Behind Enemy Lines

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Summary: Its the overused plot of Sakura being kidnapped by the Akatsuki with a twist. Yay me for being original! Rated M for language, violence and later chapters. *Wink wink* Pairing: Deidara x Sakura - REWRITING IN PROGRESS!

A/N: Ugh some of the stuff I had written originally in this chapter was nothing less that cringeworthy! I have merged chapter two and tree, there was simply no reason for it to be two chapters. Most of the original chapter two was rewritten, it was just too silly.

O O O

First Impressions

Sakura had come early that morning, earlier than necessary. She was now waiting at the gates for the rest of her team to show up. Makoto had surprisingly also arrived early, he stood on the other side of the gate looking deep in thought. Sakura had felt a bit weary after only having slept three hours yesterday and had not had the chance to talk to him. She wanted to get to know him a little, if she had to protect him, she would want to know what kind of man he was.

Sakura tried to catch his eyes, though he did not look up. Instead, she walked over to him, bright smile on her lips. "Hello Makoto-san. My name is Haruno Sakura it's nice to meet you."

He quietly regarded her then gave a small nod.

"I'm sorry I didn't properly introduce myself yesterday. I had some things I needed to sort out before the mission." She started. It was only partly true though, she had not needed to see Ino before she left. Sakura had just happened to bump in to Ino on her way back to her house. It had been a while since they had proper talked, and then seemed as good a time as any.

"Yes, I remember, you were the one who disrespected the hokage and was almost an hour late for the mission overview." He said flatly.

'Great, what a good first impression you made Sakura.'

"Ah yes, you see I worked all night and thought I had time for a nap, but for some odd reason my alarm just didn't go off." Sakura strained herself to smile again.

Makoto looked towards the forest his face empty of any emotion. Sakura waited for him to reply. As seconds became minutes, she realized that he had no intention of replying. She was not quite sure if she should try again. His first impression of her had been a tardy and disorganized young woman. He had probably also seen an emotional wreck as well, when the subject of Sasuke had come up. She really had not shown herself from her best side yesterday. She wanted him to see, that she was not the kind of person he thought she was. Just when she was about to speak she heard him speak.

"Pathetic excuse of a kunoichi." Came a muttered remark.

'What?!' Her inner self was fuming.

'Calm down Sakura, he has every right to be a little annoyed with you. You were very unprofessional yesterday.' Sakura calmed herself.

'Well he doesn't have to be downright rude!'

"Excuse me?" Maybe she had heard wrong, but when he did not respond she was sure she had heard right. "Look yesterday was a bad day. I was exhausted and had a lot on my mind."

"Your personal life does not concern me, Haruno-san. This mission however does. I would feel better if your mind was focused on the mission at hand, not some trivial personal matter." Makoto said calmly.

This certainly was not going to go anywhere. Sakura decided to try again later, she was not sure she could keep herself from punching him if this conversation progressed any further. She contented herself to leaning against the wall instead.

This was a bad start to a mission. She had already started dreading this mission last night. She was not ready to see Sasuke yet. She had promised herself that next time she saw him she would fight him like the missing-nin and criminal he was. She wanted to show Sasuke that they did not need him anymore, that they could move on. She wanted to show him how strong she had become, to show him how much she had grown over the years. Now with this mission she had the chance, but she was not sure she was completely ready to give up on him yet.

However, now this mission just seemed to get worse. Makoto was not the kind of person she would like to protect, as a matter of fact, his cold impassive exterior reminded her so much of Sasuke. How could she protect someone she wanted to beat up herself? She sighed. It could become a problem if she could not get along with their client.

No, she should start thinking like a proper kunoichi. Maybe Makoto was right in a way. Could she really call herself a proper kunoichi if she let something this insignificant mess up her mission? She was always too emotionally involved with her missions, and that was very unprofessional. Emotional people did not think straight and in life or death situations that could become fatal, was what Tsunade had once told her, 'You need to keep your head clear' she heard her shishou's voice in her head. Sakura did not have to get along with the man. Even if she thought, the man was rude and insensitive. She still acted as his bodyguard on this mission and had to keep him out of harm's way. That was all there was to it.

