2016-05-03 Deep inside, I think that I should have not continued this abandoned story of mine as I realize how ugly this story is and how pitiful this story is as no one actually reads this. But I will finish it, for my own self satisfaction.


Snake

A black butterfly flew carefully avoiding leaves and trees as it went lower than its usual height, it had flown for some days now, trying to reach its destination far away from its origin. Actually, it had arrived at its destination since several days ago, but some kind of barrier prevented it to reach him. Unfortunately, before it could reach its target, a shuriken slashed its body into half. It fell into the ground, tainting the grass with its black blood. Its hunter squatted beside its remnant, he examined the blood using his finger.

"Itachi-san, here's the map. Hey Tobi! Come on, today you're with me, un!"

He sighed, "Yeasss… Waaiit for mee…"


It had been more than a week since Orochimaru beat her and she hadn't seen him for more than three days as if he had disappeared, abandoning his experiment.

Two days ago, a crow came. He told her that her duty would finally come to an end. He told her to prepare to wrap things up soon. She finally would be able to leave this hell.

"姐姐今天看起来很高兴."(Today you look so happy)

She glanced over to the boy who sat on top of his bunk bed, she smiled at him while tucking him under the blanket, "睡觉吧,已经半夜了." (Now sleep, it's already midnight.)

"晚安." (Good night.)

Yuki was about to close their bedroom door when it hit her, the messenger she sent to him was destroyed. She quickly ran back to her bedroom, she unrolled the map before making some hand seals. A small red dot appeared on the map, the location wasn't too far from Yukigakure.

"Damn it!"

She used a needle to prick her thumb, "Kuchiyose no jutsu." A swallow appeared on the back of her hand, she lifted her hand, bringing it closer to her face, "Find him. Lead him. Fast!"

It flew into the sky.


Sakura opened the curtain as sunshine shone through the window, brightening the small restaurant where she had worked at for some time now. It was a rare chance for the city to even get to see the sun. She put the kettle on the stove after lighting the fire. She put some steamed bun on the bar, together with two cups of tea. Mikoto put her coat on the empty chair beside her.

"You look different today, Mikoto-san…" Sakura sat on the chair beside her. She watched the older woman's different attire today, a black sleeveless top with black hakama, "Do you have to dress like that?"

Mikoto took a bun, "Well, they told me to dress formally."

"With a sleeveless top?" she took a sip from her tea.

"I have my coat with me, they won't notice." She put on her black arm warmers after she finished her breakfast, she took her coat afterwards, "If someone's looking for me…"

Sakura smiled, "Tell them you go to city hall to renew your passport. Be careful on your way there."

Mikoto put on her coat before she opened the door, "The city hall is only a few kilometers from this village, I'll be back before noon."

Sakura waved at her before the door was closed again.


He opened his eyes as he felt the light pierced through his eyelids, he shifted his position slightly. It never was a comfortable place for anyone to sleep on a tree branch, but he didn't have much choice, he hadn't slept for days due to the extraction of Shukaku. He and Kisame decided to get separated for a short while, so they could have their own free time.

He used his hand to block the light, he closed his eyes again, trying to get some more sleep. Nevertheless, he felt something coming to him, he peeked through his fingers, even without his sharingan activated, he could see the bird flying in circle above him. It was her summon. She didn't send the butterfly, which meant it was an urgent matter.

He activated his sharingan, before leaping forwards following the swallow.


A black butterfly flew slowly high above, it flew much higher than its other counterpart as their purposes were different. Its counterpart was a messenger, while this one was to follow a certain man, it sent signals to its owner, telling her where he was. He stopped, so did the butterfly.

He opened the door, letting himself entered the small building. He scanned the empty restaurant, the chairs were still on the tables, the sunlight which brightened the restaurant earlier now had hidden itself behind the cloud and the light was still off, the only sources of light were from the window and the door which was being opened at that time.

While he was still scanning the area, a pink-haired girl entered the place from the other door, "I'm sorry sir, we are not open yet." She couldn't see the visitor clearly due to the backlight he received.

"It doesn't matter…" he closed the door behind him, "I have what I want." He put a tiny amount of chakra to prevent the door being easily opened.

