Perception

Warnings: Rated M for violence, language and sexual situations/adult themes. Naruto and its characters are owned by Kishimoto.


Thank you all so much again for all the awesome reviews! I do read each and every one and they all make me smile and want to write more!

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Perception by Cynchick
Chapter 10: In Darkness I Know Myself


“Sakura-san!”


The sound of the door opening and hurried footsteps pulled Sakura from her alcohol-deepened sleep, and she squinted to try and make out the bulky figure against the dim light of the hallway. “Tobi?”


The masked nin was highly agitated and was waving his hands frantically in her direction. “Wake up! There’s trouble, Sakura-san! We have to get downstairs fast!”


As much as she wanted to tell him to go away and let her sleep it off, she knew better than to argue in this kind of situation. She sat up as quickly as her inebriated state would allow and cautiously got to her feet. How long had it been since she’d gone to bed? She looked over at the jittery masked man. He was passed out cold earlier. Did he already sleep it off? Groaning under her breath and wondering why things like this always had to happen at the worst possible times, like when she was drunk, she finished strapping on her boots and moved to Tobi’s side.


“You’d better grab your stuff, Sakura-san.”


She did, muttering obscenities under her breath about how the universe liked to torment her, and returned to the doorway. “What’s going on, Tobi?”


He shrugged. “Deidara-senpai just told me to come and get you. We have to leave this place, that’s all Tobi knows.”


Sakura nodded and they left the room, closing the door behind them. The other room was closed too, and she looked at it curiously as they hurried down the hall. “Where is everyone?”


“Downstairs. Deidara-senpai went to go wake up the manger. They’re waiting for us,” he said as they descended the staircase and passed through the no-ren into the reception area.


There was no one in the lobby, but voices could be heard from beyond the doorway behind the desk. Sakura assumed it led to the manager’s private residence. From the sound of the muffled voices she heard in the back, whatever was happening in there didn’t sound good. They were soon about to find out, because Tobi went right past the desk and through the private doorway.


They entered a small kitchen and dining area where the innkeeper lived. She immediately noticed the stench and the slovenly state of this private area, not a surprise from such a filthy little man, but that wasn’t what caught her attention. What she saw was not far from what she had expected, though she had hoped against it.


Deidara was there with the shady innkeeper, grasping him tightly by the back of what was left of his hair and dragging him roughly from the back of the apartment into the kitchen. “You made the worst mistake of your life tonight, old man,” the blonde said harshly.


“The last mistake, right Deidara-senpai?” Tobi asked a bit too cheerfully for the situation.


“Mmm.” Deidara agreed smugly, jerking his hold on the little man, who was emitting small squealing noises that were very porcine in nature. The blonde looked up and met Sakura’s eyes then, and she was taken aback by how hard and cold those ice-blue orbs were. Although his anger wasn’t directed at her, rather at the sniveling innkeeper, she was still struck by the change in him. Gone were the laid-back humor and casual arrogance. Right now he was all business and intimidating malice. She hadn’t by any means forgotten just what he was, but this was the first time she’d seen the dangerous cold-blooded killer and international s-class criminal side of him since that day in the town square.


“What’s going on?” she asked the blonde in alarm just as Kisame walked in. The shark man took in the scene and snickered sadistically.


Deidara kicked the innkeeper in the back of the knee, making him fall to the ground with a startled cry, still keeping his grip in the man’s balding hair. “This little fucker recognized us as Akatsuki and decided to turn us in for the reward money Iwa is giving for information, yeah,” he growled, giving the hair in his fingers an angry twist.


“Please! I swear I didn’t do anything! I didn’t tell anyone you were here just like I promised! I swear!” the innkeeper cried frantically, trying to grovel at Deidara’s feet, which the blonde was preventing by tugging upward on the man’s hair.


“Cut the bullshit, old man. You picked the wrong people to snitch on this time,” Kisame said menacingly, glaring at the man on the ground with a pointy-toothed sneer.


“How do you know he notified the authorities?” Sakura asked, eyeing the innkeeper with distaste. Whether he was innocent of this or not, he gave her the creeps.


“Because we discovered a team of Stone nins lurking around down the block, and when we checked the reception desk, we found the contact information for Iwagakure,” the shark answered darkly.


“Hunters?” she asked.


“No, just a scout team. But the hunters are on their way now, trust me. They’ll be here soon, if they’re not already in town.”


“No, no! I swear…it’s a coincidence that those guys are here! I…that stuff in the desk ain’t mine! I was set up! Yeah…I’m being set up! Pl- eagh!”


“Shut up! It’s too late for begging, yeah,” Deidara said, jerking on the man’s head to silence him.


“What are we waiting for, then? Where are the scouts now?” she wondered.


“Dead.” Sakura turned to see Itachi walk casually into the room, as if nothing unusual or exciting was happening. As if he hadn’t just killed an entire team of scouts single-handedly in a matter of minutes. She knew he’d taken care of them, but he looked like he’d just come in from an evening stroll. He didn’t even smell like blood. But this was Uchiha Itachi after all; she was sure he took them all out without even getting close enough for the blood spray. “Is everything settled here?” he asked.


Deidara nodded, and Kisame grinned and began to walk toward the blonde and his captive. “Stand him up, Deidara,” the shark said.


He did, pulling hard on the man’s hair and forcing him to stand. The traitorous little man began flailing his arms wildly. “No! No, wait, please…I’m telling you! I-”


“Wait a sec!” Deidara exclaimed, but he was ignored as Kisame reached in his cloak and pulled out a kunai, and with amazing speed, slit the dirty dealing innkeeper’s throat. The blood sprayed Deidara right in the face, and he glared at the shark man as he dropped his hold on the innkeeper, who fell to the floor with a choked gurgling sound. “Damn it, Kisame! Couldn’t you wait ‘till I was out of the way, hmm?” he asked angrily, squinting an eye and wiping his face with the back of his hand.


“You’ll live.” Kisame replied gruffly and walked back out to the reception area.


Sakura was slightly horrified at what had just happened, and how they could be so nonchalant about killing people like that, no matter how despicable they had been in life. But she knew better than to expect mercy and understanding from Akatsuki members. She stared morbidly at the corpse of the innkeeper still bleeding out onto the dirty floor. She couldn’t have tried to heal him even if they had allowed her to, and they wouldn’t have. She looked away quickly and reached in her medic apron for some gauze, handing it to Deidara as he walked over to her.


“Thanks.” he said irritably, taking the cloth and wiping the blood from his face and hand.


“We need to leave.” Itachi said, seemingly unfazed by anything that was happening around him, as usual.


“Ugh! It’s in my fucking hair!” Deidara cried plaintively, holding up a strand of his long bangs, his expression fixed with the frown-pout. “I’ll get you for this, Kisame, you hear me, hmm?”


