Sakura's head was swimming as she came to and she still felt deaf. She imagined she had only been unconscious for a couple of seconds, but it had felt as if she had just slept eight hours. The feeling of the stony surface she was lying on, though, was enough to convince her that she was not in her bed. Her vision was still currently MIA, but soon, she could start to hear muffled voices. Then she felt someone begin to lift her up and the muffled voices suddenly regained names in her weakened mental state.

Sakura gave a complaint at being lifted off the ground by one of the two Akatsuki; she couldn't tell which. Her own voice sounded far off in the distance. She felt pinpricks as her eyes started coming back to life. She pried them open despite how heavy her lids were and she was met with a pair of red sharingan eyes. Her hearing had finally just returned too, so she clearly heard her own groan of annoyance as she was forcefully pushed back into unconsciousness.

Itachi let out a breath as the kunnoichi slumped back down, asleep in one of his genjutsus. He looked up to the blue face of his partner who was holding up the tiny girl by a hand around her wrists. The shark-man's silver eyes showed signs of apology. The Uchiha simply said everything he needed with one look. Control that monster you use for a weapon or Iwill.

"Samehada just gets carried away when they have more chakra." Kisame mumbled under his breath as he heaved Sakura's limp form over his shoulder securing her there by an arm around her legs.

Itachi digressed as he turned to the trees.

"Come on."

Kisame followed his partner up into the branches, before coming to a sudden stop behind the paused Uchiha.

Itachi looked back towards the east as he felt strong chakra signatures heading towards them. He recognized a familiar one among them.

Kisame turned to look at what had caught his partner's interest. When he swung around, both shinobi heard a loud thunk. Itachi's face slowly turned to eye his partner with discontent.

"heh...heh..." Kisame laughed, bringing his hand up ruffling his hair in a nervous gesture. When Itachi didn't join in his amusement, instead maintaining the slight glare directed at him, kisame dropped his smile. "...sorry."

Sakura wasn't going to be very happy with him when she woke up with another lump on her head from colliding with a tree.

Itachi ignored his partner as he brought his hands together, forming several hand signs. The genjutsu he placed completely erased all traces of their little stay by this river. He would have to clean up his mess by the cliff, as well.

"Let's go."

"Hai."

Itachi wanted to put some distance between himself and the incoming chakra signatures. The time had not come, yet.


They were still a while away from their base when they felt warm chakra emanating from the rings on their fingers. Leader was calling them.

They stopped, the kunnoichi was tied up, and though they had managed to pretty much lose the four chakras, Itachi set up another genjutsu around them out of precaution.

Kisame and Itachi sat cross-legged, forming hand signs, and soon enough their chakra was transported to a place far away.

The two didn't have to have their physical bodies with them to feel the coldness of the dark room.

"I have a mission for you."

"Hai. Leader sama." Kisame acted as spokesman for the both of them.

"I need you to leave immediately for sound. There have been rumors that I want to be sure of..." Here, he eyed Itachi, "... concerning your little brother."

Itachi nodded. He was displeased with the idea of going to that horrible 'village'. But, he supposed he at least could be sure that he wouldn't run into Sasuke there. He really didn't even need to go all the way to sound to ascertain the truth of the rumors. He had heard them as well, and he knew it was not coincidence that his brother was all the way out here with a team so close to Rain. His little brother was searching for him.

"If I may ask..." Itachi locked eyes with his leader's, doujutsus clashing, "this is the sort of mission Zetsu-san would typically be assigned, is it not?" The fact that Kisame and himself were getting this mission instead was reason to be suspicious.

"Ah, yes... Zetsu has... other things he is taking care of for me." The rinnegan wielder gained a far off gaze as his mind dwelt on the 'other things'.

Curiosity nagged at the partners, but the look on their leader's face told them not to even bother asking because they would receive no answers.

Pein's attention returned to them. "So, leave the base immediately. I expect you to get there by nightfall."

Kisame and Itachi shared a look. Kisame grimaced and spoke, "We aren't... at the base at the moment, actually."

Pein's eyes narrowed dangerously at the shark-nin who promptly dropped his gaze. Kisame had had to deal with his partner's doujutsu once, and it was enough to know to be wary of such eyes. Pein turned to Itachi for answers. The Uchiha met the glowing purple with emotionless eyes. He didn't really want to tell Leader about Sakura's escape, but there wasn't much he could do.

"Haruno san..." Itachi looked pointedly at his partner, "...escaped from the base yesterday."

Kisame decided to cut in, having noticed that, as per usual, his partner was going to use as few words as possible to communicate. "We've already retrieved her. We can get her back to base and it will not hinder our mission."

Their leader's gaze was becoming more displeased by the second. His eyes had not left Itachi's as the two seemed to silently battle something out.

"Itachi... I had warned you when you got your... little pet, that should she cause problems for the Akatsuki, you would have to get rid of her. I only allowed this because of your valid argument that she would be of use in luring the kyuubi to us. Such has not yet happened, has it, Itachi?"