In a split second, all the memories she had about him rushed into her brain like a waterfall. Unconsciously her left hand touched her weapon pouch on her thigh which was hidden behind her apron, "What do you want…" she dragged her feet slowly, getting herself closer to the bar.

He let out a low chuckle, "Have you forgotten?" he walked to his left, pulling the curtain to cover the window, "I want you…" she had to think quick, she thought if there would be a possibility for her to be able to escape from the backdoor, or defending herself here was the only way. Even though it was getting dimmer after he closed the curtain, she could still see him figure, not moving from the window.

Sakura knew that fighting him wouldn't produce any good ending, so she decided to run through the backdoor. She reached her hand to take the hidden katana Mikoto hid from behind the bar. The moment she managed to grab it, she quickly turned her body to run to the backdoor, only to be greeted by a snake of her size. She didn't have time to be surprised as it leaped towards her with its mouth wide open.

She managed to block its sharp fangs using her sheathed Kanata, she tried to push it away, but her enemy was much stronger, she was pushed back until the bar was the only thing that kept her standing. It used its fangs to pull the katana back, however she held the handle tightly, causing her to be thrown aside as the snake took the sheath off her katana. Her body hit the table before landing on the hard floor. She cringed herself as the pain attacked her whole body.

The snake threw the sheath away, but it backed away, guarding the only way to the backdoor, ensuring that she wouldn't escape.

"Please don't fight back…I don't want to break my toy…"

Her grip on the katana tightened, she pushed herself to stand up again, with the help of the tables around her, she was able to stand up. She held her katana in front of her, there was no other way but to fight him. Her sharingan flashed.

Even in such dim light, He could see the red orb shone from her eyes, an even darker chuckle could be heard from him, "Yes… those beautiful sharingan…"


"Uchiha Mikoto." Her name was called by the receptionist, she quickly approached him, "I'm Uchiha Mikoto."

"I'm sorry ma'am, you forgot to fill in this part, please re-check your paper before submitting it back to me."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll fix it right away." She took the pen to fill in the blanks, she returned the paper immediately to him, "Here you go." He took the paper, he did another final check before giving some stamps on the paper, "Bring the paper to office 57H on the eighth floor."

"Will it take a long time?" she took the paper from him.

"It should only take a few minutes."


He pulled her by the collar of her shirt before slamming her hard to the wall, he didn't stop there, he sent his knee to land another blow on her stomach. Great pain erupted from her abdomen, she couldn't even scream as she coughed so hard that she couldn't breathe. Her right hand swung the katana around aimlessly, even though the katana touched him, it didn't cut anything as she already used all the power she had to maintain her grip on the hilt. He noticed that that she was barely breathing.

His grip of her shirt loosened, "Oh, I'm not supposed to break you." She fell on the floor again, he watched her gasping for air, "You're pitiful."

He took a few steps backwards, "Why don't you just come with me voluntarily, you won't feel this much pain if you do."

Sakura collected the rest of her strength once again, her whole body trembled, it was difficult to reclaim her balance after receiving such attack, which she finally realized the great gap between their powers.

She wiped the blood on her lips using her free hand, she took a deep breath before muttering, "…no…"

He sighed, "What should I do then…" he smirked evilly.

"Sakura? I heard some noise from outside," Suddenly, the door was opened forcefully from outside, "Is something wrong?" it was the neighbor. An intense fear grew inside her heart as she noticed his smirk, she turned her eyes to the newcomer, "…no!…"

"Will this change your mind?" he lifted his arm, aiming his next attack to the innocent neighbor.

She pushed the tables away, she tried to reach him, ignoring all the pain she had had, "No!"


Mikoto closed the door behind her, she put all her belongings into her bag. It'd take a long time to walk down from eighth floor back to the receptionist area. Deep down she wished she could just jump like how she usually did when she was still in Konohagakure, but in here, she should take the stairs.

The receptionist from before greeted her as she finally reached the lobby, he escorted her to the main door. She gave him a slight nod as she left the building.


Her neighbor watched her back in horror.

He was sweeping the snow in front of his house when he saw the stranger entered the restaurant. He didn't pay much attention to him until he heard the sound of moving table from inside the restaurant. He tried to look inside from the window, but all the curtains were closed. He thought that it was only Sakura or Mikoto rearranging the tables. He turned around to return to his house when he heard a loud thud on the wall.

