Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!

Note: Okay so I'm sorry for not updating sooner but all of the courses I'm taking, the clubs I'm head of, my job and many other things factor in my inability to update as much as I would like.

Now what are you waiting for? Read already!


"Hatake Kakashi" Sakura began reprimanding, "what the hell happened to you? You had no mission yet you managed to break six ribs, your nose, wrist, leg AND left hip, not to mention several abrasions and bruises!"

Kakashi meekly smiled behind his mask, "I fell out of bed?"

"Liar" to emphasize her point further she pushed his ribs while healing them.

"Ouch, Sakura that hurt!"

"Well next time, do not fall out of bed" she sneered, moving on to his hip.

The room was heavy in sterilized silence as Kakashi watched his ex-student on her every movement. Sakura, noticing his piercing stare, broke the silence,

"You act as though I may attack you Kakashi."

"You never know Sakura" his voice seemed void of emotion but Sakura caught the slight apprehension in it and mentally frowned though still concentrating on the last of his wounds,

"Well whoever was able to do this could've killed you many times over." She stood up and reached for her clipboard as she commented nonchalantly, "they were mere centimeters from the main arteries and the bruises in their advanced form clearly indicate pronounced strength."

"How do you know it wasn't a group of people who did this to me?"

"Kakashi, you wouldn't hesitate in telling me you fought a group because it wouldn't bruise your ego as much as a singular person by his or herself, hell you're willing to say you were clumsy enough to fall out of bed instead of admitting your near defeat."

"Your deduction skills are quite astute."

Sakura scribbled down some medical jargon before looking up with a smile, "if only your lies could be half as good as my deduction skills." She began to head toward the door, "Kakashi, you never go to the hospital unless unconscious, of which you're clearly not, so what do you wish to inform me?"

Kakashi lazily walked over to her and ruffled the bubblegum colored hair,

"The Hokage wishes to see you at nine"

Sakura looked at her wrist watch and for a moment her eyes expanded,

"NANI! That was 45 minutes ago! Kakashi you bas-"she realized he was long gone and her anger slightly diminished, "-ard" she finished with breathy exhalation.


Sharnigan eyes pierced through the room's darkness, the bitting cold having no to little effect on him. He shifted, the only indication being that of his cloak scraping lightly across the ground. Soon he was joined by the others, each silent as they kneeled besides him.

A voice before them echoed in stern authority.

"There's been a disturbance in Konohagakure. I want you, Itachi, to retrieve the cause of the disturbance. No one else is to join for, I believe, Konoha is expecting us. After all; such a disturbance has not happened since Itachi was enlightened."

Itachi keeping his eyes on Leader, stood soon to be followed by the rest of Akatsuki and in a whisper of an instant, vanished from the dismally dim room.


Sakura confidently strode in the Hokage's office and beamed at her sensei,

"You wanted to see me Tsunade-shisou?" Her smile diminished upon seeing Tsunade's stern face, "what's wrong?"

"Can you tell me Sakura, what you did last night?"

Sakura looked mildly perplexed by the question and raised a delicate brow,

"Nothing except the ordinary. I got home from my shift at 9:15, took a shower and went to bed by ten thirty-one." She paused in consideration, "why do you wish to know?"

Dismissing her question with a wave, Tsunade answered, "I was just wondering if you're getting enough sleep and not over-exerting your chakra on needless activities."

"Well I do feel slightly weak today" Sakura answered with a small frown, "though I can attest that I received enough sleep."

Sakura felt uncomfortable under her sensei's gaze and silently she wondered why-she knew her sensei was lying, or holding something back-having three years of ANBU interrogation under her belt seemed, at the moment, like a curse. But for the time, she pushed aside her tumultuous thoughts for later mulling over ad instead smiled,

"Thank you for your concern Tsunade-shisou, do you have anything else to discuss with me?"

"Just take the day off and recuperate."

From what? She thought in mild trepidation, "Alright, then I'll see you tomorrow at seven."

With quick, successive hand seals, she disappeared leaving behind Sakura petals and a pensive Hokage; appearing only seconds later on a hill overlooking all of Konoha. Her emerald gaze fell on a flat boulder in the middle of a small river and fluidly, she jumped onto it, settling herself comfortably in her meditative position.