A muffled voice that said something suspiciously like “bring it” drifted in from the other room. Sakura almost felt inclined to smile at the woeful appearance of the blonde Akatsuki, if in reality it wasn’t actually rather gross. Her head was still a bit fuzzy and she was not quite steady on her feet, but she couldn’t risk burning the remaining effects of alcohol off because she had a feeling she would probably be fighting for her life very soon and needed to preserve her chakra. Resisting the urge to look one last time at the dead innkeeper, she followed the four men out of the inn and prepared herself for another long, hard run.

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They were roughly two miles out of town when it began to rain. There was a loud crack of thunder and soon after the sky opened up and let loose a hard, drenching torrent common for the time of year. Large droplets penetrated the sparse tree cover and pelted the earth, and the forest was soon filled with an eerie mist. This could work for or against them if they were caught; it was all a matter of who found who first.


The rain also made it more perilous to travel at such high speeds. The five of them ran harder than they had last time because they knew they had direct pursuit after them, though the fact that most of them were still slightly intoxicated wasn’t helping to make their escape easier, especially when combined with the wet branches and low visibility. Sakura occasionally heard feet slip against wet moss as they leapt through the trees, and more than once it was her who slipped, but no one lost footing or stumbled. They could not afford to. She hadn’t had the time or foresight to put on her traveling cloak, and was soon soaked to the skin, though the exertion was preventing her from getting chilled.


Another mile into the scant forest and they felt the first signs of their pursuers. They were catching up slowly but surely, and the five of them began to push even harder. This was Stone territory and they knew it inside out. Deidara was leading them because this was his native land as well and he had a better idea of where to go than the rest, but he hadn’t been here for many years and no longer had the home advantage that his former allies held.


Sakura wondered if this was what life as a missing-nin was like; always running, never relaxing or letting your guard down even for a moment. Never trusting anyone. Never feeling safe. No sanctuary. No home. She couldn’t imagine how anyone could want to live a life like that. She knew now what Deidara had meant when he said that no missing-nin chose this life from the beginning. This was the price they paid for their ambition. For their greed. For their mistakes.


She knew why Deidara had left his home and became a missing-nin, and she wondered about the others. Why had Kisame left? She didn’t know how any Mist ninja became missing-nin when the things that were legal in their village were already atrocious. How bad did they have to get? She knew he would never tell her. He just wasn’t like that. Tobi was a total mystery. No one knew anything about him, including what he looked like, and he never talked about his past. It was strange that he gave nothing away about who he was or where he came from, because Sakura knew he wasn’t that smart. That, or he was playing them all for fools. It was almost as though he didn’t remember his past himself. How he’d ended up a missing-nin was the real mystery, since he had such an open and friendly personality and she’d never actually seen him show any traits of a criminal or even heard of him doing anything really bad. He had misguided ideals about what was right and wrong, but he was almost childlike in the way he looked at things and the world around him. If he really was an amnesiac, there was no point in even asking him.


Itachi was the one she knew the most about, given that she had access to his top-secret file in Konoha, yet he was the biggest mystery of them all. She knew how he had become a missing-nin, what he had done, but the details surrounding the events were vague and unclear at best. She knew that when he was thirteen he was suspect in the death of his cousin. Then, before he could be charged with anything, he had murdered his entire clan - dozens of people - in a single night except for his younger brother, leaving the village immediately following the massacre. Clan affairs were kept within the clan, and the details of whether he was going to be charged with his cousin’s murder or not were never revealed outside of the clan and the information has been lost. If he had done it, then why?


She knew he was a prodigy from birth, in ways Sasuke had never even come close to, and had been the shining star of his clan. He was a perfect ninja, effortlessly mastering anything thrown his way. He was the captain of an ANBU squad at only thirteen, an unprecedented and unrivaled achievement to this day. His ANBU record was spotless and he’d had a reputation as a flawless, emotionless assassin. If that was true, why would he kill another clan member without reason? Jealousy over an up-and-coming rival? Self defense because they were jealous and wanted him out of the way? It made no sense. It also didn’t seem right that he would kill his whole clan just to avoid prosecution because the massacre itself was a far worse crime. When she’d asked, he’d told her it was to test his own capacity. Meaning he did it just to see if he could, to prove whether or not he really was a perfect and impartial killer and how far he would go to further his own ambition and desire for power and perfection. It seemed like a logical explanation because he was an insane sociopath and that rationale seemed to fit him. But there was a flaw there as well; if he truly wanted to test his limitations, he would have killed Sasuke because his younger brother was the one person he was closest to. So why did he leave him alive? Maybe she was over-thinking it. Maybe he really was just completely insane. Still, there was something about it all that just didn’t sit right with her.


Sakura was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt the presence of their pursuers move in closer. She wondered why they didn’t stop and fight them off, since they were out in the middle of nowhere and if they eliminated them all they could just move on at their own pace. She found out a moment later when she felt more signatures from the tailing Stone nins. There were dozens of them. Iwa had sent an entire platoon or more after them, because they were Akatsuki. This was not good. If they had to turn and fight, Sakura would have to fight too, because she was with the Akatsuki freely and not bound as a prisoner they wouldn’t stop to think that she wasn’t really one of them. At the same time, Stone was notoriously hostile to any and all outsiders and Hidden Leaf was not an ally. They would kill her too no questions asked, or if they decided to take her hostage she would be far worse off than she was now and no one would ever find her. To save her own life, she would have to fight along side her captors.


Up ahead, she saw Deidara slow up and motion to the others to group together more closely as they ran. They did, and he spoke lowly in a harsh, slightly winded tone. “We won’t be able to lose these bastards since we can’t slow down enough to cover our trail, yeah.”


“How far is the border?” Itachi asked, no trace of fatigue or agitation in his tone. Damn him, thought Sakura as she tried to keep her breathing even.


“About twenty miles, but you know it’s non-shinobi territory, and they will follow us over, yeah. Trust me,” the blonde replied.


“So we fight then,” Kisame offered with a gleam of anticipation in his silvery eyes.


“Looks that way, yeah,” Deidara said, beginning to look even more eager than the bloodthirsty shark nin. Sakura knew that the explosives expert would be particularly aggressive against Stone nins.


“It can’t be helped,” Itachi said almost irritably. Sakura had heard before that the older Uchiha was somewhat of a pacifist and refrained from fighting unless they were his mission target or they left him no other option. She thought it strange, considering how merciless and cruel he was when he did fight. “Can you see how many of them there are, Deidara?” he finished.


Deidara shook his head. “I tried to get in on my scope but the trees and the rain and fog make it too difficult, yeah. I won’t be able to see for sure until I get in the air, but as I’m sure you can all feel, there are a lot of them.”


