#like how EMBARRASSING is it for the akatsuki to waste all this time 'extracting' what they thought was the 8-tails

[panharmonium]

this is the most scorchingly accurate burn anyone’s ever delivered

[raendown]

Pairing: KisameSakura Word count: 2204 Soulmate au” The one where soulmates can't lie to each other

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Chapter 111: KisameSakura

Bearing in mind the horror stories which followed the Akatsuki everywhere they went, Sakura considered herself lucky that her situation wasn’t worse. Her wrists and ankles were both bound with rope woven through several chakra seals to prevent her from augmenting her strength, she’d been placed in a chair rather than on the stone floor of the cavern, and although she was pretty cold at the moment she was grateful that they hadn’t stripped her as some interrogators would. All in all, her situation was about as good as it could be in these circumstances.

There were still numerous places she would rather be than trussed up in a random cave being questioned by Uchiha Itachi while Hoshigake Kisame lounged against a nearby wall and ogled her like a particularly tasty cut of beef. Sakura rolled her eyes and tried to shift in to a position that pulled on her left arm a little less. Doing so only made the ropes pull on her right arm instead but it was such a relief that she didn’t care. Now if only she could get a relief from Itachi’s questions.

“Where is he?” Sakura sighed at hearing this again.

“If I say ‘I don’t know’ in another language, will you understand me then? Because I think I’ve told you that I don’t know probably about a dozen times by now.” Dropping her head back, she glared at the ceiling in boredom. Being captured and interrogated always sounded so dangerous and dramatic when the older shinobi told stories. All this was doing was make her want a nap.

“The jinchūriki is imperative. All I want to know is where he was headed. You are his closest friend and he tells you everything. I don’t believe he would have left the village and not you where he was going.”

Sakura wasn’t about to admit it, but Itachi was right. Naruto would never leave the village without first running around to every single one of his friends for an enthusiastic goodbye. He was like a beam of sunshine determined to shine down on as many people as possible. So yes, she did in fact know exactly where Naruto had been headed and where he was likely to be at this very moment, but that didn’t mean she was going to share that information. For obvious reasons, she didn’t trust Itachi and so he would be getting nothing from her.

As if she would spill information to the enemy.

“This is taking too long,” Kisame moaned from where he was reclined against the wall. Lifting her head upright, Sakura just barely caught a flicker of irritation crossing Itachi’s face.

“Well why don’t you try asking her and see if she’ll talk to you then?”

Despite the very obvious sarcasm in his tone, that didn’t stop Kisame from rising to his feet and wandering over with one hand casually in his pocket, expression making it very clear that he knew he hadn’t actually been invited to join but he planned to anyway.

“Right then girlie,” he began with exaggerated cheer, “why don’t you just tell us where the jinchūriki is?”

“Because I don’t want you to hurt him.” Sakura frowned slightly. While that was actually true she hadn’t really meant to say it. It wasn’t anything her captors couldn’t have surmised on their own, though, so she wasn’t all that upset.

“Who said we’re gonna hurt him?”

“No one.” It wasn’t until she had replied that Sakura realized it was true. Neither one of them had ever so much as implied that they were going to hurt Naruto once they found him. Of course, she thought she could be forgiven for assuming so considering who she was speaking to.

Kisame gave her a look which said he was only just coming to this same realization, making her wonder if there wasn’t some disparity between the plans each partner had for the fate of Konoha’s jinchūriki. It didn’t really matter what their plans were since she was hardly going to help either of them with anything. They were the enemy, plain and simple. Nothing they said would ever change her mind, Sakura was certain of that.

“This is boring,” Kisame noted. “Interrogation is boring. Come on girlie, I don’t want to waste a week trying to get it out of ya. Where is he?”

“He left for Suna to visit the Kazekage, although he might actually be on his way home now.”

Sakura felt his jaw dropping open in shock only moments before a wave of anger rose up in her chest, all of it directed inwards. Her teeth clenched down on a shriek of frustration and betrayal and, above all, confusion. Why the hell had she just said that!? And did she have to be so obvious about her shock over it? That was all the clue her captors needed to know she was telling the truth that time.

“Huh. Well that was unexpected.” Kisame raised his free hand to rub at the back of his neck while Itachi looked back and forth between them with a very careful expression. Tugging at the bonds keeping her in place, Sakura fumed.

“What are you going to do to him?” she demanded. In the corner of her vision she saw Itachi open his mouth, probably to misdirect her or taunt her with a blatant lie, but Kisame beat him to the punch.

“Technically we’re supposed to bring him back to Leader so that his tailed beast can be extracted to further our plans to make a perfect world but honestly I get the impression that Itachi has other ideas.” Kisame’s eyes widened, just as surprised as her at his own answer, and he didn’t seem able to halt the flow of words that continued to spill out. “I’m not really against it as much as I thought I would be. The Akatsuki seemed like a good idea when I joined, pain for a few to make paradise for the rest, but Leader’s always been kind of shifty about how the plan is supposed to actually work so if Itachi thinks there’s a different way to go then I’m kind of alright with following along, yeah?”

“Uh…okay…”

“I didn’t…mean to say any of that. Weird.”