The sharingan wielder did not budge, but stared blankly back at his leader. The way Pein had said "little pet" made the man's assumption obvious. Why did everyone assume this of the situation between him and Sakura? It bothered him for reasons he couldn't name. The whole world already condemned him as a clan-killing psychopath after all.

Pein continued after his brief pause, "...Take her with you. I want you there as soon as possible, so no time for detours. Perhaps she could even be of use to you. Now, go."

The partners both bowed their heads, before their chakra disappeared from the room.

Turning and walking into the darkness, Pein spoke, "The little Uchiha got rid of Orochimaru sooner than we had expected, but this is fine." He opened a door, blinding light illuminating his orange hair, "Our plans will come to fruition much sooner."

As he walked into the light, before shutting the door a voice reaches his ears, a smirk coming to his lips.

"Yes... soon."


Sasuke knelt by the river, his fingers folded together in thought. It had only been for an instant, but he had felt his brother's presence. In the next moment, all trace of him was gone. Disappeared. His fingernails dug into his skin in frustration.

He looked around the clearing they were in. Around him, his new teammates rested, waiting for his command. This was the spot he had felt Itachi's chakra. Yet, the place showed no signs of human disturbance at all. To a shinobi, human presence was an easy thing to detect. He supposed it made sense, in a way. His brother was hardly human. A monster couldn't be expected to leave traces like humans.

The Uchiha sighed, shutting his eyes. He knew he was just missing something. They didn't have a direction to go in, since there was no way to tell where Itachi had disappeared to.

As he looked to his teammates, he noticed something... off about them. They all seemed a little out of it. Karin looked like she was going to be sick. Focusing more intently on his surroundings, Sasuke began to feel a familiar unpleasant feeling. His sharingan couldn't detect anything, but he was almost sure of it, now. He should've immediately figured this out. This was Itachi they were dealing with.

Sasuke began a string of hand seals. On the last one, he whispered, "Release", but nothing changed. His shoulders slumped slightly as his eyebrows came together in confusion. After a few minutes' pause, he got an idea. His hands came back together hesitantly, as he began to form new seals.

"...Release."

The world around them seemed to shift. Beside him, he heard Karin groan, and he could see Jugo clenching his head in his hands. After a moment, the strangeness of the feeling disappeared, and his head seemed to clear as if he had been in a deep trance. The four looked around as they realized an important detail of their new surroundings. It was much darker. The sun was already lost behind the trees, though there was still daylight.

He felt so foolish! What on earth had taken him so long to realize he was in a genjutsu?! He hadn't even realized how disoriented he had become. He had felt normal, yet his brain activity had obviously been hindered. His hands shook. Itachi...still so far...

"Karin."

The red-head stared at him dumbly, before snapping out of her stupor. "H-hai! Sasuke-kun?"

He could practically see hearts in the girl's eyes, causing him to have to resist rolling his own. He was not in the mood for this. They had already lost so much time.

"Search the area for his chakra."

"'His'?" Her head cocked to the side, before she shot up, "right! His." She formed a hand sign, closing her eyes. She turned to the trees as she found leftover traces of the Uchiha's chakra. "This direction." The rest of her team watched as her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and a bead of sweat appeared on her forehead. When she opened her eyes, her worry was plain on her face. She looked to Sasuke.

"It looks like they're heading to Sound."

They looked to Sasuke all with the same expression of silent pleading in their eyes. They had only just left Sound a couple of days ago. None of them wished to go back. Suigetsu groaned in despair. Sasuke's hand unconsciously went to his leg, where he had had a chunk bitten out of him. Karin had healed him for the most part, but she couldn't get rid of it completely. It kept coming back. He contained his grimace before finally letting out a smirk. Itachi would have lots of fun if he was going to Sound.

"Search for any more chakra signatures between here and Rain. In particular, strong chakras."

Again, Karin closed her eyes and searched. "There's a pair of really strong chakra signatures coming from nearby the closest town that's between here and Rain."

"Are they moving?"

"...no."

"Good. That's probably the Akatsuki base Itachi normally stays at. We will wait for him to return from Sound." Suigetsu let out a sigh of relief.

They all began to pick themselves up and get ready to depart. Sasuke looked around the clearing once more. Itachi's genjutsu hadn't just hidden the path he took. It had been hiding the landscape too. Red sharingan eyes took in the crater and the unnatural scattering of rocks by the riverbed. There had been a battle here. Sasuke shrugged it off. Nothing particularly stood out to him.

As they headed off in the direction of Rain, Sasuke spoke.

"We will wait in the town near the base. Then, when he comes, I'll kill him."

Shivers went down the spines of the three beside the Uchiha as they witnessed out of the corners of their eyes the glowing red hate of the sharingan.