“We’ll have to split up, have three of us lead the majority of them off in another direction while one of us takes her away,” Kisame said.


“What? Why? That’s stupid, I’m not a helpless genin!” Sakura protested.


“Oh? You’d fight along side us? That’s a touching sentiment, princess, but we can’t have anything happen to you so this time you don’t get a choice,” Kisame snickered. “Which one of us is gonna go with her?” he continued, ignoring the kunoichi’s indignant glare.


“I can take her up in the air with me, yeah. She’ll be pretty secure that way,” Deidara offered.


Kisame snorted. “That won’t work, since you’re no doubt gonna be right in the middle of it going nuts on your old buddies. She has to be away from the majority of the fighting. Itachi should take her; he’s the best choice for fighting multiple enemies in case some of those Stone nins follow them.”


“That’s fine,” Itachi said impassively.


Deidara just shrugged and threw something into the air in front of him. He made a quick hand seal and leapt off the edge of the branch he was on into open air. He fell out of sight for a second then appeared again on the back of a giant clay bird as it lifted higher in the air. He rose to the top of the tree line, reached into his pouches and began molding clay. He tossed what were apparently missile-type explosives that looked like birds out before him and they zoomed off into the forest. There were several large, resounding explosion about five hundred meters away, and the blonde Akatsuki began laughing maniacally and shouting obscenities in the direction of his bombs. Tobi cheered him on and Sakura couldn’t help but laugh a little. He really was a mad bomber.


“Sakura.” Itachi landed next to her and grabbed her upper arm. “They will lead them away from us, we must go,” he said softly. His crimson eyes glinted darkly, and she nodded. There was no use arguing. He turned in the opposite direction the other three were heading and leapt away, Sakura following after.

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They ran hard in the opposite direction from where their companions were heading, bounding through underbrush and leaping among tree branches and over small streams made by the storm. Itachi remained within arms reach of her the entire time. Fortunately the exertion combined with the cold night air had finally burned off the last traces of her intoxication, and she was full up on chakra unlike last time, so she was not having too much difficulty keeping up with the Uchiha’s pace. Now if only she wasn’t soaked to the bone.


The fog and rain was making it difficult to see, but up ahead she noticed that the ground seemed to have a gap or rift in it like there was a large hole, and she prepared herself to jump when she reached it. Suddenly, Itachi sped up ahead of her and jumped not over but down into the rift, his dark cloak billowing out around him as he fell. A moment later when she reached the gap she jumped down as well and found herself in a somewhat deep trench that had been carved into the earth by a small creek. Itachi only paused for a moment to make sure she’d followed him down, and then began to run again along the top of the water. So that was his idea, she thought. Moving along a waterway left no trace of a trail and no scent to follow. Even ninken dogs couldn’t track over water, especially not in the rain.


They ran along the water’s surface for at least a mile, avoiding slippery river rocks and the protruding roots and branches that jutted from the gully walls. She estimated they were about three miles from where the group had separated. A few times, they heard distant booming sounds from the battle taking place only a few miles away. Deidara must be having a blast, she thought with a giggle, and she saw Itachi glance at her from the corner of his eye.


The shallow gorge began to slope upward and a quarter mile later it ended and they found themselves back on forest level. She saw that the gully started again several yards away, almost as if this part of the ground had been filled in, and she soon realized that they were on a man-made path no doubt used for travel through this area. It wasn’t a good idea to linger here, and they quickly ran back under cover of the trees and soon leapt up into the branches once more.


Several hundred yards in Itachi stopped on a large branch of an enormous tree, and Sakura landed next to him carefully. He reached an arm out in front of her to indicate that they weren’t moving on, and she looked up at his face, half hidden by his high collar and the dark strands of hair falling over his eyes. He was scanning the area for signs of any enemy presence. “Is it safe to stop here?” she whispered.


He nodded and dropped his arm, turning his body to look at her once he was satisfied they were in the clear. She could see the exposed parts of him were as soaked as she was. Strands of his dark hair were plastered to his brow and cheeks, rivulets of water dripping off of them down his neck and into the open part of his cloak. Luckily the canopy of this tree was thick enough that it provided somewhat decent shelter against the torrent.


The branch they were standing on was wide at its base but short, and tilted upward at a ‘v’ angle, forcing them to stand close together in order to both fit. It was a little awkward, but a little thrilling at the same time, and she remembered the incident in the hallway only a few hours ago.


At first she’d thought he was just messing with her head again, but now she couldn’t be sure. If he wanted to play mind games he didn’t have to go that far. And the way he’d touched her, pressed his body against hers, and moved his hands so sensuously over her. The way his mouth had felt against her neck, moving so lustfully over her sensitive skin…it had felt very genuine, not to mention incredibly erotic. The look in his eyes had been one of pure, undisguised lust. He was no longer messing with her head, and she wondered if it had changed that night in the dining room. This, what had happened earlier in that dark hallway, was no longer a game. He wanted her for real, and she didn’t know if that awareness made her feel better or worse about this thing between them. And she could no longer deny that she felt it too. Even now as she looked at him she felt her cheeks flush and the heat pool in her belly at the memory of his lips and tongue on her skin. She looked away before he noticed the change in her, even though he wasn’t looking in her direction.


They stood there in silence for a few minutes. Sakura couldn’t hear any more of Deidara’s explosions, or any other sounds of battle. “How will the others find us?” she whispered curiously.


He turned his head and she felt the weight of his entrancing gaze settle on her. “They have ways.” he whispered cryptically.


She pondered that statement for a moment. Perhaps Deidara could find them from the air with his scope, though she doubted it given the weather condition. Maybe it had something to do with their rings. Whatever it was, she hoped they took care of those Stone nins and found them soon, because now that she was stationary her drenched state was beginning to make her very cold.


A few minutes later Itachi noticed her begin to shiver slightly. She had her jaw clenched tightly so her teeth didn’t chatter, and she was obviously trying to hide her discomfort. He smirked. She refused to ever show any weakness, her emotional nature aside. He assumed it was because when she was younger she had been pitifully inferior to her teammates, who were all extraordinary in their own ways. But so was she, a fact that she didn’t seem to realize. She wasn’t insecure by any means, but her lack of arrogance was refreshing to someone who had been around his fair share of boastful and egomaniacal shinobi, his blonde comrade being a good example. Yes, the petite kunoichi beside him trying hard to act unaffected by the rain and cold was extraordinary in many ways, and was far more interesting and impressive to him that any of her teammates or anyone else he’d met in a long while. It would be a true shame if she forced him to kill her once he’d taken the Kyuubi.


She noticed him watching her appraisingly and crossed her arms over her chest to hide the fact that she was shivering, leaning her back against the tree trunk and trying to look casual. He tilted his head slightly and smirked at her. “Where is your cloak?” he asked softly.