He decided to knock lightly on the door, he tried to open the door a little bit, but it didn't budge at all. He could hear her coughing and another voice from inside, but he couldn't understand as it was unclear.

He tried to open the door once again, this time with more strength in it, the door eventually opened with a snap.

He saw a man, standing a few feet away from him, in the middle of the restaurant, pointing his hand at him. Before he could process what happened, he could only take a step backwards as he saw snakes appeared out of nowhere lunged at him.

The next thing he saw was one of the restaurant members, stood in front of him. She used her arms to hold her body on the doorframe as the snakes bites landed on all over her. She gritted her teeth as she could feel the pain on her body kept coming back. The snakes quickly disappeared with a poof of smoke, yet the wounds stayed.

"Sa-sakura?"

She turned her head a little bit, just enough for him to see her smile and her bleeding temple, "Oji-san… please… let the door close…"

His reflex made him released his grip on the door handle. The door slowly closed with a creak.

Sakura's vision was getting blurry, she used the last of her strength to lunge at him, she threw her katana at him, yet he caught it easily, "It's useless… you—"

She thrust her silver kunai into him, he coughed some bloods on her. He dropped the katana as he lowered his head, he whispered beside her ear, "You are…" another figure appeared behind her, sending a quick attack on the back of her neck, "pitiful…"

She fell forwards as the figure in front of her dissolved into white smoke. He kicked the kunai from her hand before he squatted near her head, he grabbed her hair to lift her head to get a better view of her face, he muttered, "Finally…"

He dropped her head back to the floor before standing up, "You should be grateful that the snakes were not poisonous."


Mikoto gave the old lady her change before leaving the shop, she closed the door behind her. She took a peek at her bag, thinking what she should buy before going back home. Suddenly, the ground under her started shaking, "What…?" A scream could be heard later on, she ran to the main road to check what happened. She saw all the villagers were looking at the same direction, she turned her head following them.

She could see it. She could see the familiar being from there, "Manda…" the snake looked rather small from where she was. Uneasiness started to grow inside her, she watched as the snake started to move, slithering away from the village. She ran as fast as she could, no one paid attention on her abnormal speed as all the villagers' attention was still on the monster beyond the village gate.

She slowed down the moment she was finally near her home, her neighbor noticed her arrival, he quickly approached the restaurant owner, "Mikoto-san, the monster attacked her…!"

She opened the door, she took a quick scan of her messy restaurant, a hiss could be heard from across her. She saw a snake of her size sent another hiss as she activated her sharingan. She dropped her bag before quickly lunging forwards; she picked the katana on her way to her target. Mikoto swung the katana horizontally, as the snake bared its fangs to her. She turned the angle of her swing once her katana reached its mouth, its mouth was ripped apart by her as she continued her swing until its whole body was cut into half.

The neighbor could only watch speechlessly as that was the second time he watched blood splattered around today. Mikoto headed to the bar, she took out her weapon belt from under the cabinet, taking her coat off, she put on the belt where she also slipped her katana.

"Mikoto-san? What are you doing?"

A sparkling metal from under the table caught her attention, she picked the silver kunai before keeping it in one of her pouches on her belt.

"I'm going to her." She ran out to the main road while making some hand seals, "Kuchiyose no jutsu."

She jumped onto the giant falcon, they flew up high to the sky. She tried to find some purple spot, the falcon dove forwards as it found its target went north.

They finally managed to catch up with the snake after they passed the border, green replaced white. As they flew closer to their target, Mikoto took out some shuriken from her pouch, sending them to the man who stood on the snake's head. He blocked all the shuriken by swinging his sword of Kusanagi. He rolled his eyes to see the attacker, "Mikoto…?"

"OROCHIMARU!"

Before she could start her next attack, Manda turned its head to spit thousand of needles towards the falcon. She lowered her body, her grip on her summon tightened as it did an extreme maneuver movement to avoid the snake's attack. During the maneuver, she kept her attention to the summoner on the snake's head, she watched as he summoned another giant snake, "Aoda, take care of her, bring her to me alive if possible."

