Chapter Two

"Sada-chan."

I looked up into a pair of the most beautiful blue eyes, my cheeks going warm at the smirk playing on his lips. I felt my cheeks burn hotter when he leaned his face closer to mine, stopping a few inches short of my lips.

"N-n-nani Deidara?" I stuttered, he chuckled in amusement.

He raised his hand to my face, gently stroking my cheek with his thumb. I smiled a little, feeling his fingers running through my blue violet hair, and looked up at him through my lashes. I could just feel how red my cheeks were, I'd never blushed so much in my entire life. He could do so little, look in my direction, smirk at me, say something so insignificant to me, and it would still make me blush crimson red. He was amazing to me, everything he did was always so perfect. I never thought I'd manage to find someone that made me feel the way Deidara did, but I had. I'd never thought I could love someone so much and in such little time. It felt as if our love had grown to unspeakable measures, no limitations, as if there wasn't anything in the world that could stop the way our love was growing. It felt like it would keep growing, no matter who tried to break it, no matter how they tried to destroy it, they wouldn't succeed. The way we felt about each other, was just something normal people wouldn't be able to understand. It was an artist's love, an explosion of all sorts of different emotions, something beautiful.

I swallowed a little when he shifted closer to me, leaning his face closer to mine. In all the time I'd spent with him, I realized how much I appreciated him. I'd never felt this way about anyone before, and I never wanted this feeling to stop. Being with him made me so happy, like my heart was soaring all the time. I'd fallen hard, head over heels, completely and totally in love with him. I could never manage to replace him in my heart, did I want to? Of course not, I didn't want anyone to make me feel this way besides Deidara. He'd changed me, he'd helped me overcome my loneliness. For the first time in four years, I'd actually smiled because of him. He'd managed to get me laugh, to get me smiling, to make me actually happy. I couldn't survive without him, and I knew it. He was the one, the one person precious to me, the one person that I would die to protect...Deidara.

I felt my breath hitch in my throat when his lips pressed against mine, a kiss that made my heart skip a beat. I felt my red eyes slip shut as he moved his lips against mine in a soft and gentle kiss, never pushing me to do something I didn't want to do. I smiled against his lips, moving my arms around his neck, tangling my fingers into his beautiful blonde hair. He placed an arm around my waist, moving me into his lap, his fingers running through my hair. I felt him smile into the kiss, gently moving his lips against mine. There were so many things I could tell through this kiss, but the main thing that stood out to me was…that he loved and cared about me just as much as I did for him. I almost pouted feeling him pull out of the kiss, and I looked up at him through my bangs.

"Dei?" I questioned, he smiled softly.

"Sada-chan…I love you."

SADA'S HOUSE

I slowly opened my eyes and yawned tiredly, moving my bangs out of my eyes. What time was it, it felt like it was too early in the morning. I sat up, yawning quietly, and rubbed at my eyes. I'd had a dream about Deidara again, and it was really ruining my mood. I couldn't begin to understand why he'd left me this way, without even saying goodbye; it hurt so badly just thinking about him. I loved Deidara, so much. I'd thought he loved me the same way, but I'd been wrong in my assumptions. Now I was hurting so badly, dealing with all this heartbreak, I'd have to talk to Sasuke about everything I was feeling later. I needed comfort and support right now, especially with everything that had been happening in the past couple of days. I sighed quietly and swung around the side of the bed. I set my feet on the ground, ignoring the cold feeling of the floor, and stood up. I wrinkled my nose, grabbing my hairbrush off my dresser, and ran my brush through my hair without much interest. After brushing my hair for a good couple minutes, I grabbed my black jacket and pulled my arms through the sleeves. I slipped my black gloves on my hands, hating that I'd been so ignorant to release all my mental blocks. I shrugged off the thought and put Haku's necklace on, grabbing the charm bracelet Deidara had given me. Even though he hurt me, I still loved him, and I wanted to somehow hold onto the feeling that he still cared about me.

