Hey everyone! Sorry for the late update, once again I blame university. A little note about this chapter, I introduce some of the members of the Akatsuki, and I have actually never seen them on the show before. And since, at the time when I wrote this I didn't really have time to research much into their personalities, I based them off what I've seen in other fanfics. So I apologize ahead of time if they seem ooc. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed thus far!

The sky was dark when Sakura finally arrived in Tora. It had taken her quite a long time to get to the town. She had spent many days traveling. A sigh escaped her as she saw the buildings. From what she could see, restorations had already begun to take place. She wanted to look around and see all the things being done, or at least take a breather considering the fact that she had been traveling almost none stop the entire day, but she had come here to get an antidote and right now that was her main objective.

No one else was in the streets. That was probably for the best. If someone saw her they would probably come up to her and try to convince her to stay. She was already tempted as it was. It would be so nice to just forget about the pirates and just stay here. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to give up on getting the medicine and remain in Tora.

But she knew that she shouldn't do that. Gaara was dying and without the antidote, it was almost a guarantee that he would not live. And despite the fact that he could be rather rude, insensitive and just plain mean, she was not going to let him die.

A nearby voice made Sakura freeze. "Hi, Armen." This was not good; she searched wildly around her until she saw a few barrels that she could hide behind. The pinkette slipped behind them as another voice joined the first.

"Hey, has there been any news recently?"

The first person spoke up. "No, not since Tayo left." What? Tayo was gone? Why?

The pair continued to talk, but the medic slipped away in the shadows and rushed away to get to her home. This did not make any sense. Tayo had never given any indication of wanting to leave before. And the pink haired girl had been sure that the woman would have stayed to help rebuild the town. Tora was Tayo's home, why would she leave?

Sakura arrived at the house in record time. She burst inside of the building and immediately began searching for her caretaker. She checked every room in the house found no trace of the woman anywhere. There was no food, Tayo's clothes were gone, nearly every surface was beginning to get dusty. There was no sign of life anywhere in the house. Apparently the pair outside was right, Tayo was gone. The only thing left from the woman were the letters in the dresser, which Sakura stuffed in a bag she had found in the house to read later.

The pinkette let a tear slip down her cheek. Where would Tayo have gone? She didn't even get to say goodbye.

The antidote, the medic reminded herself. She needed to focus and get the antidote. Where did they put it again? Oh right, the room that they had reserved for medical supplies, duh. Hopefully Tayo hadn't taken it with her.

After looking in the room for a while the pinkette found the antidote. A small victory smile appeared on her face as she placed it in the bag. Finally she had it! Now all she had to was go and give it to Gaara. She bounded off away from the house towards the village.

Where was he? Oh right, the pirates were headed to Suna. So now she just had to go to…wait. How the heck was she supposed to get to Suna? That was across the flipping ocean!

"Hey how much longer is this going to take, yeah?" A male voiced asked. Sakura's stopped as heard the voice. Where was it coming from?

"Maybe if you shut your trap and helped us with the ship, it would go by faster." Another voice spoke up. They had a ship? The pinkette began to move towards the direction of the voices.

"Shut up, Kisame!" The first voice yelled. She was right next to the voices now, and could see the silhouettes of a group of people. "Why do we even have to go to Suna again anyways?"

"You're going to Suna?" She asked before she could stop herself. Right after she felt the urge to slap herself. Way to act before thinking.

The group went silent and she saw three individuals walking towards her. One had a high pony with light hair, one with dark hair in a low pony, and the last was large and had short hair. Knowing that it was too late to hide, she stayed frozen to her spot. "Why do you care yeah?" The man who had light hair in a high pony asked.

Well, might as well tell them now. "I want to go there too."

"And why should we let you go with us?" He asked.

That was a very good question; she really wished that she had an answer for him. "Well, umm. It would be really nice of you?" She offered.

He looked like he was about to laugh, but then the third male, who had dark hair in a low pony spoke up. "Step into the moonlight." Sakura did what he asked. She saw his eyes narrow. "Your hair is pink correct?" She nodded. "You are the princess of Heilig."

He knew that just based on her hair? Wow he was good. But obviously not from here. No one native to here knew of her real identity. "How do you know that?" The pinkette asked.

"Your profile is well known in certain parts of the world," he replied.

Vague much.

"And what parts of the world are you from?" she asked him.

"We are from various parts of the world."

Based on his responses, she doubted that he was going to get any more specific. The medic sighed and said, "Anyways, I heard you guys say that you are going to Suna. I was wondering if I could accompany you."

'Heh, and why should why let you go with us pinky?" The large man asked.