“In my pack. I didn’t have time to put it on before we left, and if I put it on now it will get as wet as everything else and won’t keep me warm. I have to wait until we get out of this rain. But I’m fine, it’s not that big of a deal.” she answered stiffly.


Itachi didn’t reply, merely continued to watch her. After a moment he began to open his cloak. He moved closer to her and leaned against the tree at her side. “What-” she began, her eyes going wide.


“You’re freezing,” he stated quietly, his arm bracing against the trunk as he opened his cloak fully and leaned closer.


“I’ll be fine,” she muttered grumpily. Damn him and his stupid eyes!


“No, you will become ill or hypothermic. If that happens, one of us will have to carry you,” he goaded, knowing that being helpless was a sore spot for the petite woman. He shifted his large cloak open wider so that the edges encompassed both of them.


She frowned. He was very close, and she could already feel his body heat easing into her. It was comforting, even coming from him, but she wouldn’t give in so easily. “Then I’ll just use chakra to speed up my metabolism and keep myself warm.” she said, and prepared to do just that.


“Don’t.” he said quietly but sharply, his arm coming up to press her shoulder into the tree. “You must conserve your chakra in case we are confronted, and the signature would attract enemies to us.” The pressure of his hand wasn’t forceful, and after a moment when he was sure she’d heeded his warning, he moved it from her shoulder to the tree trunk on the other side of her, closing her in.


She didn’t shy away at his extreme closeness, and there was nowhere to move if she wanted to. Still, she didn’t think it was a good idea to be like this, for reasons different than what she would have thought. “I…this isn’t necessary…” she muttered half-heartedly. The warmth coming from his body felt wonderful…


He smiled softly, aware that her protests were hollow. “Don’t be so stubborn, Sakura,” he murmured next to her ear. She shivered again, though it wasn’t from the cold this time, and she hoped he didn’t notice the effect he was having on her. He looked off in to the trees again, and after a couple minutes her chilled body began to relax. She leaned her head back against the trunk and closed her eyes, not aware that her body was inching ever closer to his, subconsciously seeking the source of warmth.


Itachi noticed however, and returned his attention to the small woman. Her eyes were closed as she relaxed under the warmth of his bodyheat. Dark lashes, spiked from being wet, ghosted against pale cheeks that still held beads of moisture. Her short pink locks looked darker and more of a natural red color when wet, clinging to her face and falling in thick, waving strands against her neck and shoulders. Her normally pink lips were pursed thin and as pale as the rest of her face due to her chilled state, and he frowned ever so slightly. It bothered him that she looked like that, and he didn’t know why.


Sakura could feel his intense gaze on her again, and after a moment she raised her lids slowly and almost sleepily met his eyes. She felt a shift in the air around them the moment they locked gazes, and there was a sharp thrill in the pit of her stomach as she was suddenly aware of everything; his closeness, his arms trapping her against the tree and how the heat from his body washed over her. But mostly the weight of his gaze as his captivating eyes burned into her. She could see tiny drops of rain on his cheeks, could even see the dark shadow of slight stubble on his chin. He was so close. So warm. She’d seen that look in his eyes once before, and when he moved closer she felt the air around them grow heavy and suddenly the small space left between them thrummed with an almost magnetic pull.


She knew, and so did he. In this moment, this small pause in time, she felt the irreversible change. She had no will or thought to resist. This truth she would no longer deny, and gods help her, she wanted it. She uncrossed her arms and shifted to align with him, her eyes softened as she felt her barriers fall away, her lips parting slightly as she watched him weigh her decision alongside his own. His head tilted downward and she held her breath, her lashes falling softly as her gaze was drawn to his lips and she waited, in that brief moment that stretched to eternity, as he closed in and his mouth hovered millimeters above her own.


His lips brushed against hers softly, testing, before his mouth settled over hers in a kiss that nearly made her knees give out. She relaxed into the tree trunk and tentatively brought her palms to rest against his firm chest as he shifted from his angle against her side to position himself over the front of her body, his lips remaining locked with her own, moving slowly as they tested each other’s responses, discovering the taste and feel.


Itachi pulled back just slightly, mouth hovering, only apart enough to catch their breath. His half-lidded eyes remained fixed on her mouth, as hers did likewise. Her parted lips were warm and moist and rosy again. That’s better, he thought, and brought his mouth against hers once more. This time it was deeper, more deliberate. His lips slid against hers gently, parting slightly and probing her softness before locking with hers again. His hand moved from the trunk to slide along her waist and press into the small of her back. When he slowly fell against her and pressed her further into the tree she gasped slightly, and he took the opportunity to slide the tip of his tongue softly along the inner rim of her bottom lip.


She responded with a breathy sigh and opened her mouth wider to deepen the kiss. He reacted immediately to her invitation and slanted his mouth over hers hungrily, his tongue entering and sliding along hers as she matched his kiss eagerly. She arched into him and brought her hands around his neck, her fingers twining into the wet strands at his nape as they fervently explored and tasted each other. He breathed into her mouth as her arms wound around his shoulders, and brought his other hand down to grasp behind her neck, controlling the movement of both of their heads as he continued to kiss her passionately.


When he tilted her head and slid his tongue into her mouth deeper than before, it jolted her to the core, and she moaned softly into his mouth. His damp fingers brushed against the back of her neck and sent a chill up her spine. Sakura was lost, all traces of the cold gone. Was she ever cold? She couldn’t remember anything of the last few minutes or why they were even there. There was only this. There was only him. She couldn’t believe a kiss could be this erotic and powerful. But it was, and she let all thought drift away as she willingly surrendered to bliss.


Slowly he pulled back, and she made a small sound of protest as her lips chased after his and her head moved forward slightly. She opened her eyes dazedly; jade depths dark and clouded with passion, and looked up into his face. The look in his eyes was as passionate as her own, mixed with a look of mild surprise as if he hadn’t expected either his own reaction or hers or both. Their arms remained locked around each other and neither seemed ready or willing to disconnect. She could feel the tension between them building again, and felt like she needed to say something before she was completely overwhelmed. “Itachi…” she whispered breathlessly, panting slightly in the aftermath of their mind blowing kiss. She tried to speak again when his hand moved from the back of her neck to cup the side of her face, his thumb against her lips preventing words, moving slowly over her bottom lip. She felt another jolt of sensation at the feel of his rough thumb moving over her sensitized, kiss-swollen lips in stark contrast to the silky softness of his mouth, and at the way he watched his own actions with fascination as though he wasn’t the one in control of his movements.


“Sakura,” he murmured lustfully. He didn’t continue with whatever he had begun to say, instead tilting her head toward his as he brought his face closer for another kiss. His lips had barely ghosted over hers when he stiffened and jerked away suddenly, looking sharply at the foliage-covered ground several yards away.


