Behind

Premise: Sasori was a puppeteer, a manipulator, that's why he could see right through her the moment he met her, "Sakura, join me and the Akatsuki. We can promise you something your teammates never could…to never be left behind."

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Notice: Thank you so much for the reviews everyone! Please keep them coming, it helps get the updates out quicker :D

Chapter 4: Separate

Sakura kept herself inside her own head as she strolled along the path that her boys were taking, no one seemed very interested in trying to talk to her anyways. Pakkun had joined them at the gates of Konoha and his nose was still buried deeply into the soft ground trying to find a smidgen of Akatsuki to track.

Sakura found it absolutely ridiculous that they were still on the main road searching for the scent of the Akatsuki. She believed that even the mass and powerful organization was not foolish enough to travel out in daylight so close to a hidden village as powerful as Konoha. Two Sannin were more than enough to take out at least three members of the Akatsuki in a relatively fair fight. What they should have been doing was scouting out the forests and the caves in the area, places of residence that weren't permanent and would allow for quick movement.

Sakura scoffed her shoe into the dirt and bit her lip; she wasn't going to comment though. She didn't want to be heard and she knew that she wasn't going to be heard either.

"So you're back?" Sakura asked quietly to the only person she knew would listen to her at the moment. It was depressing, but it was true. She didn't even have to imagine the swirls of color in front of her anymore.

"If by back, you mean here, and by here, you mean you and by you're, you mean me which in turn really means you, then yes, I guess you could say I'm back," Inner Sakura yawned as she stretched out in the confines of Sakura's mind and stared up at the sky in a daze. Earlier Inner Sakura had worn out all of her energy screaming bloody murder at the three boys, but as always, Inner Sakura wasn't very effective without the participation of outer Sakura.

Sakura scrunched her nose wondering how there could be something akin to a sky within her inner mind.

"Why are you back?" Sakura asked.

"Tut, so many obvious questions today Sakura," Inner Sakura murmured, "you know why."

Sakura nodded to herself as she looked up from her mind and observed the world around her. The Akatsuki were in Fire Country, but they weren't close by. She was sure that if they had been, the birds wouldn't be singing and the bugs wouldn't be whistling their quiet song from among the trees and the shrubs.

Feeling as though she was safe to put herself back into her mind Sakura continued her conversation with her other self. "You're surprisingly subdued."

"Just because I'm back doesn't mean that I'm the same as before. Some of me was left behind in you, you know? Despite what you seem to think, you have changed."

"So you are me, and I am you?"

Inner Sakura laughed, "No, I am you and you are you. Do you understand?"

Sakura grimaced, "Sure, if you say so…"

Inner Sakura grinned, "When I'm gone…you will know that you're happy. You know that."

"Stop talking in circles, I don't talk in circles, you should stop talking in circles," Sakura muttered.

"Ah, ah, don't get your panties in a twist," Inner Sakura laughed with a quirked eyebrow. "Are you happy?" Inner Sakura asked her ears twitching in anticipation. She got off her back and lent on her elbows as she stared at Sakura. Sakura tried to sort out the logistics of her mind, but gave up quite instantly as Inner Sakura's stare only managed to get deeper. Taking in a deep sigh Sakura shook her head and withdrew from her mind again.

Sakura looked up at her team silently, "No" Sakura muttered before she could stop herself, "but its not because of them, its because of what they don't know," it was a false act of recovery on her part.

Inner Sakura smiled ruefully, "And knowledge is power. You know so you have the power, and they have no power even if they believe that they have the power. See we're smarter because unlike Sasuke-kun, we learned that without Kakashi-sensei's help!"

"I'm going to put you away now."

"Humph, meanie."

Sakura looked up from the ground and listened to her surroundings again. The birds were still singing and the bugs were still playing their quiet song among the leaves and branches of the tall trees. The wind swept her pink hair over her shoulders and the sunlight warmed her face with its pleasant rays. Sakura sighed in contentment as she lifted her chin so that her whole face was bathed in the light. Sakura smiled again as she set her eyes before her and then frowned. The sunlight couldn't even work its usual magic for her.

Backs…all she could see were backs. Three backs of three people all somehow decked out in jounin fighting gear. She was still in her red shirt, black shorts, beige skirt, fingerless gloves, elbow protectors and comfy sandals. 'Not only do I not belong, I clash', Sakura thought darkly.

Sasuke had grown taller, his face softer in complexion, harder in angles and his stance much more relaxed then in the past. His hair was still styled the same as always, but he looked much better in the jounin vest that he had in his high collared shirt from youth. Kakashi had done wonders for the hard strung boy; he had turned from a machine of vengeance into what could have past as any scarred shinobi of Konoha.