"Gaa-"Wait, they really didn't need to know who it was. "Someone I know is poisoned. He'll die if he doesn't get the antidote. I need to get to Suna and give it to him."

The large man appeared sounded like he was about to speak, but the male with the low pony spoke first. "You may join us."

The other two instantly turned to look at him. From what she could tell, they both looked shocked. The large man didn't say anything, but the one with the high pony started to protest. "What the hell, Itachi?"

The one, apparently named Itachi, turned and looked at the man and said, "She is coming with us." The man grunted, but didn't protest after that.

The large man spoke up. "Ok pinky, first off I'm Kisame and the whiny blond over there is Deidara. And since apparently you'll be coming with us, you're going to help us with getting the ship ready."

Seemed like a fair trade off. She shrugged. "Alright."

"Well," Kisame began, starting to turn the other direction, "We should really get to the ship now."

The other two also turned around and the trio began to walk away. She followed behind them. As they walked, Itachi remained silent for the entire walk. Kisame seemed boisterous as he talked to (more like at) Itachi.

Deidara surprised her. At first he just walked behind the other two, grumbling to himself and occasionally glaring at Itachi. Sakura was feeling a tad bored and had decided to go up and talk to him. At first he made it obvious that he was trying to ignore her, going as far as to tell her that he was ignoring her (too which Kisame looked back at them and sarcastically told Deidara that he was being too subtle). But Sakura, now determined to get him to have a conversation with her, continued on talking, bringing up random conversation topics to see what would get a reaction out of him. After many failed attempts she was running out of ideas and almost ready to give up when she brought up how the sky looked so pretty right then that she felt an urge to paint a picture of it. He looked and her and asked if she liked art. She replied saying that although she personally did not do anything artistic, she did enjoy art itself. The blond proceeded to start a long conversation about his opinion on the subject that lasted the entire trip to the boat and the time that it took to prepare the ship.

By the end of it the pinkette had learned all she wanted to know about the blonde's love for the more…temporary versions of art and then some. He probably would have talked more but Kisame went up to them and told him to 'leave the poor girl alone before her ears bleed from hearing too much of his stupid ideas'.

Just before they were about to move the ship, Itachi went up to her. "Do you need anything before we go?" She shook her head. "Good." With that the anchor was raised and the ship began to move towards Suna.

For a while Sakura silently looked over the railing of the large boat and watched as she sailed her away from her home yet again. It was strange to think that this time she was leaving to help the people who had originally taken her from her homeland (quite forcefully she might add). She must really be insane for doing this. Maybe after going to Suna she should go to a mental facility.

The girl continued to watch the waves until she grew bored of looking at the ocean. What else was there to do? After having spent quite a long time on a ship, one would think that she would have come up with options to kill time by now. Unfortunately she didn't.

Sakura could talk to Deidara again, but she didn't really want to hear more about explosions at the moment. Who else was there to talk to? She looked around and saw Itachi looking out onto the water. Why not talk to him? She walked over and stood beside him. "Hey." He glanced over at her. "So…" Time to think of a conversation topic. "Why are you going to Suna?" No response. "Fine, by like that." She joked. "Do you have a favourite colour?" Still no response. "Oh I see how it is." She grinned. "I'm just going to have make your responses up. She deepened her voice and said. "I like black because it's the colour of my hair." Her voice went back to normal. "Really? That's neat. Believe it or not I'm not really a fan of pink, even though that's my hair colour?" Deep again. "Really? I think your hair colour is sexy. I may seem stoic and hard but really I'm soft inside and love the colour pink, and rainbows and puppies and all things a three year old girl would like" Normal voice. "That's cute, what does your family think of that?" "Well-

"If I was as you say," Itachi cut her off. "My family would detest me, even more than they already do."

"Oh." She said slowly. "I'm sorry."

He turned and walked away, leaving Sakura feeling rotten. What did she do?

"Don't worry about it." Kisame told her, walking up to her. "He's sensitive about his family."

"Wish I knew that earlier," The female mumbled.

"You had no way of knowing," he replied carelessly. "Good job getting him to talk to you though. Normally he would have just walked away. You should feel lucky."

"Really?" She asked thoughtfully. "Interesting." She felt a yawn coming on and put up a hand to cover her mouth as it came.

Kisame chuckled. "You should probably get some sleep. It is late."

She nodded. "You're probably right. Where can I sleep?"

"If you go through that door." He pointed to down the ship. "You'll enter a hallway. There's a spare room at the end on the right side."

She smiled at him and began to walk. 'Thank you."

"Welcome, night pinky."

She turned and glared. "My name is Sakura, Sa-kur-a."

He grinned. "Whatever you say pinky."

She groaned and walked away, leaving him laughing on the deck.

