I Will Follow You Into the Dark

I

Blood red orbs stared at her.

They blinked at her from the darkness, deep and dark and luscious like an eternal abyss of sorrowful red, as something reached out, and Sakura felt something move along her like a frighteningly cold shadow of longing – and then she woke up.

Sighing, Sakura squinched her eyes and rubbed them, sitting up. Her back popped uncomfortably. She had been separated from her group the night before. Outside in the wilderness, Sakura missed her team in the lonely cold of what seemed like an endless night, the storm raging around her icy, shivering body.

I shouldn't have fallen asleep out here, she thought irritably, picking up her pack and standing up from her spot inside a tree's gnarled roots. The rain was coming down too hard, though, and she couldn't believe she had fallen behind.

Again.

She shouldered her pack and stood up, the rain smelled so nice now that it was coming down less hard. And those were thougghts for another time.

What did plague her thoughts were those eyes she had seen in her dream.

Sasuke's?

She hadn't thought about Sasuke in a long, long time. He was fading, weaving in her memories and unthreading faster than she was ready. But in a way she was. Sakura was ready to let go. She was strong now. She put her chin up and started walking. She was strong now. To satisfy this thought, Sakura absently lift her foot and tapped it against the ground gently, smiling when the ground erupted into tumbling rocks, a mini-earthquake roaring beneath her.

Less than a mile away, sitting on a tree branch, Itachi Uchiha's eyes narrowed as he stilled completely, dead silent, waiting, hands tightening imperceptibly on the tree branch.

His scarlet orbs sought out any sort of disturbance, their blood red color swimming between the three pinprick commas that stood out in stark contrast. Coming up with nothing, he slowly let them fade to onyx black, sharp as coal and twice as cold. The pain that the Sharingan eyes brought eased slowly, but the blur tinging his vision blurry could not be eased.

"Itachi, are you ready?"

Kisame, from below, twitched his grip on his sword. He couldn't tell what the disturbance was, but he knew where it came from, and he wanted to find out.

Itachi's inaudible landing alerted Kisame and they set out. They were being paid to patrol the area, it was a very easy job. Akatsuki work was slow because they were building up their funds by taking many, many obs throughout the world, the highest paying ones they could find.

"What was that?" Kisame asked.

Itachi didn't know and could only shrug as they quietly raced towards the chakra signature they felt. When they saw who it was, Itachi's lip curled in distaste, he knew who this was. He remembered her – a good memory told him this was Haruno Sakura, friend to his brother, apprentice to the Godaime Hokage, walking quietly along with the evidence of a disturbance in the ground behind her.

She looked much like he remembered her. She had soft pink hair. It was held back from her face in her red Konoha headband, framing her heart-shaped face with glittering jade eyes and rosy cheeks and full glossy lips, skin softly pale in the glowing gray light from the crying overcast clouds. She was dressed in a tight-fit obsidian red shirt that despite being high-collared, accentuated her bust well, with her trademark white circle embroidered on her back with no sleeves and with short-shorts and a short skirt that promised easy movement but looked very good. She wore high heeled sandals that were fashionable like her teacher's, both shoes and skirt showing off her long legs. She was still petite, she couldn't be older than seventeen, but she held herself in a very dignified way, chin held up with her back straight, that made his opinion of her rise slightly.

"Haruno Sakura."

Sakura stiffened and spun around, hands inching towards her kunai. When she saw who it was her eyes widened and she took an involuntary step back. Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki… A-class missing-nin, top of the bingo book criminals, Akatsuki members.

"What do you want?" she thundered, putting up a front that was a lot braver than she felt. She was actually scared and hated herself for it, but they were very strong missing-nin. She knew she couldn't take both of them, so she decided to try to be friendly. Maybe they would leave her alone if she convinced them she was passing through – which was exactly what she was doing.

"It's been a while," Itachi murmured, and the smoothness of his voice jolted something inside her and sent shivers up her back that she fought to still. He saw it anyway, however, judging by how his lip curled slightly.

"You," he said, "are in our territory." And with that she was suddenly pinned to a tree, his coal black eyes staring knives into hers.

"What are you doing here," he said, more of a commanding statement than a question. He was so close, she felt his breath like cool mint softly tickling her. Sakura tried not to look at his eyes but was captivated by the utter ice inside of them, freezing her from the inside out.

