"GOOD MORNING SASORI-SENSEI!" Sakura grinned up to what she assumed was the sleeping puppet master. Nope. He doesn't sleep.

"I've been awake for a very long time. What makes this one a good one?"

"I've made pancakes for breakfast!!!"

"How did you make pancakes for breakfast?"

"I had Tenten give me a scroll that had food in it, and summoned it." Sakura smiled.

The Hiruko puppet grimaced. "You are aware that food has no meaning to me?"

"But... you ate jam?"

"I tasted, not ate jam, ok? Why do so many people get this wrong."

"Because you're a puppet."  

"..."

Sakura just sighed. "I made these pancakes with heart and soul! Why won't you eat them?"

"You didn't make them with heart and soul. You summoned them. That doesn't count as creation with love and heart and soul."

"Oh, Sasori-sensei. What do you know of heart and soul? Everyone knows how you turned yourself into a puppet and killed the Godaime of the Sand."

"Yondaime actually."

Sakura sighed. Sasori sighed along with her. "Do you have your own special Sakura-brand poison with you?"

"Yep."

"Alright. Warning; you're protecting that guy we're supposed to protect. He's about 60 years old, and used to be a bridge-builder. He's now turned his back to the supposed 'light' side after his grandson was killed by the villagers. Now, he's a madman possessed with trying to take over his old village to force unhappiness and poverty down on them. Apparently, some of the villagers hired hit-men to take him down, and he wants protection from them on his way to a treaty with the old Gato corporation, which is now called the Henji Corporation."

"Alright," Sakura panted, as the two ran through the forest towards the meeting place.

"You're alone on the mission and unless you need help from me desperately, I'm not getting involved."

"What's this guy's name? He sounds an awful fucking lot like a guy I used to know."

"His name is Tazuna. His grandson was called Inari."

Sakura screeched to halt. "WHAT?! THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" She yelled out. Sasori's lightning fast reflexes stopped him from going to far.

"What happened?" he asked.

"It's Tazuna. The bridge builder. He. WHAT?! What is the old man doing?! Why's he on the dark side? I really shouldn't guard him; he'll recognise me."

"Too bad. This is a training mission. You will complete it. You don't have a choice."

"Shit."

They soon arrived at the meeting place. Rather than his usual getup, he wore dark clothes reminiscent of Gato's.

"Hello, Tazuna-san." Sasori said. "How are you?"

"Hello, Sasori-san." Tazuna leered. "I'm good. Who did you bring along?"

"My student.  More specifically, Hidan's student. Her name is Sakura."

Sakura nodded hello, face mostly hidden in the Akatsuki cloak. "Pleasure to meet you again, Tazuna-san. I'll be the one who protects you on your way to the meeting with the Henji Corporation. Sasori-sensei is the one who will supervise my training mission. You will be fine."

"Are you kidding me? I paid full price for S Rank criminals to protect me. I ain't getting some whining girl with less power than a mouse to protect me. Nu-uh. My life is valuable. Do you know who I am?"

"The person who built the Great Naruto Bridge, the drunk fool who loved Inari, a doting father." Sakura's reply came quick, describing Tazuna exactly, just like how he was pre-shippuden. 

"NO! NOT ANYMORE. I AM TAZUNA, THE PERSON WHO OWNS KIRI!!!" Tazuna roared, "And I DEMAND that you give me full protection."

"Small fry. You're getting double protection. Now let's go, I don't like to be kept waiting." Sasori said. 

Grumbling, the man set off, mostly in fear of Sasori. "Girly, pink hair, you're staying right by me. I'm not dying cuza you."

Sakura stayed right behind Tazuna, one-bladed scythe clutched in her hand, giving off an air of cool knowing. Almost immediately, she noticed a puddle on the ground. Weird, it hadn't rained in a while. Oh. So this mission was the Akatsuki version of a C rank. Team 7's first C rank. Sakura and Tazuna kept walking. Sakura expected a Kiri nin to get out of the puddle and try to kill them. She just knew it would happen. It did. Three Kiri nin jumped out of the puddle and tried to ambush them from behind. Unfortunately for them, the keyword there was 'tried'. 

Sakura spun around and kicked one of the attackers. Straight in the groin. Chakra-powered. And punched the other two ambushers in the face. One of them dropped to the floor clutching their hurt parts and the other two fainted dead away. 

"Perfect, let's go." Sakura said, spinning away from the three people on the ground.