Once the needles attack stopped, they immediately dove to catch up, but Aoda stood between them. He was readying himself to spit some needles like the previous snake when Mikoto made some hand seals to counter it, "Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

She blew a giant fireball at his direction just before he managed to spit the needles. He backed away, just enough to avoid the fire, when he looked back at the falcon, she was no longer there.

Mikoto managed to leap above his head when he wasn't looking, she unsheathed her katana, she took advantage of gravity to send a thrust to his head.


He landed on one of the highest tree branch in the forest, he could see great white landscape lay ahead of him, he immediately realized that they were heading for Yukigakure. He leaped forwards, following the little bird. He increased his speed as they finally entered the snowy area, he knew if the urgent matter was in Yukigakure, it could only mean one thing, his mother and Sakura.

He frowned as he imagined if the worst situation could happen to them, he would blame himself forever. As he was busy blaming himself, he almost didn't notice he leaped passing the swallow. He stopped immediately, he turned back to see what was happening with it. It flew around making a circle in the air. He noticed that the tree branches shook slightly, he tilted his head upwards before jumping up. He decided that instead of waiting and did nothing, he jumped to reach the highest tree branch he could reach. The bird eventually followed him, it landed on his shoulder as he stopped climbing up.

He tried to focus on something different that might catch his attention. The little bird took off again, but this time it headed to a different direction from their first destination.

After leaping from trees to trees, he finally noticed a speck of purple ahead of him. He dashed even faster than before, he knew what it was.


Clink!

She cursed under her breath as the katana didn't even scratch his skin. Aoda shook its head backwards, she was thrown away from his head, but she quickly took the chance to throw a kunai with an explosive tag to him while she was still in the air. The tag exploded right behind his left eye.

"Jyu!" her summon swiftly flew around his blind spot to save the Uchiha. Jyu; the falcon, absorbed most of the impact as Mikoto landed on him, "Thank you." She sheathed her katana back.

When they tried to fly pass the snake, the explosion effect had already disappeared. He was angered by how she attacked him using merely an explosive tag, and it affected him. He sent his needles all over the places aimlessly, causing the falcon to have hard time predicting the attacks directions.

Mikoto had to wrapped her arms around Jyu's neck to keep her body from getting thrown again as he did a lot of extreme maneuvers. She tried not to waste the time while flying around, she dropped few kunai with explosive tags in between the flight. The snake eventually stopped attacking them with his poison needles, the falcon finally decided to fly slower to let Mikoto investigated from above.

Unfortunately, it was a wrong choice. Aoda suddenly used his tail to strike them from behind. Jyu managed to move backwards immediately, causing her to fall from him; saving her from a direct attack from the snake which sent him crashing down into the forest.

"Jyu!" Mikoto tried to recover her balance while she was still in the air, but the snake didn't give her the time to. He sent another blow using his tail, tossing her to another direction from her summon which made it impossible to save her like the last time.

She closed her eyes as she readied herself for the impact if she would hit anything. That was when she heard bird chirping close to her, she peeked from the corner of her eyes, she could see a small swallow flew by.

Instead of a hard trees and ground, she felt someone caught her mid-air before they landed on the ground. Her eyes shot open, but her expression turned softer as she recognized her captor, "Itachi-kun…" but she quickly remembered, "Jyu?!"

"He's is fine, I sent the crows to break his fall." He helped Mikoto to stand up, "Kaa-san…"

Mikoto looked at him, understood that he wished to know about the situation, "Orochimaru took Sakura, he went away with Manda while he left Aoda to hinder me." She could only see his sharingan as his high collar hid the rest of his face. He turned to see the giant snake, "I'll finish him."

She caught his arm immediately, she stood beside him, and "Itachi-kun…"she unsheathed her katana once again, "At least, let me finish this one…" she smiled at him. He was about to reply her, telling her it would be faster if he was the one dealing with the snake, but he realized the real meaning behind her words.

At least, let me become a mother who protects her children for once.

He touched his mother's fingers with his free hand, he gave her a slight nod, "I'll wait here."