Sakura blinked and realized she’d heard it too; a light rustle and snapping sound. One of the forest creatures had been startled out from its hiding place, and she had only one guess as to why. They had been found.


Itachi’s hand slid from her face to push against her shoulder indicating to remain very still. They didn’t hear anymore rustling. In fact, they didn’t hear anything at all except the pattering of rain; the surrounding forest had gone eerily silent, an absolute giveaway that something was wrong. Sakura slid her hands from around Itachi’s neck slowly and silently. He looked at her pointedly before mouthing the words “do not move”, and his other arm slid gently from around her waist as he moved away and dropped silently to the ground below.

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Itachi waited disinterestedly for their hidden foes to make a move. It wasn’t long before three kunai flew at him from different directions. Sakura watched from above and rolled her eyes; even though they outnumbered him they still used dirty ambush tactics. Up against Akatsuki or not, it appeared they were a bunch of cowards. Though she couldn’t remember any Stone nin except Deidara ever using anything other than underhanded methods. These guys weren’t too smart either, if they thought such a predictable and direct attack was going to work against someone like Uchiha Itachi.


She saw his body appear to flicker, and suddenly he was standing in a different spot than before, the three kunai whizzing past and embedding themselves into the nearby trees. She felt the excitement build at what she was about to witness; not too many people got to see Uchiha Itachi fight without having to worry about also being his opponent.


Their positions compromised after their weapons had been cast, the underbrush rustled as the masked enemy shinobi moved from their hiding places and into the small clearing their target was standing in. There were eight of them, two full squads, and they were obviously not unseasoned chuunin. Despite their numbers and veteran appearances, Itachi still looked bored as he gazed calmly at the group of hunter-nins.


They began to circle and close in around him, clearly not intending to fight one on one against such a dangerous opponent. Even though they were hunter-nins and should have known better, it appeared they didn’t recognize him because when Sakura felt the slightly static change in the air indicating a genjutsu had been cast, two of the enemy nins turned and began fighting each other. Two down, she thought darkly, though part of her was horrified at the prospect of two comrades-perhaps friends-unknowingly fighting each other to the death.


The other six did nothing to counteract their companions, merely continued to advance upon their target, and Sakura figured she could rule out the possibility of them being friends after all. The poor visibility and the white masks of the hunters made eye contact unlikely, and she knew Itachi had gotten lucky and the two fighting had gotten stupid, and he was unlikely to catch any of the others in a similar way.


The six remaining nins rushed him all at once, and she heard the sound of ringing steel as his katana was drawn an instant before he disappeared completely. He reappeared a moment later behind one of the enemy nins, the tip of his sword protruding from the mans chest amid a spray of dark blood, and flickered out of sight again. He clearly didn’t intend to play around here. If he’d already drawn his sword, he meant to kill quickly. The still-living nins became more cautious now as they realized what they were up against, and Sakura had a hard time keeping up with the movements going on below even from her aerial vantage point as the battle began in earnest.


What she could see was nothing short of magnificent, and she felt the adrenaline pulsing through her veins as she watched a master ninja at his best. From off to the side she saw one of the illusion-trapped nins gain a gruesome and bloody defeat over his comrade and stumble weakly as the genjutsu served its purpose and dissolved. When he saw what he’d done he let out a strangled cry and rushed into the main fight in a rage. His anger made him careless, and Itachi was waiting for him, kicking his current opponent away and whirling around with cloak billowing to finish the panicked hunter off. Sakura watched with morbid amazement as his head fell cleanly from his shoulders and rolled across the ground while his lifeless body slumped to the earth with a thud. With three of the eight hunters now dead, the Uchiha returned his attention to the previous opponent.


Several minutes had passed, and as Sakura watched the battle continue, she began to feel slightly torn. Even though he’d expressly told her to stay put, even though she shouldn’t feel compelled to assist him and he didn’t need her anyway, she still didn’t feel right just standing there on the sidelines. These nins were enemies to them both, and if something unexpected happened and Itachi was defeated, they would find her and kill her as well. The conflict within her pulled stronger as she saw several shuriken fly at Itachi’s back. He moved, but a few of them caught the back hem of his cloak and rent a tear in the fabric. That was a little too close for someone of his caliber, and she wondered with small alarm if he had somehow gotten injured and was losing energy. No one was perfect, he’d admitted it to her himself, and it was eight against one. Five now technically, but in the end it didn’t make much difference.


She knew he wasn’t fighting to protect her, but rather to prevent the damage or loss of his trump card. She began to think about what would happen if he was killed or incapacitated. The remaining hunters would find and kill or capture her. If they didn’t, and she ran, the other Akatsuki would find her and things would not be so civil from now on. If they didn’t find her either, she would be alone and lost in hostile territory. They were far north in Earth country and with the massive number of nins on the move due to the confirmed Akatsuki presence, she was unlikely to make it out and back to Fire alive.


The thought that pressed most strongly into her mind was of his younger brother, and she frowned darkly as she saw one of the enemy nins get a lucky strike and slice his kunai across the older Uchiha’s shoulder, tearing the fabric and possibly even breaking skin before the Sharingan user twisted away. If Itachi died here tonight Sasuke would lose his chance at revenge, and if he ever found out that she had stood by and let it happen…If she robbed him of his only single-minded purpose in life, however indirectly, he would hate her. Itachi was meant to die by Sasuke’s hand, not by some random faceless nins whose strength was only due to sheer numbers.


Making up her mind, Sakura silently drew a kunai from her leg strap and waited for an opportunity to strike. She got her opening when one of the nins came up behind Itachi intending to get in his blind spot. She flung her kunai with deadly precision, the force and speed enhanced by a small push of her chakra, and it hit the nin directly in the back of his skull, killing him instantly. She drew more weapons quickly as two of the nins near their fallen comrade turned her way, spotting her after a moment and breaking off in her direction. Itachi glared at her sharply for a brief second, then retuned to his dwindled opponents angrily. It would be highly inconvenient if she got herself killed, and he would definitely not be pleased.


Sakura flung several shuriken at the advancing hunters as she leapt from the tree branch. Several of their own weapons were projected at her as she fell downward, and she pushed off from the trunk and leapt toward the opposite tree, again pushing her legs off of the trunk in yet another direction as she sent more weapons flying. She landed on the wet ground and rolled away as they bore down on her. She stopped in a crouched position and slammed her chakra infused fist into the ground. The wet earth opened before her in a wide rift, and her startled opponents scrambled to get out of the way. One of them succeeded and leapt to safety. The other stumbled and fell into the large muddy crack. Sakura wasted no time and rushed the entrenched nin, slamming her foot between his shoulder blades and pushing his face into the mud before dropping to a knee behind him and bringing her deadly fist down on the back of his head to crush his skull.


