Title: Painful Pleasures

Warning: This fan fiction can/will contain profanity, sexual situations, gore, and suggestive content. It also can/will have spoilers from the manga. Lastly, this is a non-cannon demented couple with an S&M plot in mind.

With that said, this story might also not contain such things listed above.

Thank you.

Chapter title: Divine Instincts

Pink stands of hair went flying as the tri-crescent scythe passed over her head, again, attempting to puncture skin for its strongly pumping blood-or to remove her head from its firm position atop her neck. Whichever came first would determine her lifespan, but condemn death ultimately.

The salmon hair colored woman huffed in quick and erratic breaths as she defended her fallen comrades and protected her own life from this powerful enemy. Her hands shivered with adrenalin as she clutched tighter to the two lone kunai she had left. She lifted her head higher and determined between the holes of her mask that attacking might be a needed brake from all the dodging and give her some lead way towards the battle she was obviously losing.

The Akatsuki's blood stained violet eyes caught the tenseness in his opponent's muscles and smiled at being able to read this girl so easily. As he expected she launched her tiny frame towards his direction and, as he expected, she punched her fist into the ground making it turn into crumbs. Using the debris to cover her location she attempted to advance on him. A smile of absolute glee passed over his features as he had finally found a point of weakness in the kunoichi's defense and at that moment he threw the scythe in an arch. Avoiding the more massive blocks of concrete and finally made a true land in her -obviously delicate- kidney region.

The dumb struck kunoichi belched out blood and fell onto her hands and knees on the granulated ground clutching at her side that still held a massive scythe. Her eyes wide in pain she watch with morbid fascination as a flick of the wrist brought the weapon away from her and whisked away with more grace then it should have had. The handle –seemingly with a mind of its own- flew gracefully into the hand of the Akatsuki's only preaching religious man.

Vaguely the fallen women thought he was going to sacrifice her to his god. That she would die where she sat, while he performed a repenting ritual to his god. She waited for the witted banter to fly into her ears about how she was a fool and hell awaited her, but all that she heard was footsteps. His steps; steps that echoed in her mind, vibrating on the soft tissue of her brain, each sounding like a harsh pounding on the door that lead to hell demanding it to be opened just for her.

Regret passed quickly through her mind as she thought of how many things she could have done-in this day- to stop this impending death from happening. If she had called backup ten minutes earlier, if she had fled with the shinobi that had a chance of living instead of fighting for all of them, just simply if she had not gotten out of bed on just this day.

All her thoughts came to a halt when the black open toed shoes stopped before her vision. She could faintly recognize the rustle of fabric as a set on knees came into her line of hazed vision. She minutely flinched as a hand landed heavily atop her head and pulled away the mask she had been wearing. Without the mask, breathing became slightly less labored. And almost in a sign of gratitude for making death less painful, the kunoichi looked up and meet him eye to eye.

Lidded jade eyes caught with bloody lavender and a moment of silence over took the surrounding, indicating something dangerous was coming. When she decided to look at him, fearless of death, something sharp poked him from the inside of his gut. The scythe was raised, blood dripping off the three pointed ends, and slowly brought down resting on the girls sweaty porcelain skin. Almost as if regretting what he was about to commit, the demented smile on the Akatsuki's face dulled a fraction as he looked at the helpless wounded creature. A quizzical look of contemplation passed across his refined face before he wetted his lips and opened his mouth to whisper.

"Tell me your sins."

The dull look on her face indicated she did not understand the question. As time stretched on she slowly came to understand what he wanted. With the acknowledgement a fire ignited behind her grass tinted eyes. Hatred burned at her for ever being grateful of this person. Hatred burned because she had lost against him, costing more than just her own life in the process. She shifted slightly, and then using her arms she push body higher. Sitting on her knees she lifted her face to meet him eye to eye. She parted her lips and pushed her lips up and gave him a bloody stained smile. She cleared her throat and answered evenly, smile firmly in place.

"My only sin was not killing you."