I smiled a bit, staring over the charms. There were a total of three charms on my bracelet, all of them from the closest people to me. The first charm was a blue butterfly, from Deidara. The second charm was the kanji for love, from Gaara. The third charm was a red heart, from Sasuke. A few days before the final rounds of the exams, Gaara had got me another charm for my bracelet, something to remember him when he went back to Sunagakure. I was thankful that I had a friend like him who understood my loneliness; we would always be there for each other. After the Hokage's funeral, Sasuke had went with me to the jewelry shop and bought me the heart charm for my bracelet. I was happy to have Sasuke always standing beside me as my best friend; he'd never betrayed me or even thought about it. Everyone else in this village, they looked down at me. They didn't like my techniques, and I was looked at like an outcast. I knew they thought I was evil or something from my darkness style jutsu, and that's why I'd never used my kekkei genkai in this village; it was just out of the question. I looked up from my bracelet hearing banging on my door and tilted my head to the side curiously.

'Who could that be?' I walked out of my bedroom down the hallway to my front door. I wrinkled my nose, rubbing at my stinging curse mark from Orochimaru on my left shoulder, and opened the front door.

"Konnichiwa?"

"Sada-chan." Someone hugged me, and I cringed a little bit. "Why didn't you come back to my house?"

It was just Sasuke, now I didn't need to feel so violated. I hadn't managed to go back to his house, no wonder he was being so forward with the hug. I'd gone home to pick something up after the Hokage's funeral, but a rather bad storm had stopped me from returning to Sasuke's house. The power was out and it'd stormed all night, walking around in a storm wasn't a smart idea in the first place. Sasuke understood that, but I knew I'd worried him; I felt pretty bad right now.

"I was worried." Sasuke said honestly. I smiled slightly and hugged him back, happy that I had such a caring friend.

"Gomenasai." I whispered, feeling bad that I'd worried him so much. "The storm just got really bad, and I wasn't thinking you'd worry. Forgive me." He pulled back from the hug and smiled one of his rare smiles at me.

"You've already been forgiven." he told me. I nodded, relieved that he wasn't angry, and he took my hand. "Do you want to get some tea and breakfast?" I nodded in agreement and smiled sweetly.

"I'd like that alot." I replied.

He nodded, looking a little happy that I'd said yes, and we walked down the street together. Sasuke was still holding my hand as we walked down the street, but I didn't see why it was a big deal. Sasuke was my best friend, he'd helped me through so much, and he was still helping me through my problems. Just holding his hand made me feel happy, like nothing could put me down. I looked over at Sasuke, and he glanced in my direction seeing my eyes on him.

"You're smiling alot." he noted. "Are you feeling better than you were yesterday?" I nodded, giggling a little, and hugged his arm.

"Hai." I leaned my head on his shoulder, and he looked at me curiously. "I'm always happy when I'm with you Sasuke-kun. You're my best friend." I told him.

He smiled a little and ran his fingers through my hair. I smiled and straightened up slightly; trying to make sure I didn't make skin contact with him. I didn't want my chakra draining ability to go out of control, I'd hate myself if I hurt Sasuke. Sasuke suddenly stopped, and I looked at him curiously.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Kakashi." he muttered, sounding annoyed. I looked up and sighed seeing the bird flying around, what did Kakashi want this time? "What does he want?"

"You can go ahead and find him. I'll meet you at the Dango shop, okay?" I said quietly. Sasuke looked over at me and shook his head; he didn't look like he was planning on leaving me.

"No, this is our time together. Kakashi can just get over it." Sasuke said, still sounding annoyed.

I smiled at Sasuke's loyalty, and we continued walking down the street together. I couldn't believe he was willing to ignore our sensei just so he could spend time with me. I guessed he thought that we needed to have some time together since he'd been away training for the Exams, I found that rather sweet. He was such an awesome best friend, I was so lucky. We finally made it to Dango Shop after a few more minutes of walking and I saw Kakashi already standing there, talking with Asuma and Kurenai.

"Great." Sasuke muttered, he didn't sound very pleased.

I sighed in disappointment, hating that Kakashi was interrupting our time together. Couldn't he just talk to Sasuke later or something, he'd gotten to spend enough time with him during the month before the final round of the Chunin Exams. Kakashi smiled under his mask at the both of us, but his visible eye seemed mainly focused on us holding hands.