'Suck it up Sakura. You most likely won't ever see this man again after this is done.' That was a small comfort.

She just wanted to be thru with this retched mission.

A while later a very drowsy looking Naruto showed up "Mornin' Sakura-chan." He yawned walking over to her. However, when Naruto saw the expression on Sakura's face, he carefully took a few steps backwards. He knew this expression well and a punch to his face usually followed after seeing it. By reflex, he managed to stutter out and apology, not really knowing what he had done wrong, but it must have been bad. When Sakura did not try to punch him, he lowered his guard cautiously.

"Sakura-chan?" he asked nervously.

Sakura noticed Naruto's defensive stance and smiled a wide fake smile. "Ah, good morning Naruto. Did you by any chance see Sai on your way here? He's usually here before you."

"That bastard probably got lost on the way out of his door." Naruto snickered

"That's funny coming from you dickless." Sai's voice came from the above. They both looked up and saw him sitting on the wall above them.

"How long have you been here?" Sakura asked.

Sai only shrugged and jumped down to join the other two and Makoto.

"That only leaves Kakashi-sensei. Knowing him we'll be sitting here till tomorrow." Sakura complained and closed her eyes. She did not have to wait long though. The silver-haired shinobi surprised them all by showing up only minutes later.

"You're early." Stated both Sakura and Naruto in amazement.

Kakashi looked confused at both of them. "Oh yes, there was this old lady and she dropped her bag a looked like she needed help. But she didn't." Sakura looked at her former teacher with a confused expression. Why was he making up excuses for being on time? Perhaps it was the years of always being late that had carved in the need to make up excuses. She would never understand what went on in that man's head. She just shook her head and decided to let it be.

"Everyone ready then?" Kakashi inquired, all three members of team Kakashi nodded and Makoto was already on his feet walking down the road towards the land of rivers.

Kakashi set after Makoto. "Sai you guard the rear, Naruto and I will take the front and Sakura stay close to Makoto." The mission had begun.

O O O

They were getting closer to the border, maybe only one days walk from here. It had already been three days since they set out from Konoha. Naruto was getting restless. They had not encountered any enemy shinobi at all. They were still in the Fire country, but with the recent disturbances at the borders had had the whole team on edge. It was putting it lightly by saying Naruto was disappointed at the lack of action and dark-haired sharingan users. Ever since midday yesterday, he had started to complain about how Tsunade had promised Sasuke would be there, which was not exactly true.

They had stopped for the night in a little clearing close to the main road. After having secured the perimeter, Naruto had put together a little fire to keep the autumn chill at bay. Sai had taken the first guard shift. Sakura had the early morning one. She had slept through most of the night safely knowing her teammates kept guard over them. Now, she sat high up in a tree watching as morning approached. Sakura could see the beginnings of sunrise at the horizon from the treetop. It was about time to move on. She jumped down and saw that most of them were already awake and packing their gear.

Only Naruto was still snoring, she turned to pack the rest of her stuff. When she was done, she gave a small eventless report of her shift to the team leader Kakashi. By then Naruto had woken up and was struggling to get his blanket to fit in his backpack. If only he folded it neatly he would have no trouble, but he would never learn.

Sakura was covering up the fireplace as Naruto sat down close to her. "It's a bit strange don't you think?" he inquired.

"What is?" Sakura looked at Naruto wondering what he had meant. There was actually a lot of things that seemed strange to her. The lack of enemies, some details about this mission, that was never thoroughly explained and even Makoto himself. There always seemed to be a strange aura about him, maybe it was just her eyes playing a trick on her, but sometimes the air close around Makoto seemed to shimmer, it was only very subtle and sporadically.

"Well, we haven't seen anyone since we left Konoha. I mean I know Tsunade-baachan told the civilians to stay home as much as possible or evacuate to Konoha, because of the things that have been going on. But don't you find it strange that we have not seen one single person, not even any other shinobis?" Naruto said quietly.

"I have been thinking the same. I can't be sure what exactly is going on, but I have a really bad feeling. Maybe Kakashi-sensei have noticed it too. We should probably talk to him about it." Sakura looked at Kakashi who once again only had eyes for his beloved book. "There's something off about Makoto as well, and I don't mean his attitude." She was well fed up with dealing with Makoto. He had been a royal pain in the ass ever since that first day.