A look of distaste passed across his features, as if he should have known the Konoha woman would never take his gift graciously. He then used his strength to force the bottom blade of his three pronged scythe in and through her neck, effectively cutting it off and killing the kunoichi.

The eerie silence that held during the encounter finally passed and the world's nature noises reemerged. He rose; head of pink hair laced through his fingers, and started to walk towards the other soon to be dead ninjas.

His steps faltered for a moment, his fist clenching tighter around the hair. Turning, the Akatsuki member regarded the headless body with a sad sort of acceptance. The feeling came and passed, leaving in its wake a look of contentment. He turned and wake away then uttering his farewell words to the recently departed.

"Stupid bitch."

Sakura's body jerked up and off her bed in a start. She groggily and frantically observed her surroundings while desperately clutching to her neck as if it had to be held in place. The strong pitter of her heart slowed as she came to slow realization that she had only had a nightmare, again. The same one she has had for the past two years since her personal encounter with a certain proclaimed 'holy man' of the Akatsuki. Gaining some composure, Sakura forced herself to be calm. Lifting her bruised bottom form the floor, Sakura threw her body back to her bed, much like a dog would do when tired, facing the ceiling with many thoughts flowing through her head.

"Three levels, Hidan," Was the semi official name in the five great ninja nation's bingo books. She had found that out after surviving certain death, along with the other useless information. He was originally from Yugakure, a reformed hidden village that specialized in healing herbal baths and other hot water treatments. It was known that he rebelled against the village and killed several people before leaving the village entirely. Also that he was the second newest Akatsuki member, the eighth member. Any other information was gained on the personal level, like the information on his rituals, and kept within a need to know basis.

Giving off an annoyed sigh from starting out her day badly, Sakura pulled her body off the bed and trudged towards her bathroom. She deposited her clothing on the floor, taking a moment to examine the purple flesh of her under eyes, and stepped into the tub turning on her shower. The frigid water stuck Sakura's body and elected a gasp from her, waking her fully up. Turning the knob to 'hot' and gathering scentless shampoo in her hands, Sakura allowed her body to work on automatic as she wondered about the things to come.

In the last meeting between Wind country and Fire country it was collectively decided to track down and protect the vassals of demons to stop whatever goal the Akatsuki meant to achieve. So today would end her two week vacation and begin her job as tactician/ medic for the 'Special Forces'. Several teams were comprised and all enlisted to track the remaining living JinchuuRiki. It was a wonder so many were alive with all the years that have passed. But after the attack on Gaara, many got the hint and went into hiding.

Too bad 'divine will' would not let them hide forever.

Four years ago the Akatsuki had three kills under their respectfully terrifying belts. Today they had five. Slow, but unyielding kills. Naruto has been forced to avoid confrontation with them for some time now. He was enduring special training and always moving- to avoid detection. But because he was the carrier of the nine-tailed-demon, he was on the bottom of the hunted list. This meant there were only three vessel bodies to track down.

Sakura gave a huff at her thoughts and globed an amount of conditioner in her hands, and idly wondered. Why did she have to go babysit people she did not know and love? Why risk her life just so they could die a couple years later from the excessive bodily strain of containing a demon.

Mentally smacking her little inner demon for making her be completely unlike herself, Sakura put Naruto in her mind and thought about losing him. That though alone renewed her fervor in the mission she would co-captain.

'Just think of the family and friends suffering because of the Akatsuki.'

Passion bubbled in her stomach. There was a powerful need to protect her target. In an over excited frenzy Sakura lost herself in the moment and punched the air, yooshing! Teeth, body, and hair crisp and clean Sakura moved out of the shower and into the steam filled room.

Towel dried and dressed, she continued with the monotonous routine of packing for a long mission. Once finished, Sakura headed out of her mother's house.

'I'm only -barely- 20, I'm allowed to live at home…'

Waking passed the threshold of the house she has lived in for almost all her life, a slow breeze passed by causing the fine hair on her neck to raise with warning. In those footsteps Sakura could feel an ominous cloud hovering above her head and a heavy chill run down her spine. Already she could feel that not everyone was coming back, which may or may not include herself.

