A/N: (Please Read!!!!) Well Hey! Guess whose back and with a brand spankin' new computer! w00t! And with a new story! My last story, Piece of Sakura, is on hold for the moment. My computer crashed around the same time last year and I lost of my document's on that strory and I'm debating on wether or not I feel up to continueing that story. We'll see. Well, moving on to this one! Yes, It's an Itachi/Sakura paring, but it will be very unusual. Now as you can tell if you read the first chapter of my POS, i loveee to change Sakura and make her go through horrendous ordeals. They keep me sane. This story WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT follow the Naruto time line. Just some aspects on it, but we'll adress that when we get to it. Now this story will get mildly crazy, but just bear with me.
And I shall say no more! Read on, fellow adventurers! AWAYYY!
Disclaimer- Nope. Don't own 'em.
A Dangerous Mind
Chapter One: The Missing-Nin of Konoha
Tsuande looked down at her mahogany table. Her hands clenched on top of the table as she resisted the urge to pick up the measly scrap of furniture and chuck it out the nearest window. A crumpled piece of paper that had already met the brunt end of her insane strength laid tossed off to the side.
Every once in awhile the Hokage's eyes would drift up to glance at the paper before looking back down at her fists.
"Is there a reason you've gathered us here, Hokage-sama?" The crisp and sensible voice of Hatake Kakashi filtered through the tension in the air. Beside him were two ANBU captains, their faces hidden under a fox mask and a hawk mask. On the other side of the room, leaning against the wall was Ino, black circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. She was an accomplished medical-nin, but other then that could think of no reason to be there. Her eyes snapped back open at the sound of Kakashi's voice dripping through the silence, and she felt the girl next to her startle at the sound. Hinata had been dozing off as well.
Tsuande clenched her fists once more, and closed her eyes.
She would have chosen swimming in a pool full of blood over delivering this next mission.
Haruno Sakura knew the full consequences of her letter she had left on Tsuande's desk. She knew what she was doing was going against her Sensei's's wishes, and therefore the villages. She had a high enough IQ,, and anyone who knew her knew this as well, that every action Sakura made had at least two motives behind it. And most of the times neither of the motives benefitted her in any way The only satisfaction she would get was out of the satisfaction and enjoyment her actions caused to the ones she loves in her life.
But this action she was taking... This action had only one motive. One and only one.
The action was selfish.
The motive was love.
"Hogake-sama?" Kakashi's voice once again drifted through the room.
Tsuande sighed, and for the first time in years, Kakashi could hear how truly old the woman was.
"I regret to inform you... that I have a mission for you." At this Ino and Hinata jumped off the wall, their eyes wide with shock. Kakashi expected this and simply leaned to one side, his head cocked barely. His only confusion being why he would be teamed with the people in the room.
The two ANBU members did nothing, as was expected. Their cloaks hiding their reactions, if they had any, and their masks hiding not only their identities, as well as their expressions.
Tsuande opened her eyes, and locked them on Kakashi's charcoal grey one.
"It is an S-rank assassination."
Sakura stepped outside her small apartment, locking it for the last time, she expected. Her hand lingered for just a moment, and then she turned, walking down the steps she had taken almost every day for the last 6 years.
To her surprise a spatter on her forehead caused her to look up. The sky was dark and she could barely see any clouds, but she had definitely felt the raindrop. Another raindrop splashed on her nose and she couldn't quite help but to giggle. Throwing her arms out, she threw back her head and opened her mouth wide, sticking out her tongue as she circled down the streets of Konoha, alone in her own world.
Funny, she thought, It always seems to rain when people leave. I wonder why that is?
She immediately stopped her foolish behavior though, as an ANBU nin walked past her.
Sai
As it was, it was only right that the Captain of an ANBU squad know who was on her team, not only by mask, but by face as well.
A cry of outrage followed Tsuande's announcement.
