Sakura leaned against a tree as she surveyed the field before her, its grasses swaying in a spring breeze. Counting her own slow breaths, she focused her chakra - along her throat, wrists, anywhere that could produce a scent. She had been doing this same exercise ever since hitting puberty. With a careful siphoning of chakra at all times, a person could cut off production of the smell that told the world who and what they were.

To a beta, it was no big deal. Their instincts weren't particularly difficult to cope with and smell only indicated who they were - Sakura thought of Shizune, whose scent was like fresh oranges and cinnamon. And alphas loved when others could smell them, often going out of their way to force their scent glands to overproduce(Gai-sensei was a common offender of this without even realizing it.)

But to someone like Sakura, to an omega, your scent could land you in all sorts of situations - which was why she'd hidden it. They were nearly impossible to find, being one to every hundred people, and most would have dropped out of ninja academy the moment they'd found out - why continue on a difficult path when any alpha would be thrilled to coddle and care for you?

She could never have lived like that, owing herself to another person. It simply wasn't in Sakura to roll over and offer her neck to be bitten, her body to be used. Only the death of all current alphas would free the omega, who could easily be taken by another right after. Not a life for her, to be sure.

The Hokage's apprentice smirked. After muffling her scent for years, chakra control had come easily to her - how could it not, when her independence depended on it? Until becoming Tsunade's student, she had been worried that someone might realize how she had learned it, but had long since understood that no one in their right mind would suspect Sakura Haruno of being something so docile as an omega.

It was a beautiful day and the clearing ahead of her made her want to roll around in the grass(some instincts were harder to ignore than others). Intending to do just that, Sakura dropped to the ground and tugged off her boots. Leaving her bag and headband with them, she stepped out and wiggled her toes against the grass, closing her eyes for a moment to feel the sun on her face. After the long winter it was heavenly.

She walked ahead with a faint smile on her face, letting the wind blow pale pink strands of hair into her eyes.

"What a gorgeous afternoon." She murmured to herself.

She startled when a voice yelled from her left. "Oi, pinkie!"

Her brow twitched at the nickname and she turned towards the offender to give them a thorough cursing.

Except the man walking out of the trees was wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it. Sakura was on instant alert, but the silver haired alpha watching her expectantly didn't seem to think anything of it. Come to think of it… She wasn't wearing her hitai-ate, so he wouldn't realize who she was - and they were about half a day's travel from Konoha, too far for her(yet too close for him, as far as she was concerned).

"You hear me?" He said, crossing his arms.

"How could I not?" She growled, hands on her hips. She wanted to attack, so badly, but she was no match alone. Logically, if she could get away without fighting and alert the village, she should.

"Aight," He continued, talking over her. "So I can't fucking figure out where I am and I swear to Jashin-sama that I've been in this same damn field like eighty fucking times in the last hour. Can you tell me where the fucking road is?"

As she opened her mouth to answer, he cut her off. "And your hair's fucking pink."

Rude. Not only a horrific criminal, but he was rude too.

"Really?" She asked, feigning surprise. "I had no idea. I thought it was blond you dipshit!"

She glared at him. He glared back.

"Be that way, motherfucker! How often do you expect me to see someone walking around with fucking pink hair, huh? Fucking one in a million!"

He paused and looked a bit closer at her, eyes narrowed. "Hold on, have we met before?"

"You would remember someone with pink hair, wouldn't you?" She sniped, covering up the way her heart dropped into her stomach.

Sakura stared with wide eyes as his roved over her.

"Well, the asshole said that the Konoha bitch had pink fucking hair." He said, still squinting. "But she apparently punched through a goddamn mountain. You don't look like you could crack a fucking egg."

That jackass! Her inner self screamed in rage. Does that alpha bastard want us to crack his SKULL like a goddamn egg? Huh?! Kick his ASS!

Unable to stop herself, Sakura growled and yelled, "You utter jerk!I'll show you a fucking egg!"

And she tightened her fist, glove creaking around her curled fingers, and shoved it into the ground. It split apart and sent the rude man flying backwards and onto his ass. When his face popped back up he appeared both impressed and infuriated in equal measure.

"You bitch!" He spat. "I swear to Jashin I'm gonna kick your ass twelve different ways to Friday!"