She headed towards the tower where she would meet with her four man team. Shikamaru's unit, also a four man team, was already in pursuit of their target. The last team was from Sand and unknown to Sakura.

The mission briefing had gone off without a hitch and there team was assigned. Her own group consisted of Sai -much to her own dismay- as captain, herself as co-captain, and two very gifted chuunin named Daichi and Hibari; and each member holding a very important role in the team.

Sai, the oldest at twenty two years old, was the most experienced in the tracking department. He had been hunting persons down from his Bingo Book since the impressionable age of eleven. He also had the right mind set in completing the mission with as little creases as possible, being nearly personalityless. While someone like Naruto would create such a shamble of things with his loud mouth alone. Along with that, he was a respectful figure among everyone (mostly) which made their team solid in its leadership.

Daichi was a young man at the ripe age of fifteen. Sakura would almost want to call him handsome but that was not quite the word to describe him. More accurately one would call him cute or adorable. With light colored hair that fanned around his face like feathers, his equally light eyes large and full of life, and his skin a luminescent cream color. He possessed no refine features about him, like Kakashi or Neji did with their very presence. But Daichi oozed an innocent aura that surpassed even the most modest virgin girls and celibate monks. Sakura noted, almost sadly, that his major tool was that aura of innocence. Luckily he wasn't assigned to them for his skill but for his connections, as his family was composed mainly of drifters which would give them entrance to – almost- any place needed.

Hibari, Sakura liked very much. She was the youngest of the group, hardly tipping the scales of fourteen. Her hair was the tone of copper and her eyes were a very deep blue with sparkles of white sprouting aimlessly around. Her tattoos had to be the most intricate and beautiful thing about her. The tattoos hugged all the curves of her body and swirled in wave designs. Hibari was crowned with the name mouse not only because of her small frame, but because of those tattoos and their abilities, which was exactly the reason she had been assigned to team Sai. The 'mouse' could literally blend with the shadows when she infused her chakara into the ink that her clan imprinted on her as a child. She was perfect for stealth and observation.

Sakura, herself at the cusp of twenty, was the backup. She was the only member of the teams that had legitimately taken down an Akatsuki member and lived to tell the tale. As an added bonus she was also trained excessively in the medical arts and strategic assaults which gave their team an extra security that some were not lucky enough to get.

So that was her team; experience, brains, speed, and connections. Apart her team might have not been efficient, but together they had the strength. Sakura was fully confident in herself, and in them, regardless of what the unknown plans of Akatsuki had conceived.

It was generally unheard of to have a team full of young shinobi, but Sakura had 'loaned' Kakashi to Shikamaru as their team leader, which left her needing a new one. The ex ROOT operative just happened to be free and capable for the job assigned.

Sakura truly felt that she and her team had been awarded the 'lesser of the three evils' so to speak, being assigned to the six tailed demon vessel. They were not required in any way to have an interaction with the notorious villains, and actually told to stay away from confrontation if it was possible.

The journey began; leaving the village gates, team Sai's first course of action was to follow up a lead from the previous home of the six-tale demon carrier. Heading north-west towards the neutral waterfall territory, the destination was on a cliffs edge. The border between Earth country and Takigakure held a shinobi temple where Saiken – the six tale demon- was sealed into the baby named Utakata. Although he lived in Kirigakure, when he defected rumors spread that he returned to the temple.

And since leaving her comfortable home this morning, meeting with the team, even when flying through the trees, and now resting in a nameless inn- located within fire countries borders- Sakura felt something following and scratching at her subconscious.

The over exhilarating sense of fear.

Because Sakura knew that she had something in common with Hidan, the man who almost killed her. She was pursuing his pursuits. Her goal was his goal. She was even headed towards the home of her living nightmare. Hidan and Sakura had something in common, and the feeling of it chilled Sakura's heart.

1/3/07- published.

11/10/12- updated.

With Regards,

MoyE.