Chapter 19: INTRODUCING THE DEVIL

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AND FINALLY, BACK IN AME

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Pein leapt onto one of the tall metal buildings of Ame's capital and landed at the exact same times as Konan.

"Pein." She greeted, frowning. "Patrolling? You should be doing your work."

"Well, about that." Pein chuckled sheepishly. "I may or may not have just got back from a C-rank mission to Tea country."

She gave him that look a woman gives a man that makes them feel two feet tall and like the scum of the earth.

"Vacation." She said, lips twisting into a scowl.

"Maybe?" He squeaked.

"Who did you leave in charge? Itachi?"

Pein snorted remembering the bone chilling look the man had given him in response.

"Sakura." He said as they both leapt to another building, heading for headquarters at the center for the city.

"She is...acceptable." Konan nodded.

They both flipped over a team heading in the opposite direction and got looks of awe and shouted praise. The shouts of 'He's returned!' and 'The Demon shall be dealt with now!' and 'Finally! We'll be free!' confused him but he ignored it to bask in the feeling of praise and awe. Pein gave them a solemn nod of greeting, grinning when they couldn't see. It was good to be the leader of a whole country after having freed them from tyranny.

"She seems to have done fine if everything standing is an example." Pein said as they landed on the balcony outside his office.

"Yes." Konan agreed.

They entered his office and Pein blanked out for a few seconds. He was quite sure that he had blacked out standing for a few moments. Sakura later told him he'd just went in shock. When his mind caught up with the scene he felt his jaw loosen. From beside him, Konan shed a layer of paper in her surprise. Pein blinked rapidly as if to clear his vision and even wiped at his eyes.

"Pein." Konan said in a calm voice.

"Yes?" He asked.

"...Am I hallucinating?"

"Unless we both are I don't think so." Pein said thoughtfully, eyes glued to the room.

"MWHAHAHAHAHA!" Sakura cackled, cutting both their thoughts off.

"I like her outfit." Pein threw out there, over the sound of a cracking whip.

Konan gave him a raised brow.

"Hey, I can have my own tastes." He said defensively.

He eyed the throne the pinkette sat in, looking to have been grown out of a bunch of plants easily showing who had made it. The pinkette herself was dressed in black spandex shorts with a set of belts hanging loosely from her waist, knives strapped to them. A leather band went around her chest barely hiding her breasts. A spiked collar lay about her neck with a broken chain hanging from it. A whip sat in her leather glove clad hands, tapping against her other hand threateningly. She wore some dark makeup making her eyes pop and making her look quite shadowed.

Sasori sat on one arm of her chair decked out in black biker shorts and white t-shirt decorated in black lines. A collar about his neck was chained with a leash that went back to Sakura's hand. Zetsu sat on the other arm of the chair wearing black pants and a black turtleneck, a collar and leading to the same hand holding Sasori's.

The throne itself was on a platform overlooking the room. A Naruto clone was at Sakura's feet acting as a foot rest while another held a tray filled with treats and glasses like a table. In the center of the room Tobi and Naruto were dancing, both decked out in joker outfits, Tobi in black, Naruto in white. Chakra strings led back to Sasori who was smirking as he put on a show. Kisame was trapped in a large aquarium off to the side in nothing but a pair of torn black shorts. He looked quite upset but couldn't escape because of the chakra proof Plexiglas and the bombs lying atop of the tank lid, ready to explode should they move.

Itachi was near the Sharkman, stretched across a torture table, arms and legs in traps and pulled taunt so he was spread out. Laying on a table beside him were an assortment of bloody torture tools. Itachi himself looked quite bored. Sasuke was in a similar type of position, both hands stretched above his head and tied so he dangled from the rope leading to the ceiling. Both brothers also only wore a pair of black shorts.

Deidara was inside a large cage off to the opposite side of the room of Kisame. His ankles and wrists were chained to the floor and he also only wore black shorts, his clay all taken away. Someone had stuck a pair of tiger ears on his head and he looked pissed. A few more Naruto clones were in various locations acting as torture victims, slaves, or furniture.

Pein cleared his throat as Sakura cracked her wipe near Naruto's head for slowing slightly. He narrowly dodged an instinctive lash of the whip by leaning back. Konan wasn't lucky enough, but where the whip hit turned to shredded paper quite quickly, before reforming.

"Um, Sakura," Pein said glancing about. "This was not what I had in mind when I left you in charge."

"You rule your way, I'll rule mine." Sakura smiled sweetly.

Her whip cracked near Itachi's head.

"I expect more screaming!" She hissed.

Itachi gave the sigh of a bored man.

"Ah."

"More terror!" Sakura demanded.