Inwardly, Sakura groaned. There went all of her well-meaning attempts to avoid conflict. Inner Sakura - who too often voiced the omega part of her brain - crowed with victory.

Let's kick HIS ass girl! And then FUCK him twelve different ways to Friday!

Sakura neglected to voice her scandalized reaction to her own brain. Instead she shifted her weight, feet splayed evenly on the grass as she gathered chakra into her fists. She could smell the alpha's rage from where she was standing and she gave him the meanest look she could muster.

"Maybe I'll kick your ass instead?" She said.

When the man lurched at her, scythe swinging for her, Sakura ducked to avoid it. The metal went whizzing over her head, nearly taking a chunk of hair with it. Realizing he was also a close-range fighter, she continuously pummeled the ground to keep him at a distance. That way if he came too close he would lose his footing.

After a while of this, she realized her mistake - his stamina was incredible. She could only maintain this for a bit longer, but it seemed he could go all day and - from the manic grin on his face - he meant to.

Sending a burst of chakra to her feet for speed, she dashed directly at him. He was caught off guard by the sudden frontal attack and her fist landed in a direct hit on his chest, sending him to the ground.

Sakura panted for air, backing away from him. She had put everything she had into that punch, which should have shattered his collarbone and likely broken some ribs. A good thing too, since there wasn't much left in her. A hand wiped sweat from her brow, pink lips tightening as she observed his body.

His scent hadn't weakened at all.

It was a clear indicator of health and - although he should be dead - he smelled like a man in total and perfect health.

"What the-?" She gasped.

The man's body was twitching and rising like something out of a zombie film, face stuck in that same horrific grin. Sakura stepped back as he came forwards, stretching with indescribable popping and grinding sounds.

He whistled. "That's some fucking punch, pinkie!"

What could she do? She couldn't keep this up - and this bastard seemed to have some kind of bizarre regenerative power. Run? Yes, running would probably be best at this point.

"Thinking 'bout running?" The alpha said. "I fucking would. But I'm not alone, and you're out of chakra. We'd fucking catch you."

Shit.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw movement as three more black cloaks zipped out of the trees. One of the men had a head covering that prevented observation, while a second had… blue skin? And the third looked uncomfortably similar to Sasuke. 'Uchiha Itachi… Shit.'

Then the smell hit her. All alphas, every one of them. A stifling cacophony of masculine scents rushed into her lungs, making her knees buckle before she steadied herself. The silver haired man smirked as if he knew what she was thinking.

"Yeah, we're fucking hot." He said smugly. "Even betas love the smell."

"As if." She said, immediately attempting to steady her breathing and block it out.

"Well, it's a fucking shame, but you attacked Sasori. There's nothing for it but goddamn revenge, bitch."

Sakura frowned furiously and continued backing away, trying to keep her eye on all four of the alphas closing in. She had a few meters between them, but it was not nearly enough. She was barely in time to dodge another attack from the silver haired man, and tried to maintain her distance from them.

Hindsight, it was the attack from the shark-man that had her fucked.

The wrappings had slid from his oversized sword and he hefted the thing with ridiculous strength - she had to shush her Inner Self at that - and rushed at her in tandem with Hidan. When she managed to sidestep his sword, she could've heaved a sigh of relief as she managed to put a few more meters between them.

She stared suspiciously for a moment as the blue man did the same with a waiting expression. All the air whooshed out of her lungs as her knees legs buckled and she felt her chakra slipping away. One of her hands clutched at the red fabric covering her chest, her gasping.

"The Samehada drains chakra," Blue-man rasped, "and it looks like your time is up."

"No hard feelings, huh, pinkie? It's just business."

What to do, what to do? Fear coiled inside her gut like one of Orochimaru's snakes, tightening its chokehold around her frantic heart. She was going to die. She couldn't believe it - never had the life of a shinobi seemed quite as fleeting as it did now. And she was totally drained of chakra.

No you're not! Inner yelled. Stop covering your scent! Redirect those reserves, make a few clones, and get the hell out!

'But they'll know!' She argued with herself, chest clenching.

Either you take a chance to live and let them know, or you DEFINITELY die. Live girl, live!

That was true… As blue-man closed in with that vampiric sword of his, Sakura ignored every habitually-forged instinct that told her otherwise and felt a burst of chakra flooding her veins. At the same moment, her scent glands swelled to life for the first time since her maturity, allowing her sweet scent to meet the open breeze.