"I was walking," she said slowly and clearly, raising her chin defiantly. He pushed her harder into the tree and the bark dug into her back painfluly. This flared her temper, which had grown in legend as she grew older, the many missions she had taken over the years spreading news of the kind yet fiery medic-nin. "I have no intent to fight you, but if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you get!" She tried to punch him but he disappeared in a blur of motion, suddenly many yards away.

"So be it." He said, and suddenly she felt warning bells in her head and fear in her stomach. She couldn ot handle two missing-nin – two very dangerous A-class Akatsuki missing-nin, at that. But she had already initiated this and couldn't back down. She had pride and wasn't going to let it go just because she was afraid. She had worked hard for her self-confidence.

Sakura tried to punch Itachi but he dodged and kicked her feet out from under her, but instead of falling down Sakura flipped back and the fight was on. She fingered the scroll in her pocket after a while of fighting but didn't want to use it, not yet. It was a special gift from Tenten, a secret ace in the whole, a surprise she wasn't ready to waste yet.

Sakura didn't know if he would use his legendary Mangekyou sharingan, but instead of risking it, she kept her eyes schooled down, watching his feet and reading his movements. He was very strong physically, but his fighting type was naturally genjutsu – just as hers was. This would make things harder because the man was far more skilled than she is; deciding to keep it physical and to try not to goat Itachi into any chakra attacks, Sakura kept her own attacks strictly physical. The earth erupted beneath Itachi but he flickered out of her vision, and Sakura knew exactly where he was coming from. She punched the earth again, forcing him to exit his ground-jutsu.

Sakura grazed his face, leaving a tiny trail of blood, and this made her happy that she could hurt him – until suddenly she was pinned to the ground, having forgotten to move directly after. During the entire fight she had been very light on her feet because she was faster than he was, but he finally caught her. She was breathing hard, yet Itachi seemed much less taxed than she was as he held her wrists above her head with one hand, the other almost caressing her neck in what she imagined could be an imitation of a sweet gesture, tight and uncomfortable and ready to choke her. Her eyes flickered to his unwillingly, and Sakura's heart stopped because it was red – scarlet – scarlet orbs, just like—

Suddenly, his body almost crushed hers as Itachi flattened against her and then they were moving in a blur; there was a kunai perched deadly still where they had just been. Sakura couldn't help but gasp; Itachi jerked and let go of her, but Kisame took the lead and charged at an enemy ninja.

"Oh no, Iwa ninja – what are they doing so far in the Fire Country?" Sakura wondered, but Itachi shushed her and grabbed her wrist as he began to run.

"What are you doing?" Sakura screeched, but she found herself pinned uncomfortably to a tree again, her hands above her head and Itachi's leg stationed between her own, rubbing against her thighs uncomfortably – Itachi seemed to like doing that, apparently.

Not that she minded, a little voice in the back of her mind said mischeviously. He really was handsome and strong and smelled like… Sakura inhaled quietly so he wouldn't notice, he smelled like something very masculine, like Old Spice even though she knew it was ridiculous because ninjas never used distinctive scents, and Itachi Uchiha was no exception. It was too easy to be tracked, so all that ninjas ever smelled like was themselves, which never left a real trail unless you had a nin-dog. And what a nice smell this was. Then Sakura realized what she was thinking about and firmly drove it out of her mind – she hated him! His next words solidified that though and she knew that her two-second school girl attraction was well dead.

"Hush, woman." Itachi said in a smooth voice with narrowed eyes. "You are going to attract their attention, and that is the last thing we need. They are very strong, but Kisame can handle them. You were obviously walking around here for a reason – whatever it is, you are not going to leave with any information about the Akatsuki, so you are coming with me. I need to inform my leader that Iwa is meddling in our affairs."

He bent his head down besides hers, raven-black hair like night framing his face and tickling her cheeks; she could feel his cool spearmint breath, could feel the heat radiating off of his body as he whispered, "you are now my prisoner."

Sakura shivered and there was a tiny smirk on his face as he leaned away again. She was indignant over her new status, but he was stronger than her – if she tried to escape he would capture her, and she had a bad feeling she would get more than a bruised back from being pushed against a tree so many times.

"Follow along. If you try to escape, I will find you, and I will not allow you to move on your own," his smooth voice confirmed the thoughts in her head and Sakura mentally groaned. "We need to leave, now."