"Ahhhahahh." Itachi said monotone.

"Hmmm." Sakura said, frowning. "We won't get anything out of him. Zetsu dear,"

"Yes mistress?" Zetsu asked, voice sounding like an over eager puppy.

"Be a darling and send some of those piranhas you got after Kisame."

"I hear and obey mistress!" He grinned melding with the floor.

He returned a moment later and diffused a bomb to dump a tank of fish in Kisame's tank. The sharkman gave a wordless scream of terror, that was only bubbles underwater, as the blood thirsty fish came at him. Pein watched him swim around frantically, throwing jutsu at the fish.

"Sakura." Pein started again. "I'm going to have to ask you to give me back control. And I'm never putting you in charge again."

"Why?" The girl pouted with a frown. "I kept everyone under control."

At that moment the door swung open and her pets came running in, panting. Each was dressed as old fashioned messengers, except they wore collars with a chain connecting all three of them together. Behind them ANBU threw a team of Jonin to the floor.

"Mistress Sakura!" The pets squeaked as one. "These men are here before your glorious self for the reason they turned their mission reports in three hours late."

"Did they now?" Sakura grinned dangerously, standing and tapping her opposite hand with her whip.

The jonin paled drastically and one burst out in tears, a second fainted, and the third and forth grovelled.

"Please demonic mistress. Forgive our insolence!" One of the jonin cried. "Mercy!"

"Mercy?" She hissed with a grin. "I'm capable of mercy. I will reserve my judgement for now."

"Oh thank you!" One of the men blubbered.

"But I doubt the brave souls in the mission room will be as kind as I. ANBU throw them in the mission office."

"No." The only female jonin gasped. "You can't! They'll skin us alive!"

"I'd rather die than be left at their mercy." Another one sobbed.

Sakura just cackled as they were drug off. Pein was quite unsure of what to say. Konan looked to be the same.

"The mission room?" Pein asked the pets.

As one the three genin shuddered.

"Mistress Sakura made a few changes." The girl shivered. "She gave the mission room workers more power."

"Efficiency has gone up about 31% and we've made quite a bit of money from the new way she organized them." One of the boys added.

"But the terror!" The third cried, blubbering.

"Wasn't it just thirteen chunin working in there, sorting missions and paperwork and dealing with customers?" Konan asked.

"Not anymore." One of the children said hollowly. "They are the most feared men and women of Ame now."

"I was only gone five days." Pein said, protesting. "How did she change that much in five days to make five chunin the most feared ninja of our country?"

"You don't want to know." The girl sobbed. "But it is already being called the Rule of Horror. Mistress Sakura's name is now as feared as she is. No one but those present will speak it. No one who has witnessed her reign shall ever go missing-nin or betray Ame. They fear her far too much to even try and escape her."

"This is crazy." Pein said. "Konan. We need to get control back now."

"Agreed." Konan said as she scattered into hundreds of pieces of paper.

Pein went through hand seals as fast as he could and slammed his hand on the floor. Five plumes of smoke rose revealing five orange haired bodies each wearing Akatsuki cloaks and covered in piercings. Their eyes opened at once to reveal the rinegan.

"We're taking control, finding out what she did, and running damage control." Pein said. "Go."

The six paths of Pein attacked all at once.

It would go down in Ame's history as the bloodiest battle known to the country. Pein would become an even more beloved leader for his defeat of the Demonic Mistress of Hell, as Sakura would become known. Sakura would grudgingly give up control after five hours of fighting where everyone but Sasori and Zetsu and the Mission Office workers turned against her (and her pets but more because they were unconscious in the first hour). Five buildings were reduced to rubble, and ten more retained large scale damage while there were many wounded civilians and ninja.

By the eighth hour everything was back to normal mostly. Pein ended up keeping some of the changes Sakura had put in place, because really they were smart. Revenue had increased by 8% overall and the mission room was much more highly organized. Though he did take some power from those maniacs. They were still so highly feared that no one ever turned in mission reports late, making efficiency raise by another 7%.

By the next day everyone was acting as if nothing had happened and all files on The Incident were filed and locked under a blood seal keyed only to Pein.

.-.

"They forgot us." Itachi said, monotone.

"Yes." Sasuke nodded.

"They're busy." Konan said as she reformed in the room, paper returning to her body.

"We can tell." Sasuke said, snorting as he heard an explosion ring out.

"Pein almost has Sakura under control." Konan defended

"That Psycho will never be fully under control." Sasuke shivered.