She lowered her head a little, she was glad that her son understood her even though they barely communicated, "Thank you… it won't take long." She climbed up to the treetop, she put two fingers on her katana, she swiped down passing its tip, an invisible white chakra was seen through her sharingan, wrapping the thin metal. She raised her hand to catch up Jyu as he flew by her.

She stood on him with her free hand in front of her as they stopped right in front of Aoda, her sharingan spun as she casted a genjutsu on him, "It's over." She jumped over the immobile snake, raising her katana up high.

For normal eyes, they would only see her raising her normal katana, but for him, he could see that there was white chakra emerged much longer from the tip of her katana. He watched as she swung it vertically, the giant snake was split into two from head to its tail. She landed on the ground smoothly after the chakra disappeared from her weapon. She spun her katana once before sheathing it back.

The falcon landed right beside her, she caressed the bird before she noticed Itachi had approached her. She gave him another smile, "Let's go save her now…"


Yuki closed the last door before heading to the building's main door. She had kept following his movement through her butterfly, she knew he was heading back to their hideout from Yukigakure. She had frozen all the experiments' bedrooms, to prevent them from coming out during her confrontation with him.

She waited for him at the main door, she readied her weapons to prepare for her revenge to him. She had waited for a long time just for this day, a day where she could avenge her family.

The main door was opened.

He stepped into the hall with a body on his arm. Her eyes grew widen, she blinked her eyes repeatedly to make sure it was real. She approached them slowly.

"No… not again…"

He dropped the body onto the floor as soon as he saw her around, she kneeled beside the roseate body before she started examining her, she put her head closer to her body, "She's still alive…"

"到实验室去." (To the laboratory.) Orochimaru tapped her shoulder to signal her to bring the body with her.

She gritted her teeth, "No…"

Orochimaru tilted his head, "Did you just say no?"

She made some hand seals, while turning her head to face him, "I'm done with you…!" she finished the last seal, "Hyouton: Hyourou no jutsu!" blocks of ices appeared around Sakura's body until her whole body was covered in ice.

He didn't hide his surprise at all, his mind was fill with a lot of questions, yet he didn't have the time to think as she started throwing some shurikens at his direction, he ducked before kicking the ground to lunge at her. He swung his sword horizontally, she blocked it with her kunai.

He hissed, "You're one of the Yuki clan… What are you doing…"

She sent a kick which he evaded easily. She made some hand seals, two mirrors appeared beside her, "I am the last member of Yuki clan. I am here to avenge my family and my clan!" thousands ice needles were shot from the mirrors, she watched as he didn't try to block or even move away from her attack, his body was sent back, pierced to the wall.

She looked at the dripping liquid from his body, her body felt the killing intent worsened as she realized it was only his kawarimi, she rolled forwards to evade the incoming sword attack from behind her. She whirled around back to see him standing on the block of ice which covered Sakura. He aimed the tip of his sword downwards, thrusting it to the ice, however his sword was bounced away.

Yuki made some hand seals, "My ice is much stronger than you think!" eight swords made of ice appeared behind her back, she stretched her arms behind her, holding the swords in each of her hands. She dashed forwards to launch another attack.


The little swallow sat on Mikoto's hand as the falcon carried them to their enemy's hideout. Once in a while, she would peek below her where she could see her son leaping from one tree to another.

"I will follow you from below. She will tell you where to go."

She looked at the little bird, whenever it turned its head, she'd tell Jyu the direction. Suddenly, Yuki's summon jumped off her hand, they flew downwards following it down. They stopped in the forest on the mountain, she stepped down from him. Itachi landed on the ground beside the little bird, he watched it stood on the grass, unmoved. He put his hand on it, a small poof of smoke was heard as it disappeared under his hand.

"The entrance should be around here." Before he could walk around to find the entrance, Mikoto stood in front of him. Sharingan met sharingan. He unbuttoned the upper part of his cloak, "What is it, Okaa-san?" his expression was something she had never seen before, it wasn't sad, it wasn't hate. It was just emptiness.

"Itachi, tell me. What had actually happened with the Uchiha?"

"It's just like how you heard them, I killed them." He shifted his body to the left to move away from her, but she took another step backwards to stop him again.

"Sakura said it was Madara, and I believed her. You wouldn't do such thing, you… you wouldn't…"

"I killed them." This time he tried to move away from her to the right, but she kept standing in front of him. She used both his hand to grab his arms, her sharingan was deactivated, she glared at him.