Several hours into the journey to Sound, the mass dangling over Kisame's shoulder began to stir back to life. Sakura's head felt like it was going to murder her. She gained no rest from her sleep, instead she felt bruised and beaten.

"Ugh.. Kisame..." She recognized Samehada, who was inches from her nose. Luckily, the sword was playing nice. " put me down."

The shinobi stopped and the kunnoichi was unceremoniously dumped to the ground. Great. Another bruise to add to her growing collection. She glared up at the towering shark man, noticing the Uchiha behind him. She turned the fury of her gaze upon him, recalling the spinning tomoe that had stolen her consciousness from her earlier.

His gaze was cold as he stared down at her. As cold as she remembered them being in the beginning. She hadn't realized it, but she had begun to see that look less and less since the time she had first been taken. She had become unaccustomed to it. It gave her goosebumps.

An imaged flashed in front of her vision for a moment. Last night... his face had looked so young and innocent. It had been part of the unexplainable force driving her to save his life. Now... well, the two faces, the memory and the one before her eyes clashed so horribly. Was this the same person? Confusion threatened to swallow her. She felt sick.

"You've woken up just in time, little leaf!" Kisame's voice always seemed to irritate her, somehow.

She picked herself up, ceasing her glaring at both of the Akatsuki. Looking around, she became confused. She turned to them questioningly.

"Where are we?"

Kisame pushed aside a branch, allowing the kunnoichi to peek out of the trees. When she looked down, Sakura's face paled. She recognized the place from team seven's time spent searching for Sasuke. It was one of Orochimaru's hideouts. The biggest one they had been able to locate, situated in the base of a mountain. All they could see was the entrance, the rest was hidden, but as they watched, a figure appeared out of the opening.

Itachi joined them, looking down at the beast-like person below. He shared a look with Kisame over Sakura's head. None of them were exactly sensory-type shinobi and they could expect there to be measures in place to keep activities within the base hidden. Yet, they could clearly feel the presence of many strange, powerful chakras like the one from the thing below them. There were no other chakras besides the monstrous ones. Just as they had already figured, the base was abandoned. Every ordinary sound shinobi had disappeared along with Orochimaru, leaving behind the experiments. Leader wanted proof though.

"Sakura," Said girl looked up to meet crimson, "We are going in. You will wait here."

Emerald eyes narrowed. "Oh will I? There's no way, I'm waiting out here."

Itachi opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as a spider-like creature burst forward from their rear, latching its arms around Sakura. The two Akatsuki tensed, now battle ready. Sakura gasped in pain. Sharingan quickly analyzed, but were soon put to rest as the kunnoichi heaved the thing up and over her shoulder, sending it flying to the ground with a loud crash.

The other one below them, seeing his fallen comrade, looked up to where they stood in the trees. It screeched a terrifying high pitched noise and to their surprise sprouted wings. As it took to the air towards them, more animal-like people came from inside the entrance. Itachi pulled out a kunai, tearing the thing out of the sky with its wing sliced apart.

With the slightest movement, Itachi's lips pursed. Leaving her out here alone would be troublesome. Sakura stepped forward beside him. "Like I said. I'm coming in with you."

Itachi watched her out of the corner of his eye. She had a newly determined look on her face. What was so important about going in with them? ...besides not wanting to stay out here with these things, what would give her that look in her eye?

It didn't take him long to put it together. Whether she normally had the level of chakra-sensing capabilities that they had, she didn't have much chakra now to be able to read the situation like they could. She was hoping to find his brother in there.

"Very well." He took off, cutting a path through the creatures.

Kisame was next. "Do us a favor, little leaf. Try not to get in our way."

Sakura bristled, watching him go. She would be as big of a burden as she wished to be! They weren't her allies. They should expect her to get in their way. She just had to find Sasuke as soon as possible. She followed after the two, rubbing a sore spot on the back of her neck. Getting past all these monsters was not going to be fun.


Author's note: Sorry it took so long this time to update, guys! ^-^' I had to get the rest of the story figured out before I could continue writing, because in this chapter I decided to start adding plot :3 I had originally planned to finish and post it over the weekend, but I ended up finding out about a soon-ending art scholarship opportunity that I had to work on instead.

Writing Itachi is HARD. I don't feel like I'm doing him justice all. There's no way I could understand the inner workings of his mind, but I'm doing my best to keep him in character. I feel like something's got to change in the relationship and dynamics between Kisame and Itachi. How I'm writing them now is not at all how I usually picture their partnership, I just started off in the middle of the story. I just wanted to make the point clear that Itachi was upset with Kisame for letting Sakura escape, and that he feared/respected Itachi's strength enough to know that angry Itachi was bad news... so, you can probably expect things to change as things go back to normal after Sakura's escape attempt.

Unless something comes to mind that I decide to write first, next chapter will get really... exciting :3

Again, thanks for reading! Thank you for all the reviews I've been getting. They really help motivate me to keep up with this story. ^-^