"Wait." A voice said. 

"What, Sasori-sensei?" Sakura grumbled.

"Aren't Jashinists the people who sacrifice others? Aren't you supposed to draw a circle and triangle and kill people or something?"

"Oh, yeah that. Umm... these are clearly... sinners. But we have a tight schedule, we really shouldn't, let's go."

Sasori didn't answer. Probably didn't care enough to.

Tazuna and Sakura kept walking, Sakura urging Tazuna to walk slightly faster by fast-walking in font of him. He grumbled and huffed and puffed and could barely keep up in spite of his past as a builder. Sakura ignored him. Tazuna kept glancing sideways at Sakura and she was kind of in panic, determined not to show it, but still extremely worried. If Tazuna recognised Sakura, she didn't know what she'd do. Abandon mission? Keep going? Ignore him?

"Hey." Tazuna began. Sakura began shrieking and panicking internally, especially when Tazuna said, "You remind me of someone I know. Do I know you? Have we ever met before?"

"Umm. I'm an Akatsuki member. Do you really believe we've met before?" Sakura said nervously, yet keeping her cool and avoiding the question.

"But you're a new Akatsuki member, so you might've been in the village before. Were are you from? Kiri? Kumo? Iwa? Konoha? Suna? A smaller village, perhaps, than the Five Great Nations?"

"That is classified information that you do not need to know or have permission to know. Please refrain from asking any more questions, Tazuna-san." 

"Wait! I recognize that voice. It belonged to one of the bridge builders, or someone who was there when the Great Naruto Bridge was built. It isn't male; and you're female of course. None of the bridge builders were girls, they were all trying to survive the slums that the Land of Waves had been. By being breadwinners and such. So all the men came to help me build the bridge. Well, the brave ones. So it must be the shinobi, which would fit with your Akatsuki role. Hmm... Who? I can't quite remember any of the shinobi except for the Kyuubi guy, Naruto-kun it was. The one the bridge was named after."

"I said, please refrain from asking any more questions. And while you're at it, stop talking and concentrate on walking, Tazuna-san." Sakura spoke through gritted teeth and emphasized nearly every word.

"Fine, fine, I just wanna know the kunoichi behind the voice. Curse my memory, I really can't remember much about those shinobi or your voic-"

"Tazuna-san. You're talking."

He finally shut up. They kept walking in silence. Power-walking actually.

"But-" Tazuna tried.

"No." Sakura growled.

They were nearing the destination of the hideout in which Tazuna was meant to meet with the Henji Corporation. Sakura then realised something: only three Chunnin had attacked Tazuna. No doubt that he hadn't hired Akatsuki for the road, but for possible betrayal. As they arrived at the front door, Sakura couldn't hold it in and asked, "You hired us for possible betrayal, right? So would you want me to ghost and no one'll see me, or should I come with you?"

"Yes, and come with me. I paid a good price for a bodyguard, but I got a princess so I guess I gotta make do with what I have." Tazuna replied. Sakura sighed. No one expected anything from her. Hell, even after she'd beaten up those Chunnin with ease and efficiency, Tazuna still didn't want anything to do with the 'princess.'

Tazuna walked in, swag in his stride. He strolled nonchalantly into the warehouse and sat down at the table in the middle of the big, gray, cold and empty room. The single table was paired with a flickering light and two steel chairs. Nothing looked inviting and everything screamed TRAP to Sakura, but Tazuna remained oblivious.

"Hello. I assume you are Tazuna-san the long ago bridge builder,  Master of the Land of Waves." The new Gato/Henji Corporation leader said, business tone style.

"Indeed. I didn't catch your name?" Tazuna agreed. But the new corporation leader said nothing about his own name, blatantly ignoring the fact that Tazuna had said anything at all. 

"About the deal. I was thinking that once you get your revenge on the Land of Waves and such, we could make a giant factory on the island and force all the islanders to work there. It would drastically increase the production rate of the Waves and give you more money than you know what to do with, as well as exacting your revenge upon the citizens that let your grandson, Inari, die."

"They didn't let poor Inari die, they killed him. And use honorifics with Inari. You don't know him, or what he's done."

"So," the leader continued with no indication of listening, "This would be the perfect opportunity to do so. All you have to do is sign right here, on this sheet."

Tazuna narrowed his eyes. He wasn't stupid. He knew that if there was no profit for the leader guy, this wouldn't happen. "What's your end of the deal?"