Naruto had changed, though he hadn't changed much in personality. If anything he was more hyperactive, more rowdy, but he was thoughtful in his actions. His stance was tall and confident, his height only emphasizing that fact. He talked as though his mind contained knowledge, he spoke with sincerity, but Sakura knew that inside Naruto would never truly change. She congratulated Jiraiya in what she considered to be an impossible feat up until now; he had made Naruto… even better. He would become the best Hokage Konoha would ever have; she was sure about that fact. Naruto had gone through everything and had survived.

Kakashi-sensei, was still Kakashi-sensei. He seemed all knowing and all doing, his posture lazy but irrevocably confident. There wasn't much to say about him, although Sakura had never been on Kakashi's bad side until today and she could say very well that she never wanted to be Kakashi's enemy. He hadn't said a word to her since twenty-four hours ago when they had left the village.

Pakkun suddenly veered off of the main road with something akin to a bark and into the forest trails. She didn't think that Pakkun was the type of dog to bark, but after twenty-four hours of nothing, maybe she would bark too. His nose, it seemed, had caught something that was familiar enough to be Akatsuki-ish. Sakura grinned as they flew into the canopy and began to hop from tree to tree. She loved the power that coursed through her chakra-enhanced feet as she ran, but no one seemed to notice the minute difference. She told herself that she didn't care.

Night had fallen by the time that Pakkun had picked up a solid scent. They had travelled quickly through the forest but not as quickly as she knew her teammates could have gone. They had only gone the distance they would have gone had they been twelve year old, over achieving genins, the skill level Sakura had been before they had left her. With a start she realized they were slowing down for her! They didn't need to slow down for her; she could run faster; she could go farther.

Kakashi had called it a night when Pakkun had deemed the trail so distinct that it was impossible to lose. They needed their rest for the battle with the four Akatsuki members.

They were going to take the night watch in pairs as the Akatsuki were not to be taken lightly and somehow Naruto had argued enough to end up with Sasuke, which left Sakura with her old sensei. They had decided to take the second watch or technically Sakura had demanded that they would.

Pakkun gave Sakura a curious stare and trotted up to her with a raised head and quirked doggy eyebrows. "Hello Pakkun," Sakura muttered as she kneeled down and patted the dog on the head.

"No one talked to you today Sakura," Pakkun replied with a pleased growl, "I don't know why. You were always my favorite."

"Really now?"

"Yah, you've always kept up with the boys despite their advantages," Pakkun stated kindly as he pushed his ears into her hands.

Sakura giggled, "Shh, don't be so loud, they aren't supposed to know."

Pakkun's eyebrows furrowed, "Alright… if that is how you want it, but it seems unfair."

Sakura frowned when the ears in her hands disappeared and there was only smoke left over. "Not everything in life is fair." She looked up into the curious eyes of one Hatake Kakashi before she looked away and grabbed the sleeping roll from her backpack.

Sakura curled up in her sleeping bag and zipped it up fully. The package that Tsunade and Shizune had given her was tightly clutched to her stomach as she let her breathing even out and her mind and body relax. She wasn't in a full state of sleep but the state was serving its purpose. Absolute awareness, Tsunade had taught her that.

"I'll chase away your bad dreams. I'll remind you that what they say isn't always what they mean; I'll tell the monsters in your dreams that you can tear apart a mountain with your fist. They'll run scared then, they won't fight you then…they won't leave you behind then," Sakura murmured in her half state of sleep as she curled into a tighter ball keeping the package as close to her as possible. Tears raced down her face, but she could feel them no more.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other as they observed their comrade from their look out positions in the trees. "Did we do this to her?" Naruto asked as he faced the starry night sky, his crisp blue eyes glowing.

"Hn, dobe," muttered Sasuke as he glanced at the girl who had loved him for at least half a decade of her life.

"Che, teme, too scared to answer the question? Who's the scaredy cat now?" Naruto ground out and crossed his arms over his chest with a huff. He got no reply from the Uchiha and turned back down to observe the pink haired teammate that they had left two year ago. "But… did we really leave her behind?"

"I don't know…" He tried to act like he didn't care, he sincerely did, but Kakashi had ingrained within him a sense of companionship that had been lacking two years previous. Now as he looked at the pink strands and heard the words coming out of her moving lips, he actually worried.

"Monsters teme, what monsters are she talking about? If the Akatsuki are haunting her dreams, I'll tear them apart bit by bit."

"Itachi is still mine."

"Keh, I get the rest then cause I can defeat all of them while you tear apart just one teme. Let's see who Sakura-chan likes more then!"

From below the canopy a smile ghosted on Sakura's lips as she overheard the conversation taking place above her, "Monsters… you're all monsters… just monsters…" She shifted and held the package closer to her than before as silence from the boys floated into her ears.