Now let's figure out what the hell is going on.'


Itachi gracefully flew over the various tree branches, barely touching them as he went to the next one. He ducked a low hanging branch and jumped across the trade road, heading for Hermit's Hill where he could properly asses the situation and plan for a quick and effective way to accumulate the target.

For a brief second his eyes looked upon his blood-stained katana and sighed; he already killed three Chuunins for their ignorant incompetence and silently hoped for no-if only-little resistance. His gaze once again became sharply attuned to the bramble and limbs ahead of him and began his elegant task of avoiding accumulating even a scratch with the least amount of chakra output.

Abruptly; he stopped all movement and his breathing became virtually nonexistent. Before him, he could feel a well-controlled chakra sensory field that seemed to expand for more than fifty yards. His first impulse was to activate his sharnigan, but knew doing that would set the alarm to the shinobi who cast such a useful technique. His only hope was to adapt his chakra to resemble that of a woodland creature so he could go undetected until it was too late for the hindering person.

Instantly he dwindled his chakra and took on a different signature to that of the common squirrel. His onyx gaze held a tint of annoyance before being replaced by his uncaring façade and began running through the field straining to maintain such a diverse signature.


Sakura's wits were warring against each other as hypothesis clashed and just as easily, become discarded.

Nothing made sense to her; Tsunade asking her such meaningless questions, Kakashi out of nowhere showing up in critical condition claiming it to be his own falling out of the bed.

"It doesn't add up" she muttered in perplexity. She took a calming breath, "maybe I'm blowing everything out of perspective." A spike in her field alerted her of an alien object before rapidly disappearing.

She frowned, whatever it is, it's heading my way and fast. Her posture became relaxed as she merely feigned deep meditation. Her hands were on her thighs where some of her senbon holsters presided.

Now I'll wait until opportunity presents itself. And so she took a deep breath of the moist air and began waiting.


Itachi frowned in annoyance as he spotted a pink haired Kuniochi meditating on a boulder. She couldn't possibly be this strong to maintain a steady flow of chakra for such a long distance, but then again, he wasn't going to underestimate pinky either. He smirked as a small memory flittered through his mind, Sakura he remembered but the question was, did she?

Why did he even care in the first place? He had a mission to fulfill and if she proved to be difficult, he would have to kill her.

And so he pulled out a shuriken and with a small flick of his wrist let it loose towards the kuniochi who did not move.

A sickening thud and crunch soon echoed from the target, and within mila-seconds turning into a log.

Flawlessly he avoided a barrage of senbon and ducked as the kuniochi came from behind with a kick aimed for his spine. He jumped just as her fist hit the ground causing it to groan and collapse into a small canyon. Landing on a tree he activated his sharnigan only to realize the person it was trained on was nothing more than a shadow clone, again he barely missed a well placed punch-kick combo.

He landed a few meters away looking at the kuniochi in mild amusement. Never before in his life had he fought such a spirited opponent who also had a tactful mind and immediately he knew how much of a challenge she would present.

"Long time no see Sakura-chan" his cold voice echoed the battle ground. He smirked as he saw her mildly confused face and held back a cold chuckle when she replaced it with indifference. Then she spoke,

"You have no right to call me chan!"

"Oh? Well we were companions before I left, remember?" She gave him a disgusted look before spitting out vehemently,

"I do not make friends with traitors."

Itachi then, immediately knew she was the target Akatsuki wanted and decided to take the offensive approach, "Traitor to a corrupt government? Dear cherry blossom, you truly are as ignorant as the rest."

Within seconds he was behind her and whispered coldly in her ear, "You'll eventually find yourself on the same spectrum as me." And before she could react, he touched her pressure point easing her into a deep slumber.


Oh what does Itachi mean by that? And Sakura-Chan? How does he know her? Or is he just messing with her mind?

Who knows?

So a review would be greatly appreciated. I really would like to know what everyone thinks of this, and again, don't expect me to update anytime soon unless by some miracle a meteorite hits my school and it's cancelled for a while.