It came as no surprise that Ino's was the loudest. "S-RANK!?! You've gotta be joking! I've got my ANBU exam next week and you wanna send me on an S- rank mission now?!?" She began to walk over to Tsuande's desk, but Hinata grabbed her sleeve, pulling her back to the wall with surprising strength.
"I-Ino-kun. I don't think it is v-very wise to talk to the Hokage like that." Hinata whispered in her small voice, most of her stutter as a teenage gone. Her self-confidence showing through more and more.
Ino crossed her arms over her chest, but did not complain anymore. Her friend was right.
Kakashi was the next to speak up. "Is this... the team then that will be going on the mission?"
Tsuande gave a nod.
Kakashi face thinned a little, and Tsuande guessed he was raising an eyebrow. She sighed, but gave no answer to his unasked question.
Really she had no solid foundation for picking this team other then she thought they were the most capable, and really, the most hope she and Konoha had at the moment.
Pity that the only hope in Konoha came down to two Jounin, one ex- ANBU and two current ANBU members.
But hopefully, something was better then nothing.
Sakura adjusted the straps on her backpack once more, checked to make sure her Kunai pack was attached to her leg correctly, and mentally went over the supply list in her head of the things she had packed in her bag.
'What are you doing?'
Double checking. She replied calmly. She was used to talking to the voices in her head. She didn't mind they talked back. They usually had good idea's that kept her alive too.
'No. If by double checking, you mean delaying, then yes. You are.' Sheesh, she wasn't that snappy in real life, was she?
Delaying what?
'The inevitable.'
Cliche, very cliche. Think of that all by yourself?
'Now that's a dumb question.' Sakura groaned.
Shut up.
Done having a battle of wits with herself and having double checked her mental list and things she packed, Sakura stood up straight and began walking towards the gates that led out of Konoha.
"Ready or not Sasuke," she muttered under her breath, "Here I come."
"But- but, Hinata and I are just Jounin, how can we keep up on a team with two ANBU and Kakashi?" Ino exclaimed and Hinata was forced to grab the girl's sleeve once again as she threw up her arms in confusion and started pacing towards Tsuande.
"I believe you are the most capable for this mission." Tsuande lowered her eyes, her next comment was almost unheard, and it would have been, had the comment not been made in a room full of ninja. "A missing-nin is not someone to be taken too lightly."
And it seemed as if a thin-tight cord had snapped somewhere off in nowhere, and the ANBU in the fox mask suddenly lunged forward, already on his knees before he slid infront of Tsuande's desk.
The whining and pleading voice of Naruto Uzamaki was unmistakable.
"Tsuande-sama, please! Please don't send us on a mission to assassinate Sasuke! We'll find him and bring him back somehow, I promise! I'm gonna give him the beating of a lifetime when I see him and then I'll bring him back here and me and Sakura-kun and Kakshi-sensei' will be Team 7 again, Believe it!" At the 'beating-of-a-lifetime' part, Naruto had removed his mask and slide the cloak from his shoulders, perfecting his puppy pouting face at Tsuande and conniving it to it's highest potential.
When the mask dropped off a surprised gasp came from Hinata and she wondered how she couldn't have reconised her husbands' mask or chakra signature from in the room.
A small blush crept into her face.
And she called herself a shinobi!
Tsuande looked down at the pitiful display infront of her. Despite the happenings that she only knew about, she couldn't help but force a small sad smile for Naruto.
God, she needed a drink.
At that thought she groaned and started rubbing her hands in her eyeballs. She could feel the beginnings of a headache.
"Naruto..." She groaned out.
"Naruto-san, stand the hell up and stop masking a display of yourself." The sharp and conceding tone of Neji filled the room, and Hinata once again gasped, as she didn't even recognize her own cousin from inside the ANBU disguise.
Naruto shot Neji a dirty look over his shoulder. "Shut up, dobe. You may be Hinata's cousin but that doesn't give you any right to order me around!"
