Welcome to a less slutty version of Battle for a Blossom's Love! If you read the first one, many had some reservations about how I portrayed Sakura and her "relationships" and "flings". I don't blame anyone for it as my friend was the one that wanted to portray her that way. We were cowriting and she liked more adult books and things such as why Sakura had an inner demon. Sorry about that. It wasn't done maliciously, it just came out the wrong way for the story, as she had said.

This book will have the same outcome and mostly the same plot with a few exceptions and Masuda will not be included. The sequel to this story is already out and so if you've already read the original version of this story and don't want to read the revised version, go ahead to the sequel called Tests of Heart. I hope you enjoy this story and the sequel and that you enjoyed the original Battle for a Blossom's Love. Now welcome to The Heart's Battlefield.

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The pinkette wondered how she had gotten into the mess she was in currently. The room she was in wasn't the cleanest, but it wasn't a dungeon like she had thought she would be thrown in. She couldn't help but look at the chains that were supposed to bind her. The chains sapped your chakra and were a marvel. Of course she was supposed to be bound, but they were uncomfortable so she had removed the chains long ago. She knew how to pick locks after all.

She had been sitting in the same spot for hours, ever since she was put in the room.

Sakura wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her forehead on her knees. Light was starting to filter through the dusty sand colored curtains, causing golden light to sift through the dusty air. The room must not have been used often, Sakura mused to herself.

Suddenly footsteps could be heard along with hushed voices, though the jade eyed woman didn't care to figure out who it was. Her head was still reeling with the fact that most of the Akatsuki were ALIVE. They weren't reanimated, but were living and breathing.

The door opened and Itachi and Kisame stepped into the room. The two blinked at the sudden light, the hallway beyond them bathed in darkness. Their eyes looked around the room quickly before falling on the kunoichi in front of them, sitting exactly where their comrades had placed her last night. Itachi noticed light bags under her eyes and sighed. She hadn't slept at all. He glanced over at the bedside table noticing the food left there was untouched as well.

"Your strength will wane at some point kunoichi," he said slowly to her.

Sakura lifted her head and looked at him, studying his features. She then looked at Kisame and did the same with the same stoic expression. She was devoid of emotion as she looked over them then sighed heavily and shrugged.

"Maybe someone will notice me then," she said just as slowly back to the two shinobi.

Kisame was definitely unnerved. It was one thing to be nonchalant or seem uncaring, and a totally other thing to actually not care at all. Last he saw the young woman, she was full of life and was serious about her presentation and all she did. She was a medic nin too if he remembered right.

"You should know as a medical ninja that loss of sleep can greatly inhibit a person's abilities and eventually their personality and mind," Itachi said with a tilt of his head.

Sakura copied him and shrugged yet again. If Itachi wasn't concerned before, he was now. He didn't show it but instead walked to her and helped her up. He wasn't concerned at the fact that she didn't have chains any longer and just motioned for Kisame to take the lead, Sakura situated in a way as to walk between the two men.

She looked at everything in the hallways lazily, not really caring what she was seeing but still observing it all in case she had to make a quick escape. By the way the group was treating her though, they either didn't care if she did or didn't think she would. Sakura didn't have anything to go back to so it didn't matter to her.

There was a pang in her heart when she thought about Konoha. It was supposed to be her home, but lately it seemed like a prison. Even though she had been kidnapped, she felt more free now than she had in years. It was two years ago when the last ninja war ended that she felt so free, and she was 18 turning 19 now.

Of course it still didn't matter to her. She may feel free, but she knew she wasn't. At some point she knew someone was going to notice and try to get her back just to forget her again. There was one person that would still notice her gone, just one, in Konoha, that she still cared for. He'd understand though.

Soon enough the three came to a door with rei engraved on it, the symbol meaning zero. She knew who she was about to face, but she was surprised when there was an extra person in the room. Three people stood behind the desk in front of her, though the one had been dead for much longer than the other two. He looked aged up though, unlike when he was an undead puppet.