She looked up and saw Itachi looking at her with wide-eyed interest, and she smirked at him. His two opponents were concurrently shocked, and he took the advantage of their distracted stares to slam his katana through the chest of one of them. Sakura was forced to refocus on her only remaining attacker as he reappeared suddenly and swiped at her with his sword. She dropped to the ground and rolled away before springing to her feet. She had no sword of her own and was forced to block and parry with a kunai in each hand. Thankfully she was fast and agile, or she would have been in a very tight spot against the difference in their ranges. As it was, she barely managed to avoid his deadly swing at one point and received a long, deep gash on her outer thigh. If she had been any slower or less dexterous he would have sliced clean into her exposed side. The jarring force of his downward strikes soon knocked the kunai from both of her hands and she was forced to jump away.


He reached her again quickly and swung at her with deadly force. She dodged, barely, and got a lucky opening as his swing overreached and she was able to land a kick to one of his arms, breaking it. He growled and continued to swing his katana one-handed. Fortunately this cut his accuracy and power in half. Her leg throbbed with searing pain and she was beginning to limp as they circled each other, the hunter slashing at her with his blade every few seconds. She could feel herself begin to lose balance and knew she would fall soon. Deciding on a gamble, she waited for his downward sweep and rushed him, grabbing onto his forearm and squeezing with all the power she could force into her fingers. His arm shattered with several loud cracks and he screamed, the katana falling from his limp fingers into a puddle. He tried to jerk away but she held fast with one arm, the other pulling back into another chakra laced fist. She heard him gasp behind the mask a second before her fist impacted his chest, crushing his lung and heart and leaving a deep indent in his shattered torso. The faceless hunter-nin collapsed to the wet ground with a choked wheezing sound, dead within seconds.


Sakura stared at the corpse for a moment, panting with fatigue and pain. She was a compassionate person by nature, and she hated having to kill in a fight especially when the enemy wasn’t particularly evil. But when it came down to her life or theirs, she would choose herself every time. That was the reality of the life she had chosen, and after a moment she turned away.


She turned around and saw that Itachi had finished off his last opponent as well, and was watching her as he stood among the bodies of his defeated enemies, their blood dripping thickly from the tip of his still-unsheathed blade. It was a terrifying sight but she wasn’t afraid, and she slowly moved to his side, trying to hide her injury. Of course that was futile, as she was clearly dripping blood on the ground as she walked. She prepared herself for a scathing remark about how he had told her to stay put and now she had gotten herself injured from her own stupidity, but it never came. In fact, he looked fairly impressed. She’d proven that indeed she was not a hindrance or inconvenience, though she knew better than to expect gratitude for assisting him.


Looking at him closer she noticed he was unusually pale for just having been in a fight, and his brows were drawn together slightly. “Are you alright?” she asked cautiously, lifting her arm halfway as if to touch him and then dropping it uncertainly.


He looked at her sternly and nodded, wiping the blood from his sword on the back of one of the dead hunter-nins before sheathing it and tilting his head to indicate that they were leaving. She followed behind with minor difficulty, the pain in her thigh growing more intense as the adrenaline from battle began to wear off. They walked several feet from the battle scene before Itachi paused, his steps faltering slightly. She knew instantly that something was wrong, and a moment later he lost balance and stumbled to his knee.


Sakura immediately fell to her knees beside him and grabbed his upper arm as his head bowed and he tried to brace himself against the wet earth. She hadn’t seen him take any hits that would injure him to the point of collapse, and she placed her fingers against his neck firmly. She pushed her chakra into him and felt for the source of the problem, and a moment later when she found it her eyes went wide in alarm. “You’ve been poisoned.” she said with low urgency. He didn’t respond to her words, but his fingers dug into the wet ground in either anger or pain. Her chakra probed for more information as she tried to figure out what to do. “It’s a fairly fast acting one, but you’ll be alright until we can get to some place safer than here.” she reassured, still getting no reaction. He was still conscious and responsive, but he was concentrating all effort into remaining upright and controlled.


Without waiting for any indication from him, she pulled his arm over her shoulders and wrapped her own around his waist as she began to haul him to his feet. Her thigh screamed in agony and she grunted softly with pain as she stood. He didn’t protest and actually tried to stand on his own before she tore her injury further from strain. Fortunately he wasn’t much heavier than herself, and it only took a minimal amount of chakra enhancement to pull him up and get them both steady on their feet. He wasn’t yet completely incapacitated and was able to put one foot in front of the other with only a little difficulty as she supported his weight and guided them several hundred yards back to the road they’d crossed.

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She remembered that the gully they had traveled through continued on past the man-made fill in, and she led them toward it. He stumbled on the slippery downslide and her leg rent with pain as she was jerked downward and they landed roughly with their knees in the mud. Sakura laughed morosely at the miserable situation they were in and shakily hauled them back to their feet. Itachi’s arm over her shoulder was now gripping her tightly and she saw that his other hand was clenched over his stomach and he was beginning to breathe heavily as the poison spread through his body.


She guided them carefully along the bank of the rushing creek, looking desperately for an overhang or outcropping somewhere along the walls of the gorge where they would be somewhat sheltered. This side of the ravine was much deeper than the part they’d traveled before, and the mud walls soon turned to rock as they reached the bottom of the slope. Several hundred yards into the bottom of the ravine she breathed a sigh of heavy relief, thanking whatever gods were out there as she steered them toward a small cave opening that led back deep into the rock wall.


They stumbled through the dark opening and Sakura had to flood chakra to her hand and hold it in front of them so she could see where she was walking as they stepped tediously over rocks and debris. Itachi was rapidly losing his motor functions, and was beginning to trip and sag against her as she navigated them to the back of the cave. She was actually amazed he would still walk at all, and figured it was only due to his stubborn iron willpower.


When they reached the end of the cave she lowered him gently to the ground, making sure there were no loose pieces of jagged rock or stagnant puddles under him as she he laid flatly on his back. She crouched down, made a few hand seals and performed a simple fire jutsu that Sasuke had taught her years and years ago. It created a small ball of flame that suspended itself and fed off of natural gases in the air as well as oxygen. Perfect for situations where there was no wood or the wood was too wet to light. It hovered next to them silently, offering small but adequate light and a little bit of warmth. Itachi looked at it and snorted, chuckling softly as he no doubt recognized his family technique.


She winced painfully as she settled next to him on the cold rocky ground. Fortunately, her wound wasn’t life threatening and she could wait until she was finished with him to tend to it. In the low light of the small flame, Sakura could see how pale and drawn his face was, clammy sweat mingling with the dampness from the rain. She slid her hands up under the front of his shirt to contact skin, the memory of his doing the same to her in a very different context earlier tonight flashing in her mind, and placed her hands flat against his chest. She sent her chakra into him again, searching for the source and main concentration of the poison since it was a waste of time to look for the external injury. She located it fairly quickly and withdrew her chakra.


