Ah hey guys! Well I'm guessing a little of you know how absolutely AWFUL the first draft of this story was, so I now present.. NA NA NA NA NA NA NAAA .. The rewrite! (: Enjoy everyone and please review! *Bows*

"..." Speaking

'...' Thinking/Flashback

"..." Inner Sakura

Song recommendation for this chapter: "Pieces" by Sum41

Betrayal

Chapter One: Flight From Home

Written by xFadingMoonx

Do you believe in destiny?

That's a question that many people would be completely stumped to even answer let alone think deeply about it. When asked that question and caught completely off guard, you wouldn't quite know what to say, but that's beside the point.

One girl was asked this question once, and she simply laughed and called the person 'silly' for thinking such things.

Little did she know though that destiny itself was just about to rear its head and bite her straight in the ass. Pahahaha.

She'll be sorry.

Sakura Haruno quietly slipped through the silent streets of her current home – Konoha. Actually no, it shouldn't even be 'home' anymore. After what she was about to do - she had no idea what would become 'home'.

She carelessly passed all of her favourite places and hangouts, the memories came flooding back like unwanted little stabs in her heart.

The training ground.

The Academy.

The ramen shop that Naruto liked so much – Ichiraku.

Oh god… Naruto.

How the hell is he going to react when he realises what I've done? She thought and suddedly whipped her head around to check if a shadow or something was following her.

Why the fuck am I even doing this?

She was never one to trust her instincts either, which of course her master – Tsunade had always nagged her about.

"Trust yourself or fate might take a harsh turn." She always used to say. It didn't matter even a little to Sakura herself though, 'fate' as it was called, she thought was utter rubbish and totally unreliable. Just a bunch of crap that a small group of drugged up ninja created no doubt. Definetly.

Sakura forced the sudden ball of guilt out of her mind and hitched up her bag with most of her belongings, higher on her shoulder. Despite the hot summer days, tonight seemed to be cooler with a nice breeze. Konoha looked so gentle at night. So beautiful. So quiet.

If Sakura hadn't been daydreaming and been so self-absorbed at that very moment, then she would have noticed the out-of-place tuft of blonde hair peek out from a nearby bush.

Sasuke pulled Naruto down in a flurry. "IDIOT! You'll get us noticed!" He hissed.

Naruto whined. "Sorry but I'm just so worried about Sakura. What is she doing out here, late at night – with a bag and everything? Is she going on holiday or something?"

Sasuke didn't reply to his team mate's idiocy, but he did have a pretty good idea at what was going through the kunoichi's mind at the very moment. And he really didn't like it.

Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were tied to a tree. Kisame had finally got the better of them of a long, gruelling battle. He stood proudly and mounted his sword on a scaly shoulder, grinning and showing his sharp pointy teeth.

"Let us go fish-face!" Sakura squealed, trying to wiggle her way free of the damn tight rope binding her. Kisame didn't really scare her like he did to everyone else, infact she actually smiled at the fact that he was almost expecting her to scream 'bloody murder' at the very sight of him.

"Watch your mouth before I rip out your tongue!" He growled, obviously so used to those dumb fish joke gags that he had also suffered so much from his comrades already. If not for Pein or Konan, god knows.. He would have sliced them into pieces already.

Itachi almost smirked. 'She's feisty.' He thought and kept a safe distance.

Naruto struggled. "LET US GO!" He yelled, earning a well-aimed kick from Kisame.

Sakura screamed and threatened him about what she'd do if fish-eyes touched him again, Sasuke stayed silent – staring at his murderer brother, looking positively ready to leap and throttle the man with his bare hands.

Itachi began to walk over. "Let the pink-haired one go for a second, Kisame."

Kisame, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke looked stunned. Kisame reluctantly untied her, hissing when she leaned back from his 'fish smell'. Sakura immediately began to run at Itachi as soon as she was freed, her sharpest kunai in her hand. Itachi barely blinked, he caught hold of her arm, making her drop the kunai in the process and he punched her fully on in the stomach, instantly winding her. Sakura gasped and fell onto the wet grass. She wrapped her arms around herself, panting heavily.

"BASTARD!" Sasuke and Naruto roared, sending the birds in the treetops above into flight.

Naruto tried to wriggle free as hard as her could from the rope but failed miserably. "I'll save you Sakura!" He yelled, trying to carefully think up a quick escape plan in his head. But being Naruto, it would take a long while.