"Konnichiwa Sasuke, Sada." I nodded for my greeting, and Sasuke sighed.

"What gives?" he asked, his eyes slightly narrowed into a glare. "You're never early."

"Sometimes I am." Kakashi said with another smile. I smiled slightly, not wanting to believe that Kakashi could be early, and Sasuke sighed again. "So...let's talk."

"Later." Sasuke said, his annoyed tone wasn't hard to miss. "Right now I'm spending time with Sada-chan." I smiled slightly, happy he was so loyal, and squeezed his hand.

"If it's important then go ahead and talk to him. I'll just go find someone to talk to until you're done." I said quietly, knowing that I really wouldn't associate with anyone. He shook his head and led me into the restaurant by the hand.

"We'll talk later Kakashi." Sasuke said.

I sighed, knowing how stubborn Sasuke could be at times, and looked over hearing the sound of a bell ringing. There were two men sitting at a table together. They both had bamboo hats on with bells on the end, and they wore black cloaks that had a red cloud design on them.

'I like the cloaks, they're pretty cool looking. And the bells look fun, that could definitely keep me entertained for hours.' Sasuke sat down on the inside of our seat, and I sat on the outside. I was still curious about these men, that might've been the reason I sat on the outside.

"So what do you want?" I looked over at Sasuke and shrugged, not really caring too much about breakfast.

"I don't care, you pick." I said softly.

He smiled slightly and entwined our fingers. I smiled a little at the gesture and he put his arm around me, pulling me to lean my head on his shoulder.

"It looks as if Sasuke's found his soul mate." Asuma said to Kakashi.

I felt my cheeks go warm and looked down, slightly embarrassed. I didn't see Sasuke that way, why couldn't people realize that we were just friends?

"Don't pay any attention to them alright?" I smiled at Sasuke, hoping I was right in my guess that he just saw me as a friend, and he moved my bangs out of my eyes. "Why do you hide yourself this way?" he asked, staring down into my eyes.

I sighed, knowing what he meant by that, and he moved his fingers down my cheek. He was staring into my eyes, and he was so focused with just staring at me; I didn't really think either of us were paying attention to what was going on around us. We stared at each other all the time like this, but what made it start to seem uncomfortable was when he cupped my cheek with his hand and leaned in closer to my face. Now this was something I'd hoped would never happen, but it looked like it was about to. And the awful thing was...I wasn't able to stop him from doing it, I'd lost complete use of my vocal chords at this moment. Our lips were so close now, yet I couldn't get the word 'stop' to come out of my mouth. So close, so incredibly close, they were lightly brushing against each other. All he had to do was move a little more and-

'A cough.' I moved backwards in embarrassment, mentally thanking whoever had interrupted, and Sasuke glared at Kakashi.

"Fine, I'm coming." he said angrily. We got up and I smiled slightly, trying to keep the situation from being a little less awkward.

"I'll see you later, okay?" Sasuke nodded, and we walked out of the Dango shop together.

'Where did those men go?' I sighed to myself and began walking around the village. After about fifteen minutes of walking around the village I was as bored as ever, there was nothing to do. I sighed again and looked over hearing Naruto talking to Jiraiya. Well...more like complaining in an extremely loud way. He apparently didn't want to go somewhere with him, it wasn't my business so I wasn't going to eavesdrop; Naruto and I weren't friends anyway. I continued walking down the street, and an Anbu jumped infront of me.

"You're Sada, correct?" he asked. I nodded, wondering what an Anbu wanted from me, and he said "The Elders of the village have asked me to inform you, that before he died, the Hokage made his wishes known that you were to become Chunin." I nodded and smiled slightly.

"Arigato." He nodded and disappeared from sight. I sighed quietly and kept walking.

'Wow...I'm a Chunin. I've got to tell Sasuke.' I ran down the street and looked around, wondering where he would be. 'Perhaps the river, he does go there to think alot.' I nodded to myself and smiled a bit. I turned the corner and looked down the dirt path. Sasuke wasn't there but some people were. Two of them were the men wearing the black cloaks with red clouds, and Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi. They were all standing on the river, it looked like there had been a fight at some point. Kakashi had pushed himself up from the water and was staring at the two men.

