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Itachi finally stopped tree hopping and landed in a small clearing, much to Sakura's relief. He immediately started a small fire, simply for the sake of cooking a small meal of a few small fish, before promptly putting it out. He wasn't going to take chances. If someone spotted a fire, they would come to investigate, and that would possibly slow him down. He glanced over at his pink haired captive, silently nibbling on her pitiful dinner. If anyone else would have seen her, they would have felt sorry for her, but he was Uchiha Itachi, he didn't show compassion.

"Hurry up and eat. You need to get some sleep, we're leaving early tomorrow."

"Where's Kisame?" her question was unexpected to say the least. He didn't think she would care that a six-foot shark man was currently not with them.

"He left a few hours before us, that way if someone planned on attacking us, he'd be able to send a signal."

"What kind of signal?" he often missed the moments when she was silent.

"It's no concern of yours."

"If someone's going to attack me, I think it would be a concern of mine."

"Why would they attack you?" he couldn't care less, but her stupid questions were hitting a nerve.

"I don't know. I didn't think anyone would kidnap me on my way home from work, yet here I am."

"Hn," he grunted in response, causing his companion to give a humorless laugh and a sad smile.

"Sasuke did the same thing. Whenever he couldn't think of a response, or didn't feel like commenting. I guess it runs in the family."

"He's still alive," Sakura gave him a confused look. "You said he did the same thing. You're using past tense, which would either mean he died, you lost contact, or something happened so you would no longer accept him."

"He took my heart. Deceived me right from the start. He said all he wanted was to destroy you and then repopulate his clan… I thought he was so cool, but then I realized something. It was all just a lie. There were little things that he did, that made me believe he actually felt something for me. There were few, and they rarely occurred, but they were there. When Gaara attacked me, he caught me when I fell, and told that dog not to let anything happen to me. When his curse mark activated during the Chuunin exams, it stopped when I hugged him… I thought that meant he was in better control when I was around. I was wrong."

Itachi noticed something very peculiar during her long speech. Not only was that the most she had ever at one time while he was present, but she wasn't talking to him. Everything she said did clarify what she meant by using the wrong tense, but it wasn't directed at him. Her eyes were glazed over, and she was staring at the pit where the fire was not that long ago. She hadn't blinked, she hadn't moved, and she hadn't stopped looking at that one spot. She's in some sort of trance, Itachi thought to himself.

Sakura continued, whether or not she was aware that she was confessing something very personal to Itachi (or even speaking at all) was a complete mystery. "I should have listened to my friends… I was blinded by faith; I couldn't hear all the warnings…"

Itachi concluded that she definitely had no idea that she was, in fact, speaking. Her thoughts were getting vaguer the more she spoke. Yet she couldn't stop speaking, and he didn't stop listening. "Once you're hooked on him… there's no escape, no mercy, no remorse…. He broke a silent promise, and made me realize… it was all just a lie…. He wanted power, and powerful offspring. He didn't need me. The world may have failed him, doesn't give him reason why… could have chosen a different path in life…. He needed strong kids, so he needed a stronger bloodline… mixing Byakugan and Sharingan… make people so powerful…. It was all just a lie…" and with that the pink haired beauty fell asleep, silent tears still streaming down her face.

Itachi stared at her. This girl was losing her sanity, and because of his foolish little brother? What had happened since he left? Was it really possible that he had done so many that Sakura's mind was now fading away?

So many questions, and yet no answers. Her words played over in his mind, at the beginning she seemed just to be relaying painful memories, hence her odd stillness, but then