Uchiha Itachi didn't trust Danzo to leave Sasuke alone, so instead of setting his brother on a course of revenge against him that night, he took the child with him. Now, years later, the Uchiha brothers are famous missing nin, and Uchiha Sasuke would do anything for his beloved brother. Even if that something is forcing an unwilling pink-haired medic nin to heal Itachi. Sasusaku.

(Eventual) Pairings: Sasusaku, Naruhina

Chapter 1

Her mission to Iwa had gone worse than she had expected.

The Tsuchikage had requested someone from Konoha to come heal his back, and in the name of peace and to help heal the rocky relations between the two villages, Tsunade had sent her apprentice, Sakura.

The little old man had really gotten on her nerves, constantly complaining about his back, and coercing her to stay longer than what was agreed on to heal some of Iwa's shinobi that their own medics couldn't.

She probably should have declined when Onoki asked her to heal them. After all, her mission was just to heal the Tsuchikage himself. But that would have gone against all her beliefs as a medic. And once she got started, the old Tsuchikage kept bringing her more patients. She ended up healing half of their hospital in her stay there, all while having to listen to Onoki complain about the back she had already healed three times.

So, as Sakura headed back to Konoha, she was tired and irritable. And to top off her already bad mood, she had just picked up two chakra signatures tailing her almost as soon as she crossed the border between grass and earth country.

The jounin debated who they could be. It was a possibility that they were stone nin. Many of them had not been happy when Iwa had made peace with Konoha, still carrying old grudges from the third shinobi war. Attacking her would provoke the Hokage and shake the fragile peace between the two villages, something that many stone nin would be perfectly content with.

But then again, Sakura doubted that any stone shinobi would have waited this long, and it was unlikely that they would have been able to tail her without her noticing until now. No, it was more likely that they were either grass nin, investigating her chakra signature, or missing nin, looking for a fight.

She almost kind of hoped that they were missing nin. She needed something to take her growing frustration out on. And judging by the chakra signatures, they would probably be able to put up a decent fight, which was fine with her. She didn't want it to be too easy.

She slowed down, not enough to let the two tailing her know that she was onto them, but enough to let them catch up a bit faster. As they neared her, she sensed what they had been able to conceal from a distance. Both of their chakra signatures were enormous. They were at least A rank nin, if not possibly S rank, and were undoubtedly jounin level if they were from a village.

Sakura started second guessing the wisdom of her plan, but they were catching up fast, and there was no going back now. Who knows, she thought. Maybe they are friendly.

Sakura sped up, heading for fire country. Confrontation was inevitable, so she might as well have the home turf advantage.

As she neared the border, she stopped. The medic felt the two signatures disappear, no doubt moving to different positions before striking. Sakura pulled out a kunai and waited for them to make the first move.

She turned in slow circles and looked through the trees around her, watching and waiting.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, a figure stepped out of the darkness of the trees. As it entered the light, Sakura saw a pattern of red clouds on black: Akatsuki.

Her heart started racing at the sight of the group that was after her best friend and teammate, Naruto. She spun around as a voice coming from behind her stated rather than asked, "Haruno Sakura."

"Akatsuki," she replied, struggling to keep her voice level.

The first figure that approached reached up to remove his straw hat, revealing long, dark gray hair and a pair of deadly red eyes. She immediately recognized him from the bingo book.

"Uchiha Itachi," she breathed out. "And that must make you Uchiha Sasuke," she addressed the other figure who was just taking off his hat.

The Uchiha brothers always worked and traveled together, seeing as they were partners in Akatsuki. And they were infamous for being powerful, deadly, ruthless, and, as Sakura had to grudgingly agree with, gorgeous.

Uchiha Itachi's name was feared through all of Konoha as being the man who singlehandedly destroyed Konoha's most powerful clan, though some rumors said that Sasuke had helped with the massacre, even at the fragile age of seven.

Both men were S rank criminals and well known members of Akatsuki. The bingo book listed them as "flee on sight." I am so utterly screwed, Sakura inwardly groaned. Sure, she was a jounin and the apprentice of the Hokage, but these two were legends. And their sharingan made her genjutsu useless. My only chance right now is to try to talk my way out of this. They haven't attacked yet, so maybe that's a good sign.

"Haruno Sakura," the younger one, Sasuke, began, "You are coming with us."

In shock and mild annoyance at his command, she hesitated to answer. "…Why?" she asked, wondering if she should cooperate or fight back, both seeming to be pretty terrible options.

"You are going to heal my brother."

Sakura recalled a rumor that Itachi's mangekyo sharingan was causing him to gradually become blind. So that's what they want me for, she concluded. "Why should I help you? Akatsuki is going after Naruto, my teammate. Helping you could very well be signing his death warrant. Plus, I'm not in the business of healing criminals," Sakura glared at both of them.

"I wasn't offering you a choice," Sasuke glared back.

"It would be in your best interest to cooperate, Haruno-san," Itachi added, speaking for the first time, his face impassive.

"How do you even know I can heal you? Whatever is wrong with you is obviously something that can't be healed easily, otherwise you would have had another medic heal it by now. And why target me specifically?" she questioned. "There are better medics than me."