She grasped his hand and pushed his long sleeve away from his dirty knuckles, running her thumb over the back of his hand and removing some of the grit making him hiss sharply at the pain of the contact. She held his hand up for him to look at. There was a small, absurdly shallow scratch around three inches long on the back of his hand. It looked like a scratch from a mean old tomcat, and not at all like what it was if not for the inflamed redness and small vein-like marks spreading outward. He probably hadn’t even felt it graze him. “Senbon,” she informed dryly.


She could have sworn she saw him roll his eyes, if she thought he would ever do such a thing, and his lip curled in disgust as he looked away from his hand. “Ridiculous,” he scoffed, quite unhappy and perhaps a tiny bit discomfited that such a small and insignificant thing had literally brought someone like him to his knees. Still, she knew it must have been an incredibly toxic poison to have such an effect from only a tiny scratch, and he was very lucky the senbon hadn’t stuck him like it was intended to do or he may be beyond help, if not dead already. Unfortunately it wasn’t one she had an antidote for in her medic apron, and she would need time to study its properties in his body before she could heal him.


She returned his hand to her lap, holding it firmly between her own. She was preparing to insert her chakra again when his other hand grabbed her wrist tightly, and when she looked at him he was frowning. “Why did you bring me here, Sakura? Why didn’t you run?” he asked harshly.


“I told you I wouldn’t,” she said stiffly, and pushed her probing chakra under the skin of his hand.


“The smart thing to do would have been to leave me to die and run away. You are a smart woman, Sakura. What are you doing?” he asked again, his voice thick with pain he was trying to hide.


“You’re wrong, Itachi. The smart thing would not have been to leave you and run. This is enemy territory for me as well, and the truth is I’m far better off with you and the Akatsuki than I am with the Stone nins. Besides, your death belongs to Sasuke, not to a dead Stone ninja with a few poisoned needles. And wouldn’t it be embarrassing if the great Uchiha Itachi died like this?” she teased.


He laughed softly. “Is that what this is, then?” he asked, amusement in his ragged voice.


“Yes. Just as with your eyes, in the end this is for Sasuke. You know he would hate me if I let you die from something stupid like this and he lost his chance at vengeance. Nothing you could ever do to me would give me the right to take that from him,” she finished softly.


His grip tightened on her wrist to the point that it was painful, and she glared at him sharply. “When my brother comes for me, I will kill him, Sakura. I will take the Kyuubi and leave Naruto a lifeless shell. Sakura…let me die,” he said low and dangerously, the last part only a whisper.


Sakura glared at him angrily, ignoring the bruising pain in her wrist. She knew he was goading her into not healing him or to even kill him outright, and she was truly shocked that he would say such a thing, almost as if he was pleading with her. Was he delirious? Or did he really mean that and wanted to die? It confused her and made her angry, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Not today, Uchiha. You don’t get to take the easy way out. Like I said, your fate is sealed and I won’t be the one to change it,” she said simply and continued searching for the compounds of the poison inside him.


He sighed harshly and removed his fingers from her wrist. “Stupid girl,” he whispered, a small smirk on his pale lips. “Your sense of loyalty is truly commendable, however warped it may be.”


Sakura gave him a small sardonic smile. “I know. My life wouldn’t be the way it is otherwise,” she said cryptically. He still didn’t know what she really did for a living these last several years, and she had no intention of him finding out. He didn’t ask her to elaborate, and she continued her hands-on research as quickly as possible. He was getting worse, his eyes were glazed over and she could feel him growing feverish, small beads of sweat beginning to drip down his face and neck. “Please turn the Sharingan off; it’s putting too much strain on your body right now,” she said quietly, and he did as she asked before closing his eyes. Several minutes passed in silence as she raced against time. His breathing was becoming labored, and she closed her own eyes and frowned in concentration.


“Do you love my brother?”


Sakura’s eyes flew open at the whispered words and she stared at Itachi in surprise. His dark eyes were hazy and slightly unfocused. She gave him a small nod. “Yes,” she said softly, and his eyes glinted darkly in the low light. “Though, not in the way you mean. I thought so once, but I was very young,” she finished wistfully.


“And now?”


Why do you care? She carefully removed his scratched hitai-ate, setting it aside and placing one of her hands against his brow with a small frown. He was burning up, and was becoming slightly delirious from the pain and effects of the poison. “He is family,” she answered calmly. “I have precious little of that left, and I will do anything to protect it.”


He frowned, as if what she said didn’t make sense to him. “Even if they shun you? Even if they never acknowledge such devotion or return it with their own?”


She could tell by his tone that he wasn’t taunting her; he really wanted to know. “Yes. Even if they hate me, because that is the love of family, Itachi. I pity you that you never knew it.”


His eyes narrowed at her. “I don’t care about your pity,” he muttered darkly, signs of fever beginning to take their toll as he shifted uncomfortably.


“I know you don’t. And I pity you all the more because you can’t even comprehend what I’m really saying,” she said almost sadly.


His sweat soaked body jerked a little and his lip curled, eyes now filled with anger. “Foolish woman. You know nothing about it,” he hissed venomously.


She raised her eyebrows sharply at his sudden vehemence, wondering if it was because of his fevered state or if she had truly tapped into a nerve. “You could tell me…” she offered quietly. He snorted indignantly and looked away in to the darkness of the cave. “Ah! I’ve got it,” she with quiet excitement, the blue-white glow of her hands fading as her chakra receded. Itachi looked at her again, but said nothing. “I’m going to begin the healing now. I have no way to extract the poison here, so I’m going to neutralize and break it down. Unfortunately this means your body is going to have to burn it off on its own with the fever, which will probably take the rest of the night, but once I’m done your life will no longer be in danger. You need to relax as much as possible, but please try to remain awake,” she explained, and without waiting for an answer, her hands began to glow green and her chakra entered his body once more.


A few minutes passed, and Sakura couldn’t help but think of his sensitive reaction to her words. “Tell me Itachi,” she began carefully, “do you love your brother?”


He watched her face with a dark expression, and his fever-glazed eyes seemed to have trouble staying open. “…Yes,” he whispered, and closed his lids tiredly.


Sakura was stunned to say the least. She’d expected his wrath again, not an honest answer, and certainly not one so emotional. It was the poison and the fever, she knew. He would never act like this if he was in complete control of himself. Keeping a steady flow of chakra in one hand, her other moved to his forehead and she leaned over him, gently moving his damp hair out of his eyes and wiping the tiny beads of sweat from his brow.