She wasn't oblivious to Kakashi's actions either. He was just about as asleep as she was and she suspected that Sasuke knew, but chose to ignore this fact. Either that or Sasuke hadn't been trained in the ways of the shinobi as much as in the emotional factors; Sakura back pedaled, that could have been the case. However, it would have been endearing that Kakashi was sleeping so close to her, and shifting closer still, only if it didn't mean that he just thought of her to be weak and one who needed protection. Sakura scowled in her sleep and clutched tighter at her package, it was all that mattered now.

Three and a half hours later Sakura woke up along with Kakashi. The two boys jumped down from the canopy and crawled into their sleeping bags. They were out before Sakura could even secure herself into Sasuke's old spot.

Kakashi sat several trees away from her and he looked like he was in a different world all together. Sakura knew better though, she knew that her sensei would never let his guard down. And she was right, "Sakura…" she heard him murmur.

"What is it sensei?" Sakura asked just as quietly, beyond him her voice would sound like the wind.

"Why did you accept the mission?" He sounded defeated as though he had fought a long hard, but losing battle with himself, "I know you are smarter than this and that you have always understood your limits…"

'And hated them', Sakura thought.

"So why are jumping into a fight with an organization as dangerous as the Akatsuki when you have nothing to back up your fight? Why are you risking not only your life but the lives of those on your whole team?" Kakashi asked, his voice almost having a bitter tone to it. However, in no way was his speech accusing and Sakura felt herself grow amused by her sensei's absolute control, "I thought you better than a child Sakura, I guess I thought wrong." Again all she could hear was defeat, but this time it merely angered her.

Sakura let the wind whistle in her pause before she whispered gently, "I'm not a child anymore Kakashi-sensei and I'm sorry that I'm such a disappointment to you, such a terrible… disappointment." Sakura tried not to spit out the last word.

Kakashi nearly laughed before placing his face into the palm of his hand and groaning out between his words, "No Sakura, I'm not disappointed in you, never disappointed in you. I'm disappointed in myself." He registered her shifting in her position in order to hear his words better and he took in a long deep breath, "I was your sensei, I never should have left you at this point. I should have never let you…wilt, you were just a bud and in my misunderstanding I took you as a weed. I left you behind Sakura, you didn't get left behind, I… I pushed you behind."

A sense of calm slowly washed over her being as she took in deep breaths of air and registered his words. 'Kakashi-sensei had never wanted to be hurtful; he was just trying to deal. Like how Shishou deals with sake…' she convinced herself because he was Kakashi, the man who had protected her from the very start. Sakura smiled and reach her arm out at him knowing that they were much too far to touch, "It's okay sensei. I'll bloom someday, I'll get my water, my time to shine and you'll see me bloom… someday."

Kakashi looked at her and smiled, his eyes crinkling. "Sakura, when we get back from this mission," because Kakashi did not deal in ifs when it came to his teammates, "I'll train with you. I'll show you all that you should know, all that I should have taught you long ago other than climbing trees and walking on water. When we get back Sakura, I will be the sensei that I haven't been for the three years we've known each other."

Sakura smiled and nodded, opting not to say anymore. She couldn't say anymore, not to this man who had already lost so much. She turned away from Kakashi and stared up at the night sky. The birds and the bugs were singing in the darkness and so Sakura began to shift and cause a small racket. It would disguise her future movements and only further Kakashi's guilt in her lack of tact; Sakura, after all, was still human and so very bitter.

Unwrapping her package slowly she took out its contents and stuffed them into the pockets of her beige skirt under the impression of scratching at her thigh. She left one of the contents of the package out of her skirt and opened the container quietly. The sound blended in with the breeze, but she made a show of sniffing it like lotion anyways because Kakashi was still the famous copy nin all in all. She smeared the contents of the container on her arms and on her legs. She scrunched her nose at the distinct smell knowing that Kakashi would not be able to tell what it was exactly. Closing the container she placed it into her pocket with the rest and grabbed the packaging that the contents had come in.

Sakura stood up on her branch and passed her eyes over the dark expanse of earth and sky. The bugs had stopped singing into the night.

"Isn't it about time that we wake up the other two Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura peaked at him from the corner of her eye and she could tell that he was wearing a frown on his face. Her mission had been successful.

Kakashi looked at the sky and nodded before jumping down the branches of the tree to reach the ground. Sakura followed suit and pretended to stumble on the ground. They had not made a fire last night as not to give away their position during the invasion of darkness. Sakura walked around the camp looking, searching for anything that would help her. She spotted them, all piled up into a corner.

"While the boys wake up I'm going to go fill these at the river," Sakura grinned as she pointed at the canteens that were hanging off of her arm. Kakashi nodded as Sakura turned around and walked to the river's edge. She cursed as she stepped into a small puddle and scolded herself for being so absentminded. Turning back to see if Kakashi had noticed her mistake she continued to the river, her shoe squeaking slightly from the fresh mud.