Sakura didn't realize how tired she was until she entered the room and her eyes started to become droopy. She climbed into the bed and fell asleep before her head hit the pillow.

"Wakie wakie." A voice called to her. Her eyes fluttered open to see a blue man.

She groaned softly as she got up. "What time is it Kisame?"

"Not sure, but its past noon," he told her.

"I slept that long?" She said absently, looking down at herself. "Wow." She looked back at the man in the room. "What did you wake me up for?"

"We're eating," He explained. "I thought you might want something."

She smiled and got out of the bed. "Thank you."

They walked together to the room where the food was. There was food there, but the room itself was empty. "Where are the other two?" She asked him.

Kisame shrugged. "I said we were all eating, I didn't say that we were eating together."

A flashback of Gaara's group having breakfast together entered her mind and the differences of them and Kisame's group struck her. Another strange thought entered her mind...she missed Gaara's group.

"Are you going to eat or just stand there like a statue all day?" The blue man asked, breaking her from her trance. "I'm ok with either, I was just wondering."

"Sorry," the pinkette quickly said and then proceeded to walk over to the food and select a few items.

After eating the pinkette wandered out onto the deck and saw Itachi. Remembering the events of the night before, she decided to walk to over to him. "Hey," She said sweetly once she was beside him. "I just wanted to apologize for last night; I didn't mean to make up upset."

"You had no way of knowing," he replied sharply, his gaze not meeting hers.

"I know," she replied. "Still doesn't change the fact that I wanted to say sorry for it." Her gaze drifted to the open water. "You know, when I was little, I used to be scared of going into open water." A small smile appeared on her face as she remembered. "About a week after I turned four, I had fallen into a lake and since, I couldn't swim, almost ended up drowning. I had been terrified of the water after that wouldn't even go near a river. But then, the woman who looked after me decided to help me get over my fear.

" She took me back to the lake where I had almost drowned, actually more like dragged me back, and told me to go into it. Obviously I refused. She told me that she was there for me, that she would help me if I needed it. Unfortunately that still didn't work so she picked me up and dunked me into the shallow part of the lake. I freaked out until I realized that I could still stand comfortably in that area. I stood there for about ten minutes, just standing. I was proud of myself for being able to stand there, I was happy. Until she told me to go in farther. I started to protest again, but she assured me again that she'd help me if I was in trouble. So I went in farther, and she taught me how to swim. And I've been fine with water ever since then."

He was silent for a moment, and then asked, "Why did you tell me that?"

She shrugged. "Wanted to make conversation."

The two were silent after that. It wasn't an awkward silence, it was a comfortable one. The two simply stood together watching the water.

Her days began to follow a pattern after that. Get woken up by Kisame, spend time with Itachi, and then going to talk with Deidara while he made his art out of clay (sometimes she even got him to respond about things besides explosions). The time with Kisame and Deidara were ok, but she had to admit that the time with Itachi was her favourite. Even though he never told her anything about himself, or who he and the others were, or even why they were going to Suna. Despite the fact that she was the one who did about ninety percent of the talking, and although they spent a lot of time in silence, she liked being with him. She couldn't really describe why, but she found the black haired man sort of…comforting in a way.

It wasn't long until they arrived at Suna. At least, it didn't feel like it. When they stopped Kisame looked at her and said, "Well pinky, it's been fun."

"Yeah," She smiled as they walked off. "Maybe I'll see you guys again sometime."

"Umm, not likely yeah," Deidara spoke up.

"What?"

"We like to stay hidden," Kisame explained. "So we try to avoid being in places where most of the population can find us."

"So the chances of you seeing us again are very slim yeah," Deidara added.

"So I won't see you guys again?" The pinkette asked, feeling sad.

"Most likely not." Kisame replied.

'Ohh," She looked down at the ground. This really sucked. She was rather fond of these people. Her eyes traveled up to look at Itachi. It would be nice if she could see more of him.

But, if she couldn't, then there was really no point in worrying about it. "Well, if I can't see you again, then it's been really nice knowing all of you. I'm glad that I met all of you."

"You as well yeah." Deidara told her.

"See ya later pinky." Kisame told her.

She grinned at him. "You too blue boy." Deidara started laughing, and in response Kisame threw something at him. As the two fought, she glanced up at Itachi. Their eyes met, and he nodded at her. Knowing that that was as good of a response as she was going to get, she nodded back and began to walk away from the trio.

Sakura sighed in relief when she saw a builings in the distance. Finally civilization! She had been walking around trying to find some indication of where she was for two days now. During that time she made a mental note that next time she went on some kind of task like this, she should at least take a map with her.