Naruto nodded.

Kakashi called over the team. Every morning they had a little meeting on what to do if enemy shinobi showed up, and today was no different. They quickly went over the details. it was mostly for Naruto's sake. They all knew he was more than likely to forget about team formation and strategy than anyone else on the team.

Sakura and Naruto raised their concerns to Kakashi and Sai, they were not surprised to know, that both of them had their own suspicions as well. If even the sometimes-oblivious Naruto thought something was off, the other two shinobi were bound to have thought so as well. However, no one else had noticed Makoto's strange aura. 'Must have been my eyes playing tricks on me' she thought to herself.

O O O

Several hours later, they were walking in their usual formation, when Naruto came up to Sakura with a grim look on his face. "Someone is following us." He whispered.

Sakura stretched out thin lines of chakra, he was right. One foreign chakra presence, but despite it being a single other, it was huge. With the exception of Naruto, Sakura had never felt anything like it before. Naruto had the kyuubi, the demon fox's chakra. However, this was one human, not a jinchuuriki. It was quite a terrifying presence, but he was one they were four. He was at a disadvantage. In a fight, they could come out on top, with a little bit of strategy and cooperation.

"So you noticed it too." She heard Kakashi whisper silently from the front. He had been quiet almost all the day. As if he was thinking too hard to speak, but she knew Kakashi, he was always thinking of the next step, and he rarely told them what he was thinking.

"Should we mention it to Makoto?" She asked Kakashi.

"No, he hasn't noticed it. Let's not worry him with that." He said quietly.

"We might have to. If this monster behind us chooses to catch up." Sai had come up from the rear. They stopped. "If he is here to fight us he will come, be sure of that. Someone with chakra like that is not just someone we can outrun, especially not with a civilian."

They looked at Makoto. He at the as to ask why they had stopped. Kakashi nodded. Makoto had the right to know he was in danger, with this fight now being inevitable.

"Makoto-san," began Kakashi. "I regret to tell you we have a tail, someone's following us, and we will have to make a stand against him. He is alone though, so don't worry we will take care of this matter. We will continue ahead to find a better spot this will not do." Kakashi motioned to the steep slope to the left of them. "If we have to fight it will be on our terms, we better hurry though."

With that, they hurried down the road. Several minutes later, they approached a clearing in the forest, the steep slope behind them. Sakura looked around and she saw the sun high up in the sky. It must be around noon she thought.

"This will do." She heard Kakashi saying. "Prepare yourselves."

Without saying anything, Makoto pulled out a kunai of one of his pockets and took a defensive stance.

'A kunai? That means he's a shinobi as well. That's strange. If he's a shinobi, why didn't he get help from his village to do this mission?' Sakura thought. The feeling of dread and anger rushing through her. They would not have had to keep this incredibly slow pace if he was a shinobi. This mission could have gone quite a bit faster and they might have been able to avoid this fight. Then another thought struck her. 'Maybe all this was a set up.'

She looked suspiciously at Makoto, though he had not moved to attack any of her team members. He was just standing with his back against her, kunai raised to head level and eyes fixed on the forest around them. This was no time to be suspicious though, the massive chakra presence was coming, and fast.

Their opponent was circling around the clearing. Then like a bolt from the blue sky, he was in the clearing. Not just some random place. No, he was standing with his back against Makoto, and it did not seem to bother him. The man was tall and powerful, but that was not the first thing Sakura noticed about him. When she saw that Akatsuki cloak, she immediately took a step back. She felt ever muscle in her body tense. The cloak reminded her of her last meeting with an Akatsuki member, luckily that had gone well, she had defeated Sasori. Now she was once again face to face with another of these S-ranked criminals.

She tried to swallow her fear, but it seemed to take over her entire body.

The Akatsuki member slowly took of his hat, and revealed his identity. Sakura had never seen this man, but it looked like Naruto and Kakashi knew whom he was by the way they had both reacted by taking another step backwards and how Naruto had ground his teeth. The first thing Sakura saw was the short blue hair and the blue skin – 'Wait what? Blue hair and skin?' Sakura stared at the tall man. He was indeed blue and not just that he had three cracks on either side of his face that looked suspiciously a lot like gills. The look on this strong and horrifying shark-like man's face made her insides turn. The grin on his face was predatory and terrifying, the small grey eyes filled with malevolence. The only thing that kept her from throwing up was her will.