There was so much mystery to this man, so many things locked away and hidden from the outside world. He wasn’t as emotionless as he seemed, but his emotions seemed to be trapped, burning intensely deep below the surface, but he couldn’t bring them out even if he wanted to. This was a classic sign of a sociopath, which she knew he was without doubt. Emotions were triggered by an outside source and usually with violent results, as she had clearly seen the night she’d provoked him into nearly strangling her. What had happened to make him like this? More specifically, what had been done to him? She didn’t like to take advantage of sick patients, if you could call him that, but she knew that if she was ever going to get a glimpse into the darkness of Itachi’s mind, now was the time. She focused on the fact that in his delirious state he’d admitted to caring for, no, to loving Sasuke. “Then…why did you kill your clan and leave Sasuke to such a tormented and unhappy life?” she asked softly, her cool fingers brushing against his heated skin.


He sighed and his body jerked a little, his eyes unfocussed. He didn’t answer for a long moment as he seemed to struggle with himself. “I did it…to save him…” he rasped, his brows creasing painfully.


Sakura gaped at him wide-eyed. To save him? Small pieces began to click in her mind, but she still couldn’t believe what he’d just admitted. “Save him…from what?” she asked, dismayed.


Itachi swallowed hard and his head fell to the side, a fine line of sweat running over his temple. The light from the small fire played over his pained features and his clouded eyes stared unfocussed at the hovering flame. “…From becoming…like me,” he whispered, and his eyes slid closed as he finally lost consciousness.


Sakura stared at his damp, sleeping face in absolute shock as she began to finally understand. To save Sasuke…from becoming another Itachi. To save him from becoming another emotionless, desensitized killing machine. To save him from losing his mind in the process that their clan used in order to create the perfect, blank soldier. How many other young Uchiha boys had this been done to? Or would have been, if it had continued. Could that possibly be the truth behind the death of his cousin? Sakura was horrified. The Uchiha clan had made Itachi into what he was, and Itachi had eradicated them all before the same thing could happen to his brother, whom he loved. The possibilities turned over and over in her mind, and she felt angry. Angry, and terribly, terribly saddened.


When she’d said she pitied him for never knowing the love of family, she had no idea how close she’d hit to the truth, and the reason for his heated reaction was now perfectly clear. Her eyes stung, but she would not cry for this man however tragic his past. It wasn’t as if he’d left Konoha to live the life of a hermit. He was ambitious and power hungry, seeking his own perfection through any means. He had done plenty in the years since to cement himself as a true villain.


A small, irrational part of her almost felt morbidly grateful that his twisted actions had spared Sasuke from the horrible conditioning that he would have gone through, making him a completely different person. Making him a monster like his brother. No, that wasn’t right. Itachi wasn’t a monster. In fact he was very human in that he could rationalize and justify what he’d done as a twisted sense of love. A monster wouldn’t have cared, and wouldn’t have thought to spare Sasuke from the same fate. She could see how his warped mind allowed him to think that what he’d done was out of love, but then what was his reason for the horrible things he’d done to Sasuke since then?


She remembered his forceful words from earlier. Let me die…She’d thought it had sounded suspiciously like a plea, and maybe it really was. That would certainly explain why he’d taken so many measures to ensure that Sasuke would never rest until he got revenge on him. It fit with his insanely twisted way of thinking. She didn’t know if Itachi was even capable of guilt or regret, but it seemed fairly certain he knew that Sasuke deserved revenge, and that he himself deserved to die. And he wanted it to be by his brother’s hand, so he made sure that Sasuke would become strong enough and hate him enough to do it. It made sense. It all made sense, and Sakura was filled with a deep sorrow and anger that fate could twist the lives of people so terribly.


She worked on in silence now that Itachi was unconscious, her mind and heart in turmoil. She’d fervently advocated that everything she was doing was for Sasuke, and for the other people she loved. She believed it wholeheartedly when she said it, but deep inside there was something off key, and she felt strangely hollow. She’d healed Deidara’s arm. She’d begun healing Itachi’s eyes. This, saving Itachi’s life, would make the third major act of treason against the laws of her village in a week. Did she even know why she was doing any of it anymore…really? She’d let Itachi kiss her. She’d reciprocated as eagerly as he had. She’d welcomed it and wanted even more. That was for no one but herself. Were the other things she was doing and allowing to happen, in reality, as selfish as that kiss? She honestly didn’t know anymore. What she had discovered tonight made things even more complicated and confusing.


After several more minutes, she had finally succeeded in breaking down and neutralizing the last traces of poison in Itachi’s body, and she noted satisfactorily that he was no longer thrashing about and that his skin was now a healthy color, if somewhat flushed from the remaining fever. She shifted in her sitting position to get better access to the gash on her thigh. She healed it quickly on the verge of passing out, using up nearly all of what was left of her chakra. She reached into her pack and brought out her cloak, pulling it around her shoulders while watching the sleeping man before her. His fever would burn out during the remainder of the night, but until then he would need to be kept warm. She thought for a moment about just closing up his own cloak and leaving it at that, but she knew she was only thinking that way because it was him and that it wasn’t what she would do as a medic in any other circumstance. She really needed to just get over it.


Making sure to keep the small fireball burning, she carefully leaned over the unconscious Uchiha and laid the upper half of her body atop his, her head resting below his chin as her arms tucked around his sides making sure her cloak covered both of them as much as possible. Physically drained and mentally exhausted, she closed her eyes and instantly fell asleep.

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A soft crunching sound disturbed the silence of the cave but not the two sleeping figures slumped on the cold ground. The early morning light that barely penetrated the back recesses of the small cavern faintly illuminated two cloaked figures as their boots scraped over the loose stone and they came to a stop several feet from the cave’s unconscious occupants.


Kisame and Deidara took in the sight before them and looked at each other wide-eyed. After defeating the many squads of Stone nins, the three scraped and slightly battered Akatsuki had soon found the sight of Itachi and Sakura’s battle. After briefly inspecting the scene they were able to roughly deduce what had happened and had followed a blood trail, whose blood they didn’t know, to this cave. They were expecting to find the two of them, but they definitely hadn’t expected…this.


“What the…” the shark muttered under his breath. “I’ll be damned,” he mused, his toothy smirk present as usual but now paired with a slight frown.


The blonde’s expression was somber. “Hn,” he grunted, narrowing his eyes slightly at the sleeping pair.


Sakura was beginning to stir slightly at the presence of the two men, but Itachi remained unconscious and still, and it was then they realized that something was not right with the Uchiha. With respective expressions of amazement and suspicion, the shark and the blonde moved forward to wake their discovered companions.

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A/N: Oh snap! The truth comes out, and Sakura and Itachi are losing the battle to resist what’s between them! And now the others are suspicious….See you next week! :D