Thankfully she had been smart when she had begun her journey off the ship and had taken water canteens and food rations with her. Turns out that Suna was in a desert. Not the best place to get lost in. But at least now she knew that she hated sand.

Her pace quickened as she walked into Suna. People were walking around quickly, going to various shops and stands along the road. Based on this, the pinkette guessed that she was in the marketplace.

Now, the reason that she was in Suna in the first place, Gaara. How could she find him? Well, maybe some of these people know who he is. Wait, if he was a pirate, then would people know who he was? And would speaking his name be like a taboo or something?

"I do hope that Gaara gets better." Sakura's eyes flew to the direction of the voice. It was a brunette girl, about her age, talking to another girl a ways away from the pinkette.

"Yes I hope so too," the other girl squealed. "He's so cute and adored by like, everyone. It would be horrible if he died!"

"I know," the first girl replied, starting to tear up.

Ok this did not make any sense. He was supposed to be a freaking pirate, why in heck would people praise him? She walked up to them. "Hey, I heard you talking about Gaara."

The two looked up at her. One of them glared at her, "What about it?"

"I was wondering where I might find him," the medic explained.

"He's in the castle," one of them explained quickly. The one who had been glaring at Sakura promptly turned and glared at her.

"You idiot, she probably wants to seduce Gaara and take him for herself."

Sakura didn't stay and listen to the rest of the conversation, knowing that it would probably get her nowhere. She asked a middle aged woman where the castle was and then booked it to the location.

As she ran she thought about Gaara. This did not make any sense. Why did people like him here? And with the things that she had found on the ship before she left, things were even more confusing. Gaara better wake up quickly so she could get an explanation from him!

It took her about twenty minutes to reach the castle. And what a huge castle it was. As she looked at it she couldn't help but wonder, what was the palace she was born in like? If she was in fact born in a palace that is. But since she is a princess, the chances of that happening are rather likely.

Wait, she was here to help Gaara, not to wonder where she was born. She walked forward. So where would the redhead be in a place like this.

"Hey," A familiar voice called out as a man came walking towards her. "What are you-Sakura?"

"Kankurou," she smiled.

He ran up to her. "But you-ran away-we thought-how-why-"

She laughed as he sputtered. "I came back to help Gaara."

"What?" He asked.

"He's still sick right?" He nodded. "Well, I went back home to get an antidote that will help him and brought it here."

"How did you get back?" He asked her.

"Look, can we do question and answer later?" The medic asked. "Right now I just want to help him."

He nodded quickly. "Follow me." He led her to the side of the castle and brought her in through a door. They passed by some people on their way through hallways. They looked confused when they saw Sakura but didn't even blink when they saw Kankurou.

"He's in here," he told her as they went inside a room.

Gaara was lying on a large bed. He looked even worse than before, if that was even possible. The redhead looked as if he was just barely holding on. "He wasn't woken up yet." Kankurou said grimly.

She walked towards him, taking out the oh so important vile. The antidote had worked every time back home, she really hoped that it would work now. And not just because she gone to such great lengths to get it. She wanted to him to get better. She really, really did.

The medic sat next to him on the bed and gently opened his mouth. Then she opened the vial, and put some of the medicine in his mouth and then induced him to swallow. After that was the real hard part, waiting.

She didn't know how long she sat there for. All she knew was that when Gaara coughed and slowly opened his eyes, her felt her heart jump. "Hi," she said softly.

"Where, where am I?" Gaara asked.

"In Suna," she replied. "Apparently that's where you were going after I left."

"You left?" He asked, confusion evident on his face.

She nodded. "When you were sick, I suspected that you were bitten by a snake. No one else on the boat believed me. So I snuck off of it and went back home to get you the antidote for the bite. And then I came here to give it to you."

"So you left. Why did you come here?" He asked.

"To help you," Sakura replied. "You're welcome for that by the way."

His eyes narrowed. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I guess you and your little posse grew on me." She looked around the room. "It's nice here, minus the horrible weather and sand everywhere of course. That reminds me." She glanced at him. "You have some explaining to do."

He glanced at her. "Really?"

She nodded, and thought of everything that had made her confused, all the little findings she had discovered. And she came to one conclusion. "You're not really a pirate are you?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Then what are you?" She asked him.

He looked down for a moment, as if trying to decide something. Then his gaze met hers. "This," he explained. "Is a lot bigger then you think it is."

And...complete! This fic is finished. I will be putting up a sequel for this, so no I did not leave it at a cliffy for nothing. The fact that Itachi allowed Sakura onto the ship for seemingly no reason I will admit does seem strange, but I actually do have a reason for this that will come up later.

I'd like to thank everyone who has read/reviewed/favourited the story. It really does mean a lot to me. Hope everyone has enjoyed the story!