"Oh nothing much, just a small percentage of the money." the leader replied, finally acknowledging the other party's existence.

"How much?"

"Really, nearly nothing."

Tazuna grabbed the contract from the leader's hands. "Hey!" the leader shouted, "No need to become... violent."

The very second Tazuna began reading the pages, the men around the Henji Corporation's leader - a veritable army of commoners weilding dangerous weapons - encircled Sakura and Tazuna. The guy, presumably called Henji, smirked. 

"Just sign it, or some very sharp objects will pierce through your heart before you know it."

"Piece of filth!" Tazuna spat at Henji, who just kept grinning. 

"Oh, so now the pot's calling the kettle black, eh? You're the real piece of scum here, I'm just here to make a profit from it."

Sakura sighed. Poor commoners. Really, they had no idea who she was.

Weak. Her brain called her. Useless. Trash. Nothing. Do you really think you can stand up against so many?

SHUT THE FUCK UP, OK?! Sakura screamed in frustration internally. On the outside, calm as ever. "Tazuna-san?" She asked. "Please... duck!" 

Already knowing what she probably had in mind (fighting), he threw himself to the floor like the floor was candy. Sakura unsheathed her scythe out before the men could register that she'd done that, and most of them either leapt out of the way, or got seriously injured. Unfortunately, this attack could only work once this effectively, because the element of surprise was lost.

"HAYAA!!!" Sakura shrieked, voice high-pitched with tension. A couple more swings, and half of them were down. Clearly, the more experienced half were still standing. A good 20 people in front of her, most of whom were either very lucky, cowards, or had quite a bit of experience fighting, albeit without chakra. 

Most of them rushed at her, pointy sticks, axes, shovels, katanas, a couple normal knives; anything that could be used as a weapon was being used. Wait, what? Was that... a pillow?

Who cares, moving on. No time for sightseeing. 

One down, nineteen to go. Three down, seventeen to go. Five down, twelve to go. Two down, eight to-

She couldn't breath. Sakura dropped her scythe and clutched at her neck, where probably the smartest of them had snuck up on her. She'd let her guard down because they were mere civilians. She hadn't known that they could be this strong without chakra. And... with  her being strangled and all, it would be harder to concentrate her chakra, but no problem. She was a good shinobi, no longer a genin. She concentrated slightly more than normal, letting the chakra build up and flow.

But it didn't. One of the civilian had either accidently or on purpose, managed to his a chakra point, a major one, and she was no longer able to get free.

Above her, Sasori sighed. She'd seemed a lot more powerful before. He jumped down, and landed at the back of the pack of people and said, "Release her, or all of you die."

The civilians turned around. A few didn't recognise the puppet master from the Akatsuki, but the ones who did, showed it. They fled.

All of them.

"Get up and get over yourself." Sasori said to Sakura, who at the moment didn't care. Her chakra point - or points - hurt, her throat hurt, and she was still struggling to breathe.

"I said, get up and get over yourself. I don't like repeating myself." He repeated, edge in his voice. Why in the world do I get the weak one? She seemed so much stronger before, but she couldn't even defeat civilians. Fucking civilians. Great, now I'm becoming Hidan. But... She's nice. She'll learn. After all she even came to the Akatsuki for help, so she'll become really good someday. Sasori thought to himself, face not betraying a thing.

Sakura noticed his tone, and did as he said. Weak. Useless. Ugly. Forehead. HA! Couldn't even defeat civilians. Mere, weak civilians. So you know what that means? That means, you, Sakura Haruno, are weaker than a civilian. Completely useless, as useless as a broken water bottle. Leaking out what little strength you had. What little cunning. No one likes you. Hell, Sasori's probably thinking right now, "What a load of crap for a student that I got." He probably regrets taking me on as a student. She thought to herself, and she tried to keep her emotions in check. She didn't. So you can't even stop the tears from sliding out, can you? Told you you were useless. A tear rolled out of her eye, followed by one more. Sasori didn't notice, or at least, pretended not to. 

Sakura's mission ended. Sasori had gauged the capabilities and limitations of his student, which he would soon enter into the Akatsuki's database, specifically the ones on the files of his new student. 

Sakura had technically failed her mission.

///

A/N

I would like to mention that this book isn't a Sakura hate book. I understand that this book (and especially this chapter) may come off like that, but it's not a Sakura hate book. Don't worry, I have a plan.