"I don't even need the sharingan to know that you're lying!" he raised his hands between them before pushing her hands away from him. He turned around, "I killed them, that's the truth."

"What about Sasuke?!" Mikoto shouted

His figure slowly disappeared between the trees, she clenched her knuckles, she looked at the sky trying to prevent her tears from flowing down, "It's my fault again… isn't it…"

Jyu wrapped his wings around her, she felt his feathers warmth. She smiled a little bit before pushing him gently, "Thank you, Jyu, you can go back now." he gave her a little nod before disappeared in a poof of smoke.

It took them a few minutes before they managed to find a cave, they entered the dark cave, however they met a dead end as soon as they entered. They immediately knew it was because of the kekkai. As he easily undid the kekkai, a large door appeared in front of them. He was about to push the door open when she called, "Itachi."

He stopped, waiting for her to continue, "I failed you, didn't I…" she stepped forwards, putting her hands on the door, "Please, forgive me. I'll make it up to you, so please…"

"There's nothing to be forgiven."

A small smile decorated her eyes before she activated her sharingan again, "You're very kind."


The sounds of clashing metal against ice were echoed around the main hall of their hideout. She once again stood in front of the ice prison, three of her ice swords had already broken, she panted heavily. She knew he was strong, but she had never thought that it would be like this. She watched as he produced hundreds of snakes, covering the whole floor and walls with the reptiles, and all of them were the poisonous type. She clicked her tongue.

She was making some hand seals when she felt that the kekkai was broken. A smirk appeared on her face as all the snakes lunged at her, "Damn it." she could feel cold metal pierced through her skin.

Mikoto and Itachi both stopped their movement as they felt an enormous chakra from behind the door. They took a few steps backwards which became a leap when thorns of ice broke the door from inside. Both of them swung their weapons repeatedly to defense against the spikes. Cold air emerged from inside, "What…" Mikoto tried to find the source of the enormous chakra from before using her sharingan, but all she could see was three chakra source, one across the hall and two just in front of them.

They crept between the ices carefully as they noticed dead snakes bodies could be seen stabbed by the ice. As they entered the hall, she quickly found a speck of pink on the floor, "Sakura!" she kneeled down beside the block of ice,

"She's still alive…"

Itachi averted his eyes to the woman who sat leaning on the spike above them, blood could be seen dripping from her fair skin as a kunai was buried inside her abdomen, only one sword remained on her back, "You're late, Itachi." She turned her gaze to the other Uchiha, "Hello, Mikoto-san."

Mikoto stood up immediately as she saw her body started tilting, indicating how weak her condition was. The last Yuki clan member eventually fell down from her seat, the younger Uchiha caught her before she hurt herself even more by falling down. He laid her down beside the block of ice, Mikoto started the healing process on the wound her stomach, Yuki lifted her hand, pointing to the other chakra source across them, "Your turn."

They heard a hiss echoed, "Why do you keep disturbing me, Itachi… What did I do to you…"

Orochimaru sent a sound wave around the hall, breaking all the thorns of ice but the one enveloping Sakura. They watched as his figure started to appear from between the fog.

"I'm just taking my toy back, why do you have to disturb me?!" he hissed.

Mikoto glared at him, "What's your toy?! None of them are your toys!"

He raised his hand, pointing at the unconscious body, "She is…"

"She is my daughter! She is not your toy!" Mikoto was about to jump to attack him, but Itachi stopped her, she was about to ask him why he stopped her, but a hysterical laugh caught their attentions.

"Your daughter?!" he laughed even harder, "She is just a fruit of my experiment!" he looked amused looking at her shocked expression, "I and Kabuto found a good vessel when we visited our 'hometown' that time, we implanted the Uchiha gen on her. I could still remember her screaming and her eyes were so scared, as if we wanted to kill her."

Yuki could see Mikoto's trembling hands as she kept healing her while trying to absorb the information from the enemy. She put her hand on the trembling hand, trying to calm her even though it didn't help much.

He pointed his finger at her again, "She is not your daughter! She is NOTHING more than an IMPLANT!"