Hinata sighed as she felt a brawl boiling. No one needed this at the moment. Instead she dutifully went over to Naruto and smiled down at him as she held out a hand. Naruto smiled up at his wife and graciously took her hand, but instead of using her strength to help him up, Naruto simply over powered her and pulled her down into his lap, instantly burrowing his nose in her soft violet hair.
"I've missed you Hinata-kun..."
The sight was a little bit to sweet for Ino. "Sorry to break up your moment, guys, but we've kinda got-"
"Not Sasuke"
"Nani?!"
Five heads snapped around to face Tsuande and away from the couple on the floor. Her eyes were dead set in a far away glance at a speck on her desk. Her hands unclenched, and ominously defeated looking.
Ino was once again the first to talk. "Well, that's kinda illogical. He's the only missing-nin from Konoha, but yet we're not going after him. The only other missing-nin is Itachi and that's well, suicidal." She let out a small peel of laughter at the thought of the five of them going up against the famous Akatsuki. Neither or them, hell none of them combined, had a chance in hell of beating the Akatsuki simply to assassinate Itachi.
The five of them shared a look.
"So," Neji began, head cocked to the side after a moment of silence and thought, "Who are we going to kill?"
Standing right before the gates of Konoha, Sakura braced herself to take one look back at the world she was about to leave, but mid-turn she stopped herself.
Don't make this any harder on yourself, Sakura. Be strong.
With a small exhale and then a large inhale of courage, Sakura stepped outside the boundaries of Konoha, and for a second it was like she was waiting for a bomb to drop, but after a moment of silence nothing happened.
She let out a sigh of relief, as if a huge weight had bee lifted off her chest. She was free now.
And that was when she heard the footsteps.
"Sakura? Sakura!! Sakura, please!" Tsuande's pleading voice reached her in the dead of night, but Sakura simply closed her eyes, and reached into her back pocket.
"Sakura-chan, please reconsider your actions! You know what will happen!" Tsuande watched hopelessly as the pink haired kounichi stood out in the dark of night, standing as still as a statue. She acted as if she hadn't heard Tsuande's pleading voice.
A grip of anger suddenly over took Tsuande. "SAKURA! I order you THIS INSTANT to get your ass back here! Right NOW!" And Tsuande suddenly forced as much Chakra into her foot as she dared, and slammed it back down into the ground. The fissure shot out towards Sakura, but she nimbly leaped aside, dodging the crater, with her back still turned to Konoha.
Tsuande watched in mild fascination as Sakura reached behind her head and untied the head band with the Leaf symbol upon it. Holding it in one hand with what looked like a scroll, Sakura reached down to her leg and grabbed a kunai.
Tsuande's eyes widened. "NO, Sakura-chan, PLEASE!"
Her apprentice stiffened for a moment, and then it was gone. Sakura made her decision.
She turned, facing the Hogake, a forlorn look in her eyes. Not the one of the Sakura she knew and loved. This Sakura was different. Older, more mature...
Deadlier.
Without a smile, a blink, or any acknowledgment that Sakura regretted what she was doing, Sakura let the scroll unravel and simply brought the kunai in her hand down the scroll, ripping it in half. The scroll disappeared in a puff of smoke, and in it's place the tip of the kunai burned, fire flaring from the tip of it.
"Noo.." Tsuande dropped to her knees as the tears began to fall.
All she could do was watch.
Sakura deftly retied the arm band around her arm and with the hand holding the flaming kunai, brought the kunai in a straight line through the lead symbol on her kunai.
The metal flashed red for a second, and then it was done.
A single line through the leaf symbol on the head band of Haruno Sakura.
The next missing-nin of Konoha.
Tsuande swallowed, and closed her eyes. Why did she have to do this?
"You are to assassinate the missing-nin of Konoha, Haruno... Sakura."
TBC...
Well yeah, there it is. Hope you liked it! And please, PLEASE, tell me if you see any grammical errors, or spelling errors, and exspcially point out to me if I got any Naruto names or terms spelt incorrectly!
Thanks a bunch hugs!!
- Lady Raven