AN: Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm lame. No need to tell me that.(This particular idea spawned from the fact that for an ENTIRE TWO STORY ARCS, SAKURA AND KAKASHI WERE COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT.)

On a side note, I've been reading WAYYYYYY too much ItaSaku.

The moment she was certain the one and only Uchiha Sasuke wouldn't realize until it's too late that he was being followed, Haruno Sakura took off, using what Kakashi had taught the entire group about chakra control and stealth technique to hopefully delay her presence being discovered.

There was no way in Hell that she would be left behind on this one.

From what she had gathered, Sasuke got wind of Itachi battling Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai. And that Itachi was searching for Naruto. Then got the idea to go off to warn Naruto, who was with Jiraiya. Of course, all this info came second-handedly through the sadly unintelligent jounin that accidentally, in his excitement, forgot that Sasuke was in Kakashi's apartment waiting for an explanation.

And now, Haruno Sakura waited as he entered a hotel, then exited, then entered, then exited, until he didn't exit. That would be her cue to enter the hotel he didn't exit, so as to be certain that she wouldn't be wasting energy.

Her chance arrived.

After roughly ten minutes—she thought, perhaps her estimations were correct—and Sasuke did not exit the hotel, that chance was taken. Sasuke wasn't in the immediate vicinity, so she asked the receptionist about a boy several centimetres taller than her with spikey hair and wearing a black jumpsuit.

The receptionist rattled out a room number and how to get there. Before he could even ask why, the pink-haired girl was gone.

With a quick thank-you, Sakura had decided not to linger about; what if Sasuke was in danger?! What if Itachi had already killed him?! What if – What if –

"Stop it!" She muttered.

Inner Sakura replied with a shudder and continued the what-ifs.

"Sakura...? What the hell are you doing here?!" Sasuke had heard her mutter at Inner Sakura. Shit.

"I..." Before she could stammer out a reply, Sasuke continued.

"Naruto's in another room! I know you wouldn't if I asked you to go back, so just come with me and don't reveal yourself. Even if I die."

Sakura melted ever so slightly when he locked gazes with her. Even without the Sharingan activated, his eyes seemed to be more midnight blue instead of black. Naturally, she nodded.

When Sasuke finally located Naruto, he was too late to stop anything, and whispered several instructions, but all of them hinted at concealment no matter what, in some shape or form.

And all of those left her mind, even when Naruto kept shaking her and the tall old guy(presumably Jiraiya) yelled at her about not intervening because of honor and other stuff. And only because Itachi looked so...so...different than she imagined.

Paler than Sasuke, of course, but he was beautiful—if a guy could be called beautiful—with those long lashes(which she could see from several feet away, and they were dark.). He looked like Sasuke, minus those...those lines under his eyes.

Given the situation, it was inappropriate for Inner Sakura to be positively swooning.

"S-Sakura-chan?! You look a little pale...!" But Naruto's hand was shrugged off.

Naruto's worry and Jiraiya's warning went unheeded.

Sasuke heard his name through the haze of pain and visions lingering on his retinas. Then it hit him: it was Sakura calling his name.

"N..no...d-d-d..on-n't..." Was all he managed before unconsciousness overtook him.

Only too late did Naruto realize exactly what was happening:

Sakura had, against better judgement, gone after Sasuke in a vain attempt to help.

Then Sasuke said something. Possibly a warning.

Jiraiya cursed his previous statement, having decided that Itachi's abilities were under-estimated.

During all this, the shark-nin(Naruto wasn't sure what he was doing here) had drained away Sakura's and Naruto's chakra. (At least, he assumed Sakura's chakra was drained with that weird, freaky sword)

And Sakura seemed to suddenly realize she was far from help.

By the time Naruto had digested all of this, Jiraiya had cast a strange jutsu that made the hallways look like frog insides, there was a black flame surrounding a hole in the froggish insides, an unconscious Sasuke, but no Sakura.