Mikoto's rage suddenly disappeared. She felt lighter, as if there was something heavy inside her had been released. His words broke the chain that had tied her for a long time, "Fugaku…"

Yuki gripped her trembling hand tighter, "Mikoto-san…" to her surprise, when she lowered her head, she could see her smiling a little between her tears. She wondered what might cause her happiness by knowing the truth about Sakura.

She wiped her tears before smiling at the wounded one, "I'm sorry… I'm fine… We'll save you…" she lifted her head, looking at the pink-haired woman, "And we'll save you too, Sakura…"

Itachi looked at his mother's trembling back, no one but he might notice how it meant a lot to her. She had brought all the blame with her ever since she left the village years ago since she was the one who started the idea, the feeling of being betrayed by her husband, no matter how she thought she had accepted it, they all hung in her heart all this time. But knowing that Sakura wasn't his child, it relieved her.

He lowered his body to pick Mikoto's katana, "I'll borrow this." She answered with a small nod. He gave her a small pat on her back before sending a thrust at the Sannin.


Mikoto lifted her hand as she had finished healing Yuki's wound, "Can you sit up?" she gave her a nod, with Mikoto's help, she used her elbow to sit up, it was then when she saw what happened with Orochimaru.

During the time she was being healed, she could only listen to the sound of metal clashing with each other, sometimes she heard them utilize their techniques. But as she sat up she saw him being crucified on the wall with Mikoto's katana impaled his abdomen. A low chuckle was heard from his bleeding mouth, he lifted his head, looking at his enemy, "You've forgotten… this is my lair… all my experiments are here… they will come when I call them… no matter how strong you are…"

"They won't come." Yuki cut his sentence. He stared at his ex-assistant, "Shut up, woman!"

Mikoto helped Yuki to stand up, she mouthed a small thanks before taking a step forwards, she put her hand on the block of ice where Sakura was, "Each one of your experiments are asleep in all my ice prisons. They won't wake up, not until I release the seals."

"How DARE you—" Itachi used his hand to silence the dying sannin, he whispered something beside his ear, the sannin tried to scream, however the others could only heard him grunting.

"That's enough." was what Itachi said before sending a last blow to the pale skinned one.

The kunoichi watched as black fire engulfed his body. Yuki looked at the unconscious female inside the ice, she made a seal using one hand. The sound of cracking ice could be heard all over the hideout, including the one sat beside her. Mikoto quickly examined Sakura's body after the ice completely disappeared, she noticed most of the scratches had stopped bleeding. She realized that it must be why Yuki's chakra was so weak, she might have used up her chakra to maintain all the ice prisons which also did heal the wounds.

Mikoto looked at Itachi, "Some of her internal organs sound abnormal, we have to bring her back home quickly." He gave her a nod, he lifted Sakura in his arms as Mikoto proceeded to summon Jyu again and another one. She looked at the younger woman in front of her, "Are you coming with us?"

Before Yuki could answer her question, she turned her head to the corridors as she heard sound of footsteps coming, "I can't…" she walked closer to the incoming children, his experiments victims. They were all calling her in a language Mikoto couldn't understand. She watched her being hugged by all the children.

Yuki returned her gaze back to the older Uchiha, "I'm sorry, Mikoto-san… but I'm going to stay here…" she looked at the children beside her, "I can't abandon them here… They don't have anyone, but me…" she averted her gaze back to her, "I will take care of these children, until they can face the outside world by themselves."

Mikoto gave her a small smile, "Take care until then…" she climbed up onto Jyu's back, adjusting her position as Itachi handed over the unconscious body. He took a step backwards as Jyu directly took off, heading to the sky above them as Yuki's ice attack had destroyed the hideout's roof.

Itachi was caressing the other falcon's feather when he felt a tug on his cloak, he looked down at a small boy, he stretched his arms high, trying to hand him a scroll. Itachi looked at the brunette across him, she pointed at the scroll, "It contains all information about his research on Uchiha. You can keep it." he took the scroll before putting it into his pouch.

"Itachi." She had his attention once again, "Isn't this why you appoint me here?" she looked at him with a sad expression, "You've planned this all along, right?"