Konan cut Itachi's bindings and the man rose silently heading for the aquarium. Inside of it Kisame was panting as he floated on the surface of the water, Piranha corpses, floating about him and the water a nice light red color. Deidara had long ago blasted himself out with a small piece of hidden clay, yelling he had been just waiting for the right moment. Naruto and his clones had tried to mob Sakura at the first opportunity and been dragged into the fight that had crashed through the wall and outside. Tobi had followed, trying to take out Sasori.

Konan watched Itachi eye the tank and the half unconscious Kisame a moment, looking at the bombs. Then he did a kawamiri switching places with Kisame. Kisame gasped as he hit the floor, shaking his head confused. Konan raised a brow at Itachi who paddled water calmly eyeing the bombs above him. Then he took a breath and dived down, running his hand over the seams of the tank and then the wall. He took out a knife from god knows where and jammed it in what looked like a random part of the chakra resistant (and super duper strong) Plexiglas. Then he made a hand signs and slammed his hand on the knife handle. A rush of water followed and the knife smashed through the glass, shattering a whole plane of it. The front burst open spilling water everywhere and letting Itachi land on the floor outside the tank.

Without a word Itachi strode to Kisame and hefted the fish man up on one shoulder, walking out the room.

"Skills." Sasuke said, impressed from where he hung.

Konan nodded agreement and sent a piece of paper to cut the boy loose, catching him as he fell.

"I could have landed fine." Sasuke twitched from her arms.

"And I could catch you fine." She retorted.

"Shouldn't you be helping Pein?" He asked.

"My clones are. And he said take control, that means freeing those captured."

Sasuke gave a 'hmph' as she cut his hands free.

"Chakra sealing rope?" She asked.

"Yes." Sasuke answered.

She set him back on his feet and took his wrists on hand rubbing the circulation back into the red marked arms. She was slightly surprised to see a blush light his face. She was quite sure she'd never seen any form of embarrassment on his face before.

"Does it hurt?" She asked.

"A bit." He grumbled honestly.

She didn't know what possessed her but she raised his wrists to her face and pressed her lips to the rope burns. She felt her lips quirk in a grin as his whole face lit up bright red.

"Do..." Sasuke started clearing his throat. "Do you wanna get out of her? Go grab something to eat?"

"I'd like that." she said.

He gave her a slight smile/smirk and they both ignored the explosion that rocked the building.

.-.

"Holy shit!" Naruto yelped as a building started to fall, right towards him.

Sakura's cackle echoed in his ears and the impact of her fist still shook the falling building.

"Run!" He screamed.

Everyone around him already was doing so luckily. Unluckily though, most were running too slow. Sure the jonin and chunin were quick enough but the genin and civilians were not.

"Ah!" Naruto panicked, forming a hand seal.

A horde of shadow clones burst into existence and ran for the stragglers, grabbing them and leaping for the safety of another building clear of the fall, or just plain running down the road to a safe distance. A few clones even burst through the widows of the falling building and grabbed all the people still trapped inside. They made it clear before the building fully hit the ground thankfully.

"Go help everyone else around the city too." He ordered the clones as he grabbed a man and leapt away just as the building crashed to the ground.

He set the shaking man on the ground just outside of the blast range and looked back at the dust and rubble that was left of the tall strong metal building of Ame. He felt his respect of Sakura go up another notch, his fear of her jumping two notches.

"Oh thank you!" The man he'd set down sobbed, grabbing him a hug. "Thank you!"

"Ah, you're welcome." Naruto said patting his back. "But I have to go now, so yeah."

"Tell me your name!" The man demanded. "So I may sing your glorious praise to the world!"

"Uh, Naruto." Naruto said, uncomfortably. "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Go with luck Uzumaki-sama! May you bring down all your enemies!"

"Yeah." Naruto said before hurrying off. "Weird."

.-.

"So, punishment is in order." Pein said shuffling a report.

Sakura gave him a lazy, self confident smirk from where she sat, dressed as she had been when he'd found her ruling over his country like some demon. Sasori and Zetsu hovered on either side of her like bodyguards. Neither had changed and neither had removed the collars, though the leashes were absent.

"Oh?" She asked. "For what?"

"For..."

He paused.

"For following your orders?" She smirked like a cat.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Damn you." He grumped. "Fine you're being punished for severely misinterpreting my orders to keep control."

"Oh, and how are you going to punish me?" She simpered.

"You'll have too..." He frowned, then struck with an idea smirked. "You have to go retrieve Hidan and Kakuzu. They ran into a spot of trouble while trying to capture Kabuto."

"That doesn't sound like punishment." She raised a brow.

"Trying to pull Kakuzu away from a bounty?" He snorted. "You'll have a great time."

"Fine." She shrugged. "Where were they last seen?"

"Oto."

"…Damn."

.-.

End of Chapter 19