"Is it Sasuke?" he asked, panting a bit. The man with the black hair stared at Kakashi and said

"No."

'They're after someone? Who could they be after?' The man with the black hair looked over to the left, and his red eyes fell on me. 'He looks like...Sasuke. His eyes...they're Sharingan.' He looked young, perhaps seventeen or eighteen. His bangs were on either side of his face like Sasuke's, framing his face. It looked like the rest of his hair was pulled back in a low ponytail; I had to admit he was attractive. He was obviously taller than I was since he was older, and he had this rather cold aura coming from him. It was calming to me though, I didn't understand why. I stared back at him, and his partner looked over at me as well.

This man had pale blue skin and a darker blue hair color, his hair was in a funky style sort of like Kakashi's. His eyes were beady and looked white, very small pupils if he had them. It looked like he had gills on either side of his face, and his teeth looked rather pointy. He had a huge sword resting on his shoulder, and he was a good few inches taller than Itachi. He looked like he was somewhere in his mid-twenties, and I was getting a rather aggressive vibe from him. Like…he enjoyed slaughter and carnage. Itachi blinked and finally moved his eyes back to Kakashi.

"You're after Naruto, aren't you?" Kakashi asked. Itachi said nothing, and Kakashi took another shaky breath. "What was the name of that organization you're in...Akatsuki, wasn't it?"

'Akatsuki? What's that?'

"Kisame, we're taking Kakashi-san with us. Make the other two disappear." Kisame smirked and ran towards them with his huge sword; I noted it was halfway covered in bandages.

'Wait a second, that's the same-hada! Zabuza-sama mentioned it when I was with him and Haku, he's one of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure.' I gulped, and Gai came out of nowhere. He instructed Kurenai to take Kakashi to a medical squad and for Asuma to cover him.

"We'll hold them off until the Anbu get here." Gai said to Asuma.

"Kisame, stop. This fighting is unnecessary. We're leaving." Itachi said.

"And I was just starting to get excited." Kisame complained. "Demo, oh well." Itachi looked over in my direction again, his face showing a little interest, and the Jounin followed his gaze this time.

"Sada." Kurenai whispered, sounding shocked.

Itachi and Kisame disappeared into the trees, and I ran back in the direction of the village. If these two were after Naruto, I had to find him and warn him of the danger. Yeah, we weren't friends, but he was my teammate. I couldn't let him get hurt or anything, I'd feel awful if something like that happened.

'He's probably at Ichiraku's right now.' I ran to the ramen shop and said

"Where's Naruto?" The old man looked at me and smiled.

"He went off with Jiraiya." he told me. "They went into the little town…"

"Arigato." I said quickly.

I ran off down the street and started looking around for Sasuke. That man...Itachi...he looked just like an older version of Sasuke. He had the Sharingan as well, could they be related? Whatever was going on, I knew I couldn't rescue Naruto on my own, and Sasuke would be the only person willing to help me. I turned the corner and ran right into Sasuke.

"Sada-chan, are you okay?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Sasuke-kun, thank goodness I found you. There are some men in the village, and they're after Naruto." I panicked.

"Nani?" he asked.

"One of them, he has Sharingan." I stated. Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger, and he nodded.

"We have to find Naruto." he said, sounding cold.

"This way, I know where he's heading." I instructed.

He nodded, and we ran down the streets of the village and out the gates. We ran and ran and ran, until we finally came to where Naruto should be.

"Let's check the hotels." I advised. Sasuke nodded in agreement, and we went all over the place searching hotels, asking if anyone had seen Naruto and Jiraiya.

HOTEL

"We have to have a plan." Sasuke said with no emotion. "I'll attack first using Chidori, and you rescue Naruto."

"No way, I'm not leaving you to fight these guys by yourself. There's no way you'll manage to win." I stated, hating how he was so stubborn.

"I'm only focused on one." he said angrily. "Itachi."