Makoto just stood there and seemed so small in the presence of the other man. Makoto had not yet moved. Sakura frowned. She should have listened to her gut feeling all this time. So it had been a trap after all, knowing that this man had walked beside her, slept beside her and eaten the same food for a few days made her shiver and she once again felt the fear rising.

"It... It was a trap?" She managed to stutter.

The shark-like man chuckled. "Oh, you must the clever one." He looked at her and snickered.

Makoto also removed his ever present hat, and when the sunlight hit the face of this man, she was sure he looked familiar somehow. She just could not see where she might have seen this man before. Then her memory caught up. This was the Akatsuki duo who had gone after Naruto years back, Jiraya had luckily been around at that time and had chased them off.

"So, it was you all the time, Uchiha Itachi." Kakashi said coolly.

'Uchiha...'

Sakura's heart jumped a beat. He was Sasuke's older brother. The one that had killed the entire Uchiha clan, he was the one who Sasuke had sworn to kill. She looked at him. She could see the resemblances between him and his brother. They looked so much alike. She saw Sasuke in him, though instead of that seething hatred Sasuke had always carried, there was nothing. He was cold and emotionless. She shivered. She not only stood face to face with Akatsuki members, but also with the person who had killed his friends and family in cold blood.

Sakura heard the shark-man chuckle. "You people are so easy to fool. You can't even see through a lousy genjutsu like that..." He did not end his sentence. He could feel Itachi's eyes burning holes in him. He knew that he had just humiliated his partner, by calling his genjutsu lousy.

"Kisame you take care of the kyuubi, the kunoichi and the other one, I'll finish this famously pathetic copy ninja." Itachi said. There was no tone in his voice, nothing indicated his anger or humiliation or any emotions at all.

Kisame looked at the three of them. "With pleasure, Itachi." He grinned maliciously.

In a split second, Naruto was in front of her. "If you just as much as touch her hair, I swear, I will kill you!"

"I'd like to see you try, kyuubi." Kisame smirked.

Naruto growled at him.

"Watch yourselves he's dangerous." Kakashi warned.

Sakura gave Kakashi a knowing look "Yeah, and Itachi too. Be careful." Sakura answered quietly.

All of a sudden, Itachi threw his kunai at Kakashi. Luckily, for Kakashi's quick reactions he was able to dodge it. He countered by throwing a handful of shurikens at Itachi, they hit him and threw him back at a tree. Itachi stared at Kakashi and he realized that it was only a clone to steal his attention. Kakashi removed his hetai-ate from his concealed eye and proceeded to close the other. You could never be too careful when dealing with the master of the sharingan. Kakashi turned around to try to locate his opponent, though he nowhere to be found.

Sakura did not see any more of that fight. She turned toward Sai and Naruto when she heard Naruto groan. Kisame had cut him with the chakra-eating blade – Samehada, and had readied another swing at Naruto. Sai had quickly taken a defensive stance between the two. Naruto quickly got on his feet, and jumped out of Kisame's range.

Kisame growled and swung his sword at Sai who managed to dodge all attacks. Samehada was a big sword and had quite a scary ability, but it had a weakness. It was slow and used a lot of strength from its user.

Sakura hurried over to Naruto. "Are you hurt?" She asked quickly.

Naruto sent her a bright smile. "No it's okay. I'll protect you for sure! That's a promise, Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled back. "Are you sure it's not me, who should be protecting you?" She asked teasingly. "You're the one who's hurt." They heard a loud crack and Kisame had managed to get a good hit on Sai who was now slumped underneath a tree in the far end of the clearing.

"Sai!" Sakura shouted.

"Enough small talk!" Kisame yelled and threw himself at both of them.

Sakura only just got away before Samehada landed between Naruto and herself. She immediately dashed to where Sai's unconscious body lay. 'Must have been quite a powerful strike, remind me not to be hit by that' she thought to herself.

