Konoha's Cherry Blossom Ch.12

Hinata estimated that it would take them a few hours to reach the headquarters.  By the time about twenty minutes had gone by, each ninja had already come up with a name and background of who they were going to be as an Akatsuki.
Hinata : Hyuga from Konoha.  She left when she was young to the Tea Country.  She had abandoned the Tea Country when she was 17.  Her new name is Chyio Hyuga.
Sasuke : No one is sure of where he originated.  He was raised in the Sound Village.  Became a rouge (sp) ninja four years ago.  New name is Tasano
Sakura : Raised in Ice Country; worked of an underground force trying to over through village neighbors.  Worked with Chyio Hyuga for a little over two years, met up with Tasano one year later.  New name: Tiashi Mortaraka.

Now they were standing on a hilltop, watching over the headquarters from a bird’s eye view.  Sasuke spoke up.
“Okay, we’re here.  The question is, how do we become members?  It’s not like we can just walk in,” he said.  His voice was different—a little bit lower than his usual voice.  Hinata slowly turned around, a kunai in her hand.  Her voice was bored, perfectly covering her nervousness.
“You can come out now—there is no point in hiding.”  From the bushes that were behind them, a man stepped out.  He was a little tan, with silky blonde hair.  Half of it was in a high ponytail, the other half hanging limply over his face.  If Sakura didn’t know better, she might have mistaken him for a very strange looking woman.  There was a mocking smirk on his face.
“So, you three want to join Akatsuki, un?” he said, walking towards them.  Once he was close enough, he snapped his fingers.  The next thing they knew, they were all standing at the end of a white hall.  In front of them stood a white door, also white.  Sakura took notice of the big ‘A’ written in dark red.
“My name’s Deidara, by the way,” he said.  He turned slowly towards the door.  Bringing his hand up ever so slowly, the man knocked once on the door, too softly to be even heard from the other side, and yet—
“What is it?  What do you want?” someone yelled rather rudely.  Deidara cringed back slightly from the sudden outburst. After asking a deep breath to calm him enough, Deidara answered.
“We have three rouge ninja who wish to become members of the organization.  Two female, one male.  They look promising,” he added slyly. There was a slight pause.
“Fine then.  Deidara, you know the drill.  I’ll watch from here.”   Deidara then motioned for the newcomers to follow him down more levels of stairs and through the winding halls.  He was also the first to start some conversation.
“So, what are your names, un,” he asked casually.   Sasuke answered first.
“I’m Tasano.  This is Chyio Hyuga and Tiashi Mortaraka.”  Deidara suddenly became interested.
“Hyuga, you say.  You from the Leaf, un?”  He had a tone of suspicion in his voice.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Hinata snarled.  “I left the village years ago.  It was boring and I wasn’t learning much because the entire clan was so interested in the powerful Neji.  So I lived in the Tea Country for a while, but I left that place, too.”
“Hmm.  Interesting.  And what about you two, un?”  Sasuke and Sakura gave Deidara their ‘stories’.  He believed them easily.
“So, where are you taking us?” Sakura questioned.  
“The kitchen, where everyone else is, or should be.”  He opened the door, and ushered them inside.  It was the biggest kitchen Sakura had ever seen with an island in the middle.
“Hey, guys, look!  Potential members, un!”  All of a sudden, Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata were being shuffled outside where some of the training grounds were.  Once there, the trio was facing the entire Akatsuki-which wasn’t too big to begin with.  Deidara stepped forward away from the group.  “Okay, so here is how it goes.  Each of you will fight one of us in a 5 minute spare.  Then, you will be sent back up to see Leader for some questions.  Then he will decide if you are worthy of becoming part of the Akatsuki.  Any questions, un?”  
“Who will we be sparing with?” Sasuke asked.
“We decide that,” Itatchi said out of nowhere.  He walked up and stood next to Deidara.  “And I think I will fight . . . you.”
He looked right at Sakura.
Sasuke mentally cursed.
He and Hinata went and joined the other men at the sidelines.  Itatchi walked out and stood several yards across from Sakura.
“Go, un!”
Since Itatchi didn’t make the first move, Sakura did.  He was deflecting all of her attacks effortlessly.  She tried everything that would normally work, but there was just one problem.
’I have to get around that stupid Sharingan of his!  But how?’ Sakura looked around.
“So that’s how it’s going to be,” she mumbled, jumping high in the air.  She then turned upside-down and came spinning down to the ground like a screw, her fist out in front of her.  The moment she made contact with the earth beneath her, it shattered into pieces tinier than grains of sand, leaving a huge crater in the middle of the area.
And Itatchi was in the center of it.
Sakura could swear that for one pure millisecond there was shock on his face, but as quickly as it came, it was replaced by the same, stoic expression that the Uchiha brothers shared.  Sakura then disappeared and then reappeared several times in a well thought out pattern meant to confuse her opponent.  After a few minutes with continuing her tactic and gaining incredible speed along with it, she finally saw an opening.  When snuck up behind Itatchi, gathered chakra in her hand, and struck him hard in the lower back, right where a pressure point was.  She had learned long ago that when this spot was struck, the victim was completely paralyzed for two long seconds.  Sakura took this time to her great advantage.  She put her fingers over her eyes and sent forceful waves of a secret medic’s chakra into the pupils of his eyes.  Itatchi cried out in pain, and jumped far back from where Sakura was, putting his hands over his eyes while bent over slightly.  Sakura stayed where she was, a smirk slowly making its way across her face.  Everyone watching the match glanced at Itatchi.  When he removed his hands, they all silently gasped.
His Sharingan was gone.
After a moment, Itatchi squinted his eyes only a little.  This made Sakura chuckle.
“Without your Sharingan activated, you are legally blind.  Although I’m not really surprised; I’ve heard that this happens when you use an excessive amount of Sharigan over the years.  Only rumors, but still; it can only make one wonder.  So I tried a little trick of my own to see if those silly rumors are true.  I guess they aren’t so silly anymore.”  Sasuke took a mental note of all of this.  Then the unexpected happened.  Itatchi raised his hand in the air, showing that he is done.
“You win,” he said dryly.  And with that, he was gone.  Sakura stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what just happened.  He. . . gave up?  That was something she really didn’t expect to happen.  She felt her new white hair whip at her face in the wind.  She turned towards Deidara as he strolled towards her.
“So. . . . Now what happens?” she asked.
“You go up to have a chat with Leader.   His room is on the third level, furthest door to the southwest.  It has the big A on it, remember?”  Sakura gave him a curt nod.
“Yeah, I remember.”  And with that, she headed off to Leader’s.