'Sasuke must have some grudge against this Itachi guy, what happened to him that makes him hate Itachi so much?' We turned the corner and stopped seeing two men standing outside the door where Naruto was staying. Naruto was already out in the hallway, staring at Itachi with a look of terror on his face.

"We don't want him running off, perhaps we should chop off a leg." Kisame said with a smirk. Itachi said nothing to stop him, and Kisame raised his same-hada.

"It's been a while...Sasuke." Itachi said.

"Uchiha Itachi." Sasuke muttered. I looked over at Sasuke and back at Itachi.

'They're so similar, they have so many resemblances.' Itachi's eyes moved from Sasuke to me, and I stared at him. 'He really does resemble Sasuke.'

"This is the second time today I've seen a Sharingan user. Who is this guy?" Kisame asked.

"He's my younger brother." Itachi stated, sounding emotionless.

I stared at Itachi, slightly shocked that he was Sasuke's older brother, and looked over at Sasuke. He was glaring at Itachi with such hatred, what had happened with them?

"I heard the entire Uchiha clan was wiped out...by you." Kisame said with a smirk.

My eyes widened in shock, Itachi had killed the entire Uchiha clan by himself? So he was the person Sasuke wanted to kill so badly. No wonder he hated Itachi so much, he'd taken his entire family from him, leaving him alone in the world. Itachi must've been an extremely powerful shinobi. Sasuke's glare deepened and he said

"I've lived for this day, I'm going to kill you." Chidori appeared in his hand, and I moved aside slightly.

"Sasuke-kun."

He ran down the hallway, smashing the side of the building with Chidori, and tried hitting Itachi with it. There was a blinding flash of light, and I looked to see Itachi had stopped Chidori.

'How is that possible? He's so powerful.' Naruto started focusing his chakra, and I smiled slightly. 'He hasn't given up.'

"Too late." Kisame said, slicing through Naruto's chakra. I gasped, and Sasuke screamed. I looked over towards Itachi and to see that he'd broken Sasuke's wrist.

'I have to do something.'

I ran down the hallway towards Sasuke and Naruto, determined to help them. Itachi and Kisame looked in my direction, and Kisame smirked.

"I hope the little girl knows how to dodge." he said, sounding amused.

I narrowed my eyes into a glare and when he slashed at me, I phased through the same-hada. I could just imagine their shocked faces, but I kept going. I grabbed Naruto and Sasuke's arms and pushed them through the floor. I phased through it after them and landed in a heap on the ground.

"Itai." I mumbled.

"Sada, how did you-" Naruto started.

"No time to explain, just get up." I said quickly. He nodded and pushed himself to his feet, most likely thinking it was some jutsu shinobi used on a daily basis. "Sasuke-kun, get up."

I helped Sasuke to his feet, and he looked at me curiously. He was wondering about my kekkei genkai as well since I'd never explained it to him, there wasn't time to explain it though, it was dangerous here. We'd rescued Naruto, now we had to get out of here.

"Arigato." Sasuke said. I nodded, and we ran down the hallway.

"We can't stop, we have to get out of here. That blue guy is one of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure, his sword eats chakra. That's what it did to you Naruto." I told him. Naruto nodded, not seeming like he understood the concept that well, and we continued running down the hallway.

"Which way should we go?" Naruto asked.

"Left." Sasuke replied. We nodded and got ready to go left. We skid to a stop seeing Itachi and Kisame come left and right. We were surrounded.

'My chakra is getting low from the phasing, but if I can get Naruto and Sasuke out of here…then I guess my last bit of chakra is worth it.' We backed into the wall and stared at them surrounding us.

"Now the real question is, should I chop off their legs or arms." Kisame said with an evil smirk.

I looked over at Itachi once and moved my eyes back to Kisame. They both were looking at the three of us like we weren't a threat, that was a mistake on their part. I grabbed Naruto and Sasuke's hand and pulled them backwards before pushing them through the wall. It didn't take me that much chakra to phase myself, but it took a little too much for me to phase other people.

'They should be outside the building now, hopefully they can get away.' I quickly turned around and stared at the shinobi standing around me.

"How is she doing that?" Kisame pondered.