Rubbing at the back of his neck again, Kisame took a hesitant peek backwards at his partner. Itachi was looking back at him more contemplatively than ever. The look in his eye was calculating and, known genius that he was, he seemed to be running through several different thoughts as once. Kisame shrugged and gave him an unapologetic look.

“What can I say?” he murmured. “You pick a horse and you bet on it. Seems to me like you’re the one that’s gonna go the distance, so…”

“I think you may have failed to notice something else which you will undoubtedly find important.” Itachi blinked slowly but did not move. “This friend of the nine-tails jinchūriki, she appears to be your soulmate if I am not mistaken.

“WHAT!?”

Sakura’s jaw dropped open for the second time as her heart rate suddenly skyrocketed. Soulmate? Hers? A member of the Akatsuki?

In front of her, Kisame seemed to be having a similar reaction. His head whipped back and forth between partner and captive until finally he settled on staring at the pink-haired young woman being held in place only by the bonds preventing her from infusing chakra. Beady yellow eyes opened as wide as they could as his arms hung awkwardly at his sides, fingers clenching rhythmically. Finally he cleared his throat.

“Go on. Ask me something.”

“Ask you-? Okay.” Sakura bit her lip. “What do you know about your leader’s plan?”

“I know that he needs all nine of the tailed beasts and that he is sealing their essence in to something he calls the Gedo Statue. Apparently whatever the next step of the plan in needs so much power that only the tailed beasts can help. But once he has them he says he’s going to create a world that is perfect for everyone.”

“You believe that crap?”

“Not anymore. I only believed it at the time because I was really upset about the things I was forced to do in my home village and ‘the perfect world’ sounded like a better goal to work for.” Kisame wrinkled his nose. “What’s with the heavy questions? Making me confess things like that; no fair, I don’t have anything embarrassing to ask you!”

This was quite possibly the weirdest situation Sakura could have ever come up with to find her soulmate in: held captive by two men striving for a goal that neither of them really believed in anymore.

But, soulmate or not, Sakura still had her priorities. She didn’t know this man Kisame but she did know her friends and she knew the things she was willing to sacrifice for them. Naruto had a dream for a better world too but his dream didn’t require anyone to die and that was definitely the plan she was putting her faith behind. Composing herself as well as she could, she raised her chin and met Itachi’s eyes.

“If you don’t want to hurt Naruto then what do want with him?”

She could almost see the exact second when he came to a decision. One moment he was regarding her like a specimen under a microscope, a multiple choice answer on an academy exam, and the next his eyes held a wary offer of friendship she never would have thought to find here.

“Let her free, Kisame. I think her goals align with ours more closely than we all realize.”

“If you’re sure.” With a shrug Kisame came forward and tugged her bonds loose with one massive hand. Chakra rushed back in to her senses, flooding her limbs, and Sakura flexed her arms in satisfaction at no longer feeling quite so helpless. She was amused to see Kisame eyeing her biceps as she did so.

“Feel better, girlie?” he asked her. Sakura snorted.

“I have a name and it is not ‘girlie’.”

“You’re just a tiny slip of a thing,” he noted. “I’m only calling it like I see it.”

Looking him up and down as she rose from her chair, stepping back to keep a cautious distance between her and the two of them, Sakura flicked one wrist dismissively.

“I could put a hole through your skull with once punch,” she said.

“Now that I would love to see.”

The sincerity in his voice was as thrilling as it was confusing. Sakura allowed herself a moment to truly look at the man who was apparently her soulmate. Without the worrying threat of what they would do to her, it was easier to realize that he was actually fairly good looking. His hesitant grin was full of sharp teeth that she really shouldn’t find attractive – although, god help her, she really did. His muscles were well defined and even standing at full height she would barely come up to his chin.

And he wasn’t evil. What a strange thing. In her head the members of the Akatsuki were all inherently evil by association and it was a strange thought to get used to that they were all just as human as her, their motivations as personal and complicated as any shinobi of the Leaf.

Itachi ruined her moment of thought once again as he cleared his throat. Sakura noticed that he had also taken a few steps back to keep a bit of distance from her.

“Kisame is right in assuming that I have my own goals which do not quite fit in with those of the Akatsuki. I was 13 when I left the village and I thought my actions were for the best but it is time I admitted my own mistakes. Uzumaki Naruto, he is looking for my brother, isn’t he?” He waited for Sakura to nod slowly before going on. “As am I. It’s time my brother learned the truth of what happened. And if you desire to know, I will tell you as well.”

“And you?” Sakura fixed her gaze on the other man who had, notably, not moved a single inch away. He’d made no move to close the gap she had made when she backed up but neither had he retreated as his partner had. Kisame gave her an easy grin.

“I think I’ll tag along for a while yet. This all promises to be interesting, if nothing else.”

Nodding, she leaned back against the wall of the cave behind her, keeping both eyes peeled for any suspicious movements. “Start talking then.”

It was quite a story that unfolded before her but Sakura was pretty good at compartmentalizing by now. Rather than allow her faith in the village to be rocked at its foundations, she focused on the positive. Those responsible for the past were either dead or very available for punishment. She was confident that Lady Tsunade would have had nothing to do with any of it.

And she had found her soulmate, as strange as the match might seem. Only patience would reveal what the future had in store for the two of them.