This time he gave her his full attention. She smiled sadly, "You knew I would create bonds with these children… right… you knew I would choose to stay even after he died… right…?"

He lowered his head, which surprised her a little as she couldn't believe he could bow to someone, "So it is true…" she turned around, heading to the corridors with the children, "Off you go, sly Uchiha."

He lifted his head after he heard the sound of footsteps had gone further. He climbed onto the giant falcon his mother summoned, "Let's catch up with them, Kojuu."

Itachi took one last look at the hideout from the sky before Kojuu soared even faster.

He whispered something beside his ear, "You have my thanks."


It was already nightfall when they finally reached the Yukigakure, even though the night was still young, but there weren't many people on the street. Living in that village for a few years had told Mikoto that 8 pm was counted as late night for the villagers of Yukigakure, most lights were out, only street lights were still on. Their restaurant couldn't be seen from above as they left in the morning, they didn't bother to turn the lights on due to the urgency.

They landed quietly in front of the restaurant, even though most of the people had already asleep, they would never know if someone might suddenly show up and got scared of their giant animals. Mikoto handed over Sakura to Itachi, who stood beside her summon, waiting for her to pass the body over. She bowed at both of the falcons, thanking them before they disappeared with a poof of smoke.

Mikoto stopped in front of her door, there were police lines sealing her door, which meant they had investigate the building. She tore the lines before pushing the door open, she turned the small light on, just enough for them to be able to see around. She instructed Itachi to bring Sakura upstairs to where her room was while she went to take her medicine kit.

Itachi went ahead to the second floor, where he laid her on her futon. He sat at the corner of the room, waiting for his mother to come.

Thud.

His reflex made him pulled his kunai, he peeked from the open door, he could only see his mother kneeling on the floor, her body was leaning against the wall, bottles of medicines and some bandages rolled from her hands. He quickly approached her, he noticed that her chakra was definitely much weaker than before they departed from Orochimaru's hideout.

"You've healed her." He stated. She smiled weakly, "Just a little bit more… "

He helped picking up the bottles before helping her to stand up. Now that he remembered, not only healing Sakura, but she had also healed Yuki previously, and she managed to maintain two summons for hours. He helped her to sit down beside her patient while he chose to sit across her, he continued to watch her healing the unconscious girl. Once in a few minutes Mikoto kept nodding her head as it was so hard to keep her eyes open, then she would immediately raised her head, shaking it a little to stay awake.

He wanted to ask her to stop, but she would definitely refuse. At last, she lifted her hand, she whispered, "Done…" she had healed all the internal wounds while she could only wrapped the scratches with bandages and medicines, stating that if she had enough chakra, she would already heal everything. She assured that Sakura wouldn't feel any pain at all when she woke up.

"Itachi-kun, please stay with her while I go downstairs to take some water…" she stood up carefully, even though she said she was going to take some water, but before she could reach the first floor, she had fallen asleep on the stairs.

Itachi pinched the area between his eyes, he deactivated his sharingan before taking off his scratched Konoha head protector. He put the head protector beside him while the other hand cupped his forehead. He did realize the effect of using mangekyou sharingan, yet he would always ignore it because in the end his eyes would become someone else's.

He moved his gaze to the other Sharingan user in front of him, he noticed there was a slight movement while he was in deep thought. He watched as those emerald eyes started to show themselves, she kept blinking, her eyes moved to the left and right, trying to adjust with the room's dim light. She opened her mouth a little bit, trying to say something. He bent his head a little, he waved his hand slowly close to her.

"Sakura," even though he really asked, but it actually sounded more like a whisper.

She lifted her hand to touch his fingers, she traced the fingers before finally holding his hand tightly. She tried to focus her eyes on his face, but it wasn't an easy task as her consciousness still didn't want to return back, yet her mind had decided.

"Mikoto-san… I'm glad you're okay…" was all she said before she closed her eyes once again.

He couldn't blame her for thinking him as his mother due to the resemblances. He tried to move to the corner of the room to get a little more comfortable area to sit, however he realized that she hadn't let go of his hand. He tried to remove her hand off his, but each time he tried, her grip will only got tightened on his hand. He let out a sigh, he decided he would just sleep there just like that.

To Be Continued...


Sorry for the long chapter.