Sakura went past the trees, she ducked under the branches, she maneuvered through the bushes and then she came upon the rushing sounds of the river. She dropped the canteens on the ground and opened the pockets in her beige skirt. Shizune was brilliant in her design of clothing, it had seemed like nothing was added to her skirt, the pockets always looked chunky and full.

Grabbing the wrapper and the card that had been taped on to it, she threw both of them into the river. She watched as the paper dissolved in the harsh flow of the current. Yamato was a brilliant man, he knew the nature of wood too well, and paper for missions such as this had always been his forte. Sakura at times wondered if her Shishou had kept the man around only for this very reason.

Sakura reached into her pocket and dug out the empty container. She smashed the glass on the ground and buried the shards in the dirt. If she were lucky then the shards would appear on some beach later on in life and delight a collector of beach glass, or if she wasn't lucky she would tear apart some poor person's perfect skin. "Oh well," Sakura hummed as she grabbed the first canteen and began filling it with the running water. She took great care in not letting her arms and legs get splashed, all her effort would have been for nothing otherwise.

When the first two canteens were filled and she only had two left, Sakura began to fear that her efforts were going to waste. But in moments she grinned, nothing it was not.

Separate

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm tired," Naruto complained as he groaned and wiped at his eyes. He slowly rolled out of his sleeping bag and pushed himself to his knees.

Sasuke rolled his onyx orbs as he rolled up the sleeping bag he had been using the previous night. He tied together the string that kept the sleeping bag attached to his backpack and leant his massive bag against a tree. He gathered the rest of his things and placed them into his bag carefully. "Oi dobe, did you take my canteen again?"

Naruto scoffed as he threw his things into his bag, a pile of missed objects forming around the base. "Why would I want to take your canteen, just because you took mine?"

Kakashi sat at the base of a tree and stared at his comrades with a small smile, it had been a long time. His bag was already fully packed; he was a light traveler. Sakura's pack was already done as well although it seemed much fuller than any time in the past. He really hoped that she hadn't lost that essential skill during his two years of absence. Sakura after all had always been a light packer just like him. "Sakura took both of your canteens."

"Why would Sakura-chan do thaattt?" Naruto gurgled as he turned to face Kakashi. He was now tossing the missed objects into his bag reducing the pile exponentially.

"She's filling them up at the river as we speak."

Sasuke's eyebrows pulled up, "That's strange, I could have sworn that mine was full."

Kakashi's eyebrow rose in alarm, but they didn't have time to dwell on it. An explosion set off less than four feet away from Naruto's head.

"Yeah, and they call themselves shinobi," a voice called down from the sky as the smoke cleared and Naruto wiped at the dirt that had smeared across his face. Sasuke had pulled Naruto out of the way by his armpits in the nick of time and both boys lay sprawled in the dirt coughing.

Looking up, Kakashi saw that the man who had spoken had long blonde hair tied up high on his head and was sitting on what seemed to be a giant bird. Two more shinobi clutched onto the top of the trees that were adjacent to the flying bird. "Deidara, Hoshigaki Kisame and…"

"Itachi," Sasuke ground out as his hand began to glow blue, the sound of a thousand birds filling in the silence that had ensued with the presence of the Akatsuki.

"Sasuke stop, don't waste it just yet," Kakashi ordered loud enough for his student to hear but not those that were above them. "Wait…one, two, three…where's four…? There are supposed to be four of you."

Itachi's red eyes swirled and he looked out to the sky with an oddly familiar smirk. "Ah…Sasori," and as the words were spoken, something akin to a massive explosion came from the direction of the river.

"SAKURA!"

Next Time on Behind

"Who do you think made the antidote for the Kazekage's brother?"

"Better? I'm not dead, that can't be good for you."

"Watching them I also know everything that I need to know about you Sakura-san. The monsters that haunt you… The people that leave you, the fears that you have, the true power that you wield."

"You know nothing!"

"I am a puppeteer, Sakura-san. I manipulate beings to my liking, that's why I could see right through you the moment I met you. Sakura, join me and the Akatsuki, we can promise you something your teammates never could…to never be left behind."

Secret's Corner

I love the interaction that goes on between Inner Sakura and outer Sakura. It's freaking crazy what you can do with those two. Anyways, lots of stuff happens in this chapter that will be important for the future to make things make sense.

Kakashi was once again a hard character to write because I wanted to communicate the fact that he wasn't totally horrible (although a bit of a jerk) and that we can't necessarily blame him for his actions because he simply just does not know. The reoccurring theme of knowledge happens a lot in this chapter as well...

I love Pakkun. He's so cute. I think he has more of a personality at the moment than Sasuke... which is uncool. Need to work on that part...

Finally, the Akatsuki have appeared too. I know that a lot of you were waiting for this very moment! I hope you enjoyed the story so far.