"You must be Yahiko," Sakura questioned.

The orange haired man gave a bright smile, one she used to see daily but on another man. "Yea, that's me!"

Konan, the angel of the Akatsuki, stood beside him with a much softer look on her face than Sakura had ever seen before. She used to look at Sasuke like that, before he forgot about her like the others had.

Nagato was the only one that looked serious, other than Itachi and Kisame of course. With a wave of his hand, Nagato beckoned the partners away so the four remaining could talk without interruption.

"We know you have no reason to trust us after everything we've done," Nagato said slowly, as if to not startle the pinkette, "but we need help and you're the only one that seems like you'd have enough knowledge to help."

Sakura raised a pink brow as a frown broke her stoic facade. "What are you talking about?"

If he was anything like his old self, Nagato would have been annoyed. In the moment though, he was just concerned. This wasn't the Haruno Sakura he had read about or remembered. She seemed...broken.

His breathing stalled as he realized this.

"What happened to you?"

Yahiko was clueless about what was happening, and why Nagato was asking the girl what's wrong with her. Konan, though, was wondering the same thing. Konan was never very good with personal things and grabbed Yahiko's hand and pulled.

"We're gonna leave, Nagato," she said and simply dragged Yahiko out as he protested. He wanted to know why Nagato cared.

Sakura didn't notice as Konan and Yahiko left, even though they went right past her. She could only stare blankly with her eyes wide at Nagato. "I'm sorry?"

"What happened to you?" Nagato asked again, slowly. She may not realize it, but he could see the way her body was tensing up. She was freezing up. "I've read about you and you're nothing like what I've read, personality wise at least. It's only been two years since the war."

Sakura slowly reined herself in. Her muscles relaxed, her fists that had clenched up at some point released, and her eyes cast downwards as she turned to the side. "Konoha happened."

A silence ensued then Nagato spoke up. "We want you to join the Akatsuki."

Sakura's head whipped around, and she bared her teeth at the audacity. "The hell do you mean?!"

Nagato sighed and sat down at the desk finally. One minute the girl looked ready to lob herself from a cliff, the next she was furious that he dared ask her to leave the place that hurt her so much.

"You said Konoha happened," Nagato said. "If it is the cause of your pain, why don't you leave? Come here to us where we can make a difference, the right way around this time. We'll treat you well here and you'll help the village thrive better than it ever has. We can only do so much."

Sakura scoffed and turned her back on the redhead. The Uzumaki had some nerve.

"They may have hurt me, but Konoha is still my home," Sakura said in a soft voice despite how she wanted to scream.

"Don't keep telling yourself that, Haruno...Sakura, you'll just keep getting hurt."

With that Nagato used his ring to send a message through to Itachi using his chakra and the rings as a conduit. Within moments he and Kisame were at the door to lead Sakura back to her room.

"Stay or go, it's up to you," he said softly. "At least give it a thought."

Sakura exited the room in silence and continued her silence until she was alone in her room once more. Only then, did she let out the softest of sobs and cried herself to sleep.

Nagato couldn't believe the kunoichi. She still had fire in her veins, even with such deep scars. They weren't physical, but you could hear them when she spoke, see them in her eyes, feel them with her movements. Nagato may have had a twisted sense of justice before, but he could now tell so much more with his new views. He knew when someone was hurting, and she exuded heartbreak and pain in everything she did.

It was a few hours before Konan and Yahiko came back into the room, cautiously.

"You okay?" Konan asked softly.

"She's broken."

Yahiko shook his head. "How can a person be broken?" he asked in disbelief.

Konan lowered her head and looked at the floor. "We were."

Nagato sighed and looked at his hands as he clasped them on his desk. "We really were, still are a bit."

Yahiko gave a light laugh, causing Konan to look up with the ghost of a smile on her lips. "Maybe a little bit."

Konan's slight smile fell immediately after and the three looked at each other wearily. It'll be a long way still, till they're all alright, maybe more for their possible recruit.