The hesitation from the members of Akatsuki was instant, but it wouldn't last long - at this point, she was fighting for her life in a totally different way. A groan slid free of the silver haired man as he inhaled with all his might, and Sakura's hand darted through seals. When her three clones appeared they all took off in opposite directions, and she lunged for the forest with all her might. She was fully aware that these were her absolute final reserves and she had to make them count.

As she jumped through the trees she realized that only the blue-man had followed her. The other must've gone after the clones - not taking any chances on letting her get away. Her foot left a tree limb just as that blasted sword skewered it and it was apparently just close enough to drain her because only a second later she slipped and her chest crashed against a tree limb.

Sakura scrambled against it to pull herself up. Her back pressed against the trunk as she wheezed. Her creamy limbs acquired a slight tremble from sheer exhaustion and she pressed a hand over her mouth and stared at the man watching her from a nearby tree. She could smell herself, fear and adrenaline - she couldn't imagine what it was like for an alpha to be near.

But he was just looking at her, dark eyes glancing from place to place on her body.

"Well?" She choked out, pushing against the tree as though it might allow her to disappear into it.

He was startled from his observation of the pulse on her neck, and obviously holding himself back with great effort. He shrugged. "I'm surprised. Omega, huh?"

They may be the worst kind of S-Rank criminals, but at least you got the best of the worst! Inner crowed inappropriately. Better than some weakling! Or someone ugly!

That was little consolation to the shaking Sakura as three more pairs of feet thudded onto the trees. The silver haired alpha was nearly salivating, rudely sniffing every chance he got - at least the others were more subtle in their scenting.

The wait killed her. The world narrowed down to tunnel vision, her pulse beating a heavy drumbeat in her ears as they watched her. Her fight-or-flight response was urging her to move, but she had no strength for that. Yet she couldn't stand the mixed messages her instincts were screaming at her. Submit? Run? Kick their asses?

"This changes things." Itachi said in his smooth voice.

"C'mon, I'm sure Sasori would understand! We can't fucking pass this up!"

"I must agree with Hidan, for once," The alpha with the head-covering said in an impossibly deep voice, "An opportunity like this happens once in a lifetime. Would any of you rather add a beta instead of her?"

There was immediate refusal from the other men.

"No fucking way." Sakura grit out, "I'm not going anywhere with you."

She glanced down at the forest floor. It had to be far enough to kill her. With a heave she let her body drop and clenched her eyes shut, fervently hoping this would work - better to die than to play omega to the Akatsuki.

A hard body interrupted her fall, arms propping her up. She protested, "No!"

It was Itachi holding her, and his eyes were riveted to her neck. There was only one thing on his mind and Sakura struggled with all the feeble might left to her, heart nearly bursting out of her chest. No, no, no! No way!

But nothing could stand up to him as the alpha's warm hand gripped hers too tightly to break, nose gently nudging her chin upwards. Breaths fanned over her neck, drawing goosebumps forth as soft lips pressed against her pulse. He was drawing it out, the jackass, and she would-

Itachi's teeth sank into Sakura's long white neck and she cried out, body jerking. They were working into her flesh, so far and piercing that nothing could break them free and then she could feel the foreign liquid in her, that awful hormone that chained omegas to their alphas. It sent warmth into her body and softened it, pink hair splayed over his black cloak as her head lolled to the side. It felt so very wrong for her body to relax around an unfamiliar, dangerous male but she had no control over her lax muscles. Her brain felt dizzy and numb, vision blackening as his mouth worked to soothe the mark with a hot tongue.

She was barely sentient but vaguely noted the feeling of being passed to an even larger body, and the feeling intensifying as yet another set of teeth pierced her wrist, then another in the soft flesh on the inside of her elbow.

"You've got to be kidding." She heard in the blackness of her fuzzy vision, face pressed to someone's stomach - alpha scent was around her so thick, tingling over her senses. Large hands were rolling up her shorts and a mouth was just above the inside of her knee. She groaned.

"I know." A rough voice breathed into her ear. Lips brushed beneath it, a tongue barely peeking out.

"C'mon, I can fucking pick where I wanna put it! I fuckin love this spot."

The doubting voice grumbled but then someone's teeth were in her skin, alpha hormones pumping into her bloodstream, and Sakura fell from consciousness.