He jerked her up and they began moving again. Itachi was making sure Sakura stayed right beside him at all times, though she was slower than he liked.

"Faster," he intoned, and she gave him a rather angry glance, but did as he complied because she knew she didn't have any other choice. Still, it was better than being caught by those Iwa ninjas. At the speed they were going, Sakura was sure they would never catch them – and even though she had no idea what would be in store either way, the pink-haired young woman was sure that being caght by Iwa ninjas was just as bad, if not worse, than being caught by the Akatsuki.

"Where are we going" Sakura began to ask, but her reflexes forced her out of the way and just in time: the Iwa-nin had caught up to them!

"Oh no," Itachi muttered, and she saw him pull out his weapons, his face a mask of cold, unfeeling shinobi, like ice, like winter. He was so much like winter Sakura wondered if he had ever really noticed the changing seasons, but she remembered that the enemy shinobi were here and readied herself.

The ninja that went for her got a good kick in the face, but he rebounded and grazed both of her legs, an upwards slash decorating her gaudily as blood poured out of the large wound. Sakura staggered, but a flick of her wrist healed over most of it, and though her legs were sore, she went straight back to him and started throwing powerful punches.

Meanwhile, Itachi was holding his own against three ninja. He was doing well when Sakura rocketed into view, punting one of the enemy nin into a tree so quickly and surely it almost impressed him. She turned around, her beautiful jade eyes glittering in excitement and fire, and she shouted, "Itachi, I have an idea!"

He understood immediately what she was going to do and held his arm out straight outwards from his body as he performed a one-handed seal – Sakura raced towards him and kicked an evil ninja from behind Itachi as he shot a flaming fireball at another ninja in front of him. Sakura flipped back to use his arm as a sort of pole, giggling as he used wind power to propel her and she took down three ninja at the same time. We're a great team, she thought without thinking, until suddenly – her legs!

"Oh no, my legs!" Sakura moaned in pain and clutched her legs as she fell off of the tree branch she was perched on, writhing in pain as she rocketed towards the ground faster and faster. She couldn't move her legs! She was going to die! She screamed as she fell – there were too many things she wanted to do, too much life left in her, too many untaken opportunities and she couldn't move and she was going to die, she was going to die from falling off of a stupid tree and she couldn't move her legs—

Itachi saw Sakura begin to fall and his heart stopped until it began pounding again – there was something wrong, she wasn't preparing to land. Part of his brain intoned that it wasn't his problem, but he could see her legs spazzing and she wasn't going to be able to land on her own. It wasn't his problem, but here glittering jade eyes flashed in his head and he saw her short pink hair whipping in the air from the force of gravity, her body falling too fast to be able to take the impact without aiming her legs down. He slit the ninja's neck in front of him and raced towards the falling kunoichi but not without being sliced across both arms as the ninja died and gurgled a laughter.

Ignoring it, Itachi ran, faster and faster, flitting across tree branches lower and lower until jumping himself, flattening his body in a perfect swan dive to get to her in time. He wrapped a throbbing arm around her waist as her legs flailed and kicked at him out of control, but he wrapped his own legs around them to still them and used his left arm as a springboard off of a passing, dark wooden branch to flip around and land.

As they did so, Itachi grunted as unfamilar pain shot across both of this arms and they landed in a tangled heap on the ground, both heaving and panting heavily.

"I thought—" Itachi didn't know how to finish that but didn't have to because no, his arms! They were throbbing and pounding and beating like fire was on them, fire. He moaned and almost keelled over, barely catching himself from crushing Sakura's body – why was it hurting?

"Itachi, are you okay?" she whispered, arms instinctively reaching up to push against his chest or try to hold him up. Sakura didn't know which, and she felt so strange… and her legs were hurting, so, so much. It had only been a simple slash, why was it pounding so?

Itachi moaned and all of his weight sagged on her hands. Thankfully, she was able to hold him up; Sakura Haruno wasn't called the strongest kunoichi in her village for nothing.

"My arms aren't working, he bit out, and Sakura gave him a helpless look. "My legs aren't working," she offered, not that it helped much. "I can check you out if we can get to a safe place. Their coming." She said. Itachi looked down at her and in his beautiful scarlet eyes, she could see that he had come to a decision.

"Sakura, wrap your arms around me," he told her, tone leaving no room for arguement, and for some reason, one she did not know why, Sakura did as he asked without hesitation, feeling his warm body almost envelope her own small one. It was a surprisingly safe feeling.