"You shouldn't underestimate yourself, Haruno-san. You also should not lie to us. You know as well as we do that the Hokage is the only medic with skills superior to yours, and the only other one on par with you is Shizune, who heads the hospital in Konoha and rarely leaves. You were the most logical choice," Itachi told her.

"And as far as your skills go, you had better hope you are able to heal him," Sasuke threatened, slightly unsheathing the sword under his open cloak, "otherwise you become useless to us."

"Well then you should tell me what's wrong with him so I can tell you if I can heal it or not. I would hate to waste your time by having you kidnap me only to realize that he can't be healed."

Sasuke glanced at his brother warily, as if asking how to proceed. Apparently he wasn't too keen on revealing what was wrong with his brother, which surprised Sakura. She had thought the fact that Itachi was going blind was common knowledge.

Itachi was the one to reply to Sakura's request. "What we would ask of you to heal consists of two parts. Once these healings are completed and I am fully recovered, you would be free to go. No harm would come to you if you cooperate."

"Yeah? Tell that to your brother," she muttered.

Sasuke's glare increased and he clutched his sword a bit tighter, but Itachi continued as if he hadn't heard her. "My two ailments should be reparable by someone of your caliber. I can explain them in full once you come with us, and then you could examine them yourself. I believe that would be more efficient than telling you now."

"So let's say for just one second that I am actually considering healing you. What would I get in return?" she challenged.

"Tch, he already said we wouldn't kill you," Sasuke growled, quickly losing the little patience he had.

"That hardly counts," Sakura glared. "I'm going to need a bit more of an incentive to help a member of the group who is hunting Naruto. What am I going to gain with all this? And even if you do offer me something I want, I'm still not convinced that I can necessarily heal you. There are just some things that are irrepara—"

She was cut off by Sasuke's voice, "Nii-san. There are several chakra signatures headed this way. Anbu, most likely."

Sakura smirked, feeling equal parts lucky and relieved that there had been a group of Anbu close enough to respond to the distress call she had set off.

There were several of these special jutsu hidden around fire country, and she had headed to the nearest one, setting the preset alarm off with her chakra, signaling all leaf shinobi in the immediate vicinity for help.

She was surprised there had been a team close enough to respond in time. Granted, she had to stall a little. It had been hard for her to pretend that she was actually interested in healing Uchiha Itachi, but it was worth it. The Anbu were the elite of Konoha. Perhaps if there were enough of them, they could stop the Uchiha brothers.

Her smile at her small victory was soon wiped off her face by the glare she received from Uchiha Sasuke. The guy looked like he was about ready to put his brother's health aside and just kill her where she stood.

Well, she thought, the Anbu will be here soon, so we might as well get things started.

Feeling suddenly cocky and probably just the tiniest bit suicidal from the adrenaline and knowledge that her plan had worked, Sakura looked up at Sasuke, an S rank criminal who already seemed to hate her, and with a small smirk, gave him a wink and proceeded to punch the ground.

Earth flew up all around her and the two Akatsuki members jumped up and out of the way of the debris, eyes slightly wide from shock. As they landed, the Anbu team arrived, landing on the outskirts of the crater and debris Sakura had created.

The captain approached her, "Haruno-san. We received your signal. What is the situation?"

"The Akatsuki members, Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke, approached me on my way back to Konoha. I signaled for help. They came at me with the intention of forcing me to heal Uchiha Itachi. I stalled until you arrived. I think that if we play our cards right, the—" she quickly counted the group"—nine of us should be able to defeat them."

"Haruno-san. Head back to Konoha. We will take care of this."

"B-but you are going to need every person you've got to take on these guys," she sputtered, offended. "And what if one of you gets hurt? Who's going to heal you?"

"Haruno-san. Return to Konoha. That is an order. You are too valuable for Konoha to lose, and if we don't succeed in defeating them, having Itachi's eyes healed will only put another weapon in the hands of the enemy."

"But I can hel—"

"Go!"

Sakura looked between the captain and the other members of the Anbu in disbelief. She did not work as hard as she did to be a shinobi who ran away. She had done it so she that never again would another one of her comrades die in her arms. She did it so she could protect her precious people.

These Anbu weren't necessarily her precious people, but they were her comrades from Konoha. And she could help.

But orders were orders, and the captain was right. Having a fully functioning Uchiha Itachi would be a bad thing for Konoha, and an even worse thing for her last surviving teammate, Naruto.

Sakura grudgingly turned towards Konoha, but before she could even take a step in that direction, there was a flash of red and black, and suddenly her path was blocked by Uchiha Sasuke.

"As if we would just let you leave," he smirked, obviously not at all deterred by the Anbu team that had just arrived.

One of the Anbu jumped between him and Sakura. "You have other things to worry about at the moment. Your fight is with myself and my team. Now, Sakura. Go!" he shouted.

Sakura glanced back at the Anbu, recognizing Neji's long hair. After a few seconds of internal conflict, she turned to leave.

Taking off, she didn't get even ten feet into the forest before she heard the sounds of the fight beginning. Sakura struggled not to go back and help. The growing ache in her chest about leaving was only multiplied as she thought of Neji and the danger he faced.

But Neji was a strong shinobi, and anyone who made Anbu was good enough to be counted as one of the elite. She was sure they would be fine. Her job now was to get reinforcements from Konoha.

And with that thought, she increased her speed and headed for home