Itachi continued staring at me and finally walked closer. I attempted to phase through the wall, but when I phased other people it took too much of my chakra away so I couldn't phase; I was trapped. Itachi stood right infront of me and stared down at me. I bit my lower lip, not knowing what to do, and Kisame said

"So, would you like me to finish her off?"

"No." Itachi said with a cold tone. "Leader-sama would be interested in what she can do; we're taking her with us."

My mind went blank, and I stared at him slightly terrified. He wanted to take me with them? What was I supposed to do? I brought my fist back and attempted to punch him. He easily caught it and slammed my arm against the wall. I stopped myself from letting out the gasp of pain, feeling his fist make contact with my stomach, and stared at him with as little emotion as I could muster. Itachi never took his eyes from mine, and I couldn't help but stare up into his eyes. His Sharingan, it was amazing, I knew the power of the Uchiha clan was something that no other clan could match.

"My sources have informed me that Orochimaru is interested in this girl." Itachi said with no emotion "If she's valuable enough that Orochimaru wants her, she must have power; we are taking her with us."

"So this is the child you were talking about earlier then Itachi-san?" Kisame inquired, Itachi nodded.

I moved my other hand to punch him since he wasn't really paying attention, and he grabbed that one as well. He slammed it against the wall above my head and closed his eyes. He focused for a moment and slowly opened his eyes.

"Mangekyou Sharingan." Everything seemed to go still for a moment, and I looked around. I was in an entirely different world, it was so dark in here; what was this place? "Tsukiyomi."

I gasped and quickly turned around; Itachi was standing there, staring at me with an emotionless face. I walked backwards and felt something stab my side. I gasped and bit my lip.

'This isn't real; it's genjutsu, that's all.' I took a breath, and he stabbed me again. I scrunched my nose and held in the scream I wanted to let out.

"You don't scream, scream." I glared at him and bit the inside of my jaw, I wasn't screaming for anyone. He stabbed me again, and I let out a gasp of pain.

'This doesn't seem like any ordinary genjutsu.'

"It's because it's not." Itachi said coldly.

I looked towards Itachi and attempted to get up to run. I couldn't move, I was trapped. I felt my heart racing, and it seemed to be getting harder to breathe. He grabbed my hair and ran a kunai along my neck, cutting through the skin but luckily not the vein. I whimpered, and he gave me an emotionless look.

"Here I control space, time, everything." he said with the same emotionless tone.

I stared up at him as he continued stabbing me and torturing me, trying to keep in the scream I wanted to let out. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream. Everything slowly began dissolving, and I heard

"She doesn't scream."

I opened my eyes slowly and looked to see nothing had changed. It looked as if they hadn't even moved; what had happened? Had Itachi been serious?

"You know you shouldn't use those eyes too much Itachi-san." Kisame said.

He ignored Kisame's comment and continued staring down at me. My knees felt so weak, that world really messed me up. He let go of my wrists, and I dropped to the floor. I stared up at them dazed, and Itachi said

"Let's go. Grab the girl."

"Don't even try it!"

'Sasuke?' Itachi punched Sasuke, and he went flying across the room. I glanced up, even though it hurt to do so, and watched as Sasuke and Itachi battled. Well...it wasn't really a battle. Sasuke was losing, he was losing very badly.

"Hang on Sada. We'll save you."

'Naruto?'

"Ero-sennin, help them." The entire room became covered in what looked like organs or something, and Itachi stopped fighting Sasuke.

"Kisame, grab the girl." Itachi ordered.

Kisame nodded and moved his arm around my waist. I felt the ground disappear beneath me, and I was slung over his shoulder. I blinked, trying to clear my groggy vision, and looked at Jiraiya's jutsu surrounding the room.

"Kuso." Kisame cursed.

"Kisame, come." Itachi said. Kisame nodded and followed behind Itachi down the hallway.

"Sada!" Naruto yelled.

I could see Jiraiya's jutsu following behind us, but my brain felt so groggy. My eyes were blurring, and my limbs felt numb. I felt my eyes slip shut, I felt so tired and weak. I could hear all sorts of sounds running together, getting further away. Against my own will, I passed out.