Kisame held on to Sakura's hair and yanked her up. She screamed again and flicked her head round, and sank her pearly white teeth into his leg. Kisame bit his lip, the last thing he wanted to do was to cry out in front of Itachi, instead he gave the girl a heavy kick and dragged her by the hair to his comrade.

Sasuke was shaking with anger, he was one step away from going berserk. 'HOW DARE THEY HURT HER… Itachi will surely suffer for this…'

"Kunochi," Itachi said to the shaking pink-haired ninja. "You're quite the tough one aren't you?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "Get lost bastard!"

Kisame kicked her again, earning a mouth of swearing abuse from her. He merely smiled at the pathetic insults.

"With the right training, you could be very powerful," Itachi paused. "I can offer that training."

Silence.

He carried on . "Join the Akatsuki, and nobody would no longer call you weak…"

Naruto had reached the end of his tether. "DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!"

"... People would fear you."

"...HE'S LYING SAKURA!"

"...People would respect you."

"...SHUT UP!"

"...People would love you."

Sakura stopped struggling. People would fear, respect and love her? She would be stronger and not a weakling anymore. Just think- no more of playing the 'sweet little damsel in distress' crap with Naruto and Sasuke. Oh god.. She was so tempted.

Sakura shook her head. "I… Can't…" She whispered as common sense tried to fight.

"You can. Join and all your ambitions of becoming strong will be fulfilled." Itachi persisted.

"N-No…"

"Think about it for now. We'll give you one week," Itachi looked at Kisame. "Let's go. I have to speak with Pein."

Kisame nodded and leapt up high into the trees.

"ITACHI, YOU WILL DIE!" Sasuke spat angrily, his sharingan flaring into life.

Itachi looked at his sibling and sighed. "Not tonight little brother. You're still too weak," He too, leapt into the air. "You know where to find me Sakura if you choose to seek a new path."

His voice rang round the trees and he disappeared into the night.

Sakura was at the town's border. She looked back at the town in which she had been living all her life, the town she absolutely adored. She smiled, sending silent goodbyes to her friends, family, teachers and everyone who she had been lucky enough to meet.

"I'm sorry," She whispered. "But I have to do this. I have to."

She turned round to continue walking down the grey cobblestone path, until she found Naruto and Sasuke blocking her way, looking pretty damn angry.

She gasped. "W-What the hell are you two doing here?" Was the first thing that tumbled out of her open mouth. Naruto put his hands on her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes.

"Sakura, do you realise what you're doing!"

Sakura gently slipped her hands around his neck and gave him a warm hug. She felt something wet on her shoulder and found that Naruto was silently crying, he slipped his own arms round her waist and for a while, they stood like that.

"Stop it Naruto, you'll set me off." She sniffed after a long while. Naruto didn't want to let go, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and turned to Sasuke,

"Don't suppose you want a hug do you?" She chuckled dryly.

Sasuke shook his head, a small vein popping out on his forehead. He could contain his feelings no more and it all came bursting out at once.

"ARE YOU COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND SAKURA? DO YOU EVEN HAVE AN IDEA WHAT MY BROTHER IS CAPABLE OF?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes, wincing slightly at the Uchiha's volume of voice. She quickly glanced behind her, checking that no one had heard him and was coming to see what the nonsense was about. Yes, she loved her town but even she had to admit, they all were a pretty nosy bunch.

"Yeah, like you care." She snorted. She tried to walk round them but Sasuke grabbed her arm,

"I WON'T let you go that easily. I swear, even if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to get you to Tsunade's office right now!"

"Get off mother."

"No!"

"Now!"

"Sakura…" Sasuke leaned forward and touched her lips with his own.

For a few precious moments, she was in heaven.

He pulled away and looked at her. He wouldn't admit to himself that he had enjoyed it, even just a little. Sakura came to the realisation that he didn't kiss out of love… Or lust. Only to make her stay. If she hadn't of considered Itachi's promises so strongly, yeah she would have stayed. But for once in his whole life, Itachi probably did the right thing talking her into this. That bastard had played on her own weaknesses - he was the worst!

She turned towards the path and forced each leg in front of the other. "When I return, I'll be stronger. I'll make everyone proud… I promise."

And with that, she slipped off into the night.