Sakura told herself she was dumb and narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't trust you, but we need to do something," said Sakura and he nodded, because he knew this as well. "That is my plan, I have no arms and you have no legs. Let us use each other to achieve our ends." It was a good plan, Sakura knew, so she used the arms around his neck to lift herself up and weakly wrap her legs around his waist and he stood up, arms struggling to move up to support her.

"I won't let you fall."

He started running and the words jolted something deep inside the girl Sakura hid in her heart as she tightened her hold around his neck and shoulders, head a foot above his to see what was happening behind. Her legs were hurting, but she kept her grip on Itachi's waste strong ; as he was keeping grip on her legs with his weak arms, she could do the same.

"I have an idea," said Sakura as she grabbed some of her kunai as the rock ninja raced after them; she had to be very accurate for this to work. She threw the kunai and pinned one man in the forehead, smirking as another kunai hit another right in the neck. "How many?" Itachi asked from below, Sakura patted his head as she grabbed some needles. "Two – now three," she said easily, hoisting herself a little to get better grip on Itachi, her body sliding up his awkwardly. They both try not to notice and he nods instead.

"Good," he murmurs as the last of the enemy ninja went down. I think we can—"

"Itachi!" Sakura screamed. She saw more stupid, idiotic ninjas coming, and she didn't think she could take them, not without her legs!

"Dammit!" Itachi cursed. He tried to speed up, but he was tiring out and his arms were throbbing terribly. Sakura began to slip but he hoisted her up; he wouldn't let her fall. Couldn't. It was such a strange, intrusive thought that Itachi ripped it from his mind and continued running, trying to push himself.

"They're catching up, I can't get all of them!" Sakura cried from above him; the enemy-nin were on the offensive and throwing knives at them. Itachi ran fastser and faster, willing his feet to keep moving, just keep moving – until the Iwa shinobi came at them from the front, causing Itachi to stop in his tracks.

"This'll teach you!" One yelled with a sneer. Neither Itachi or Sakura had any idea what was happening, but as soon as the enemy ninja yelled, suddenly the wind flared up around them, swirling faster and faster, almost throwing Itachi off of his balance – his eyes narrowed and he shot up, trying to get away, but the whirlwind sucked him in again, whipping around them faster and faster, until suddenly—

The only thing that even signified Itachi Uchiha or Sakura Haruno had ever stood on that space was the echo of the ringing scream that had ripped out of Sakura's mouth before they were sucked into the wind.

And even that disappeared into the sky, and neither ninja were there.

i w i l l f o l l o w y o u

"And so it beginsss," the quiet, deep male voice spoke; it slithered across the words like a snake.

"We succeeded but were unable to place a tracking device on them," another voice spoke; it was nervous, slightly higher, male and young and afraid. It could taste the fear, could smell it.

"Failure," the first voice spoke softly, almost gently despite it's utter lack of warmth, "isss not tolerated in my ssservice."

The young man, headband betraying the fact he was from Iwagakure, was dead before he hit the floor.

i n t o t h e d a r k

She groaned, feeling the weight of something heavy on top of her. Her eyes fluttered open, eyelashes catching stray bits of hair, and Sakura was drowsily surprised to find Itachi Uchiha sprawled across her, effectively pinning her to the cold, hard ground again. He was fast asleep – unconscious, knocked out? – but she murmured into his ear, his head leaning against her heart, and he began to stir.

He felt terrible.

"S… Sakura… what h—?"

The sharp intake of breath he heard from his female companion was all that warned him to the presence he felt behind; Itachi tried to flip around and reach for a kunai, but his body did not respond and he could only try to crane his neck around, head oddly placed on Sakura's chest, to find two blue, twinkling, but very confused eyes staring back at him.

i w i l l f o l l o w y o u i n t o t h e d a r k

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Hi! Umm, umm, this is my first fanfiction, so please be easy on me, I am still learning the ways of , teehee. x3 And this is only the beginning, there is a lot more coming! x3 I've always loooooved HP/Naruto crossovers, and I wanted to make a more unique one. The only thing I ask is that you tell me your thoughts, I would love to haer what ppl think. And I might be enticed to update sooner if I get a few reviews, teehee, but I promise the next part will be up soon, see you then! x3

LalaLettie