~~

Sakura sat on her clay bird that Deidara had made for the 3 of them quietly. She was given a S-rank mission, wow, she really never expected to go on one in her life. She took out the mission scroll from her pocket and read it, it said "Go to the village Hidden in the Grass, your mission is to destroy the Sangshu crystal, which keeps hold of the village's defense system." Sakura closed the scroll and placed it back in her pocket. Crap, what is going on with me?! Why am I doing this?! If I do it, I'll be named a criminal, but if I don't do it, I could get killed, and so would the others" She thought harshly to herself.
"Hey girl!" Deidara called out from his bird.
"Hm?" Sakura mummured while standing up.
"We're not that far, so pull yourself together!" he shouted.
"Fine." Sakura sighed.

~~~Back to the Konaha ninjas~~~

"Damn it!!! Dammit Dammit Dammit! Why did she do this?!" Naruto yelled as he and his group jumped in the trees.
"Naruto! Calm down! There must be a reason why she did this!" Kakashi replied coldly.
"If possible, they could've captured her!" Ino pointed out.
" But she is very strong, Ino, she could've beaten them, but yet again, these are the Akatsuki we are talking about." Shikamaru suggested.
" Whatever the reason is, we need to get her back, she is one of our best medical ninja after Tsunade!"Shizue yelled.
"But if we are gonna get her back, we need to know her reason!" Kiba replied.
"ARF!" barked Akamaru. Naruto grunted softly, then shouted,
"Hinata, do you have any sign of her yet!?" Hinata, with her byakugan in use, shook her head sadly,
"No, not yet, im sorry Naruto-kun"
"It's fine Hinata, keep tracking until you get something!" Naruto replied softly. Hinata nodded in agreement. She then stopped.
"What's the matter?" Ino asked.
"I can sense chakra, and its not far!" Neji said.
"Where!?" Kiba asked.
"Let me see, its defiantly close, its north, our direction, and..." Hinata paused, then her face was in shock. "She's in the sky!!!"

~~~With the Akatsuki~~~

"She's been very quiet for a while, its annoying me.&" Sasori said.
"It's her first mission as an Akatsuki, remember my first mission?" Deidara pointed out.
"Yeah, you were quiet, but you also never followed the rules." Sasori replied.
"HEY!! That's because I was forced to join!" Deidara snapped back. Sakura's head lifted up, and she looked at Deidara. HE was forced into Akatsuki?! Just then Sasori jurked his head up, she looked behind him in caution.
"What is it?!" Deidara asked.
"Shhh, we've got an enemy." Sasori replied. Sakura then started to sweat No, it can't be, but why? Just then a flash of blue light was being sprung right at them.
"CHIDORI!!" a voice said in the back. The three Akatsuki members jumped off of the birds and landed on the ground. The konaha group landed on the opposite side of their enemy.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out. Sakura turned her head away from him, trying to hide her regret. "SAKURA-CHAN! What's with you!? Why are you with them!?" Naruto shouted. Sakura wanted to tell them the truth, but she felt a huge lump in her throat that hurted a lot.
"Sakura, please, return to the village, you are our best ninja medic yet!" Shizune pleaded.
"Pfft, enough with this crap! Sasori, may I?" Deidara asked.
"Go ahead, be my guest." Sasori smirked.

- - - - - - - - - By DunatheHedgeHog - - - - - - - - - -