Naruto created a few clones and attacked Kisame head-on, though his clones did not get many hits on the powerful Akatsuki member and were quickly wiped out. Naruto focused to create more clones. His tactics had always been the more the better, though Sakura and Kakashi had always tried to tell him to only use a few, but use them smart. That would conserve his chakra as well, but of course, Naruto had never listened to them. However, when he tried to summon his chakra he found himself going low already. He had overlooked the meaning of taking a hit by Samehada. The blade had eaten quite a fair bit of his chakra, Naruto would have to try conserve what he had left.

Naruto jumped backwards thinking hard on what to do. He could always borrow a bit of the kyuubi's chakra, though this had its consequences. Last time he had used the kyuubi's power he had very nearly taken down his own team as well as the enemy. It was not a power Naruto would want to use, though sometimes it came automatically when his anger arose.

Naruto summoned a few more clones and sent them at Kisame, making sure they dodged his counterattacks. Naruto then threw himself at the blue shinobi and kept him at bay. It was then Sakura popped out of the ground underneath Kisame's feet and directed a chakra-laden fist at the man's head. It was easy to see that the attack had surprised Kisame, but his almost animalistic instincts alerted him right away, and he twisted just in time to save himself from severe injuries, but he could only direct her hit to a less vital part of his body. She hit his left shoulder. For a second everything was quiet, and then Sakura heard big loud cracks from Kisame's shoulder indicating she broke it in to several pieces.

Kisame flew to the other side of the glade, and smacked against a tree and went right through it and in to the next. However, Kisame never allowed himself to burst out a cry of pain, only when he got up he let out a low grunt. His small grey eyes stared daggers at Sakura.

"Damn you, Pinky!" He shouted at her.

Sakura smirked at the pain she had caused him, though she was not sure she liked her new nickname. Before she had attacked Kisame, she had made sure to heal Sai's most critical injuries and moved his body to a safer place.

"Nice one, Sakura." Naruto blinked at her.

From the other side of the clearing the two comrades heard a groan and a thump. Sakura turned her to see what had happened. She saw her sensei collapsed on the ground in front of Itachi. A whispered 'No.' escaped her lips.

"Kakashi-sensei!" She cried as she ran to her fallen leader. Never before had the two comrades seen their strong and intelligent sensei collapse. The sight was terrifying. If Itachi could beat their sensei with such ease, he must be ten times as strong as she had first anticipated. She felt for Kakashi's pulse, and put her head to his chest, but there was only a loud silence of what was missing. Naruto looked at her, but the paleness of her face and the sadness written in her eyes told Naruto everything.

For a short moment, Sakura thought she saw a hint exhaustion in Itachi's eyes, though Itachi quickly put that impassive façade up again. He had used the mangekyo sharingan for a long period of time. This obviously had drained him of his chakra. Naruto saw it too, and rushed towards Itachi get his revenge, and before Sakura could stop him, Kisame appeared in front of Itachi and punched Naruto with full force in his face. He flew back in to a tree and had all the air in his lunges forced out of him, when another punch hit him in his stomach.

Naruto coughed, a few drops of blood followed. Naruto only smeared the blood of his cheek and shot a deathly glare at Kisame and Itachi.

"I'm going to avenge you Kakashi-sensei." He said looking at the ground. His voice was shaking, and Sakura knew he was crying, but it was almost impossible for everyone ells to see. "You've done so much for me, this is the least I can do." With this, the familiar read chakra started leaking out of Naruto, and Sakura could only watch in horror. He looked back at her to ensure her that everything was going to be fine. She saw his cheerful blue eyes had turned a fearsome and hostile color red. Naruto turned back to his opponents and by then a red tail had formed of the chakra, and another was starting to appear as well.

"You will die for what you've done!" With this, he sprinted towards the two Akatsuki members with a rasengan in his hands.

First, there was this great big light and everything was quiet. Sakura thought she had gone deaf, but then a loud roar was heard, it was so loud that Sakura had to hold her ears and scream in pain. The pressure on her eardrums was enormous. She was thrown a good hundred meters backwards and hit her head on something hard. She felt herself slowly slipping out of consciousness. She remembered thinking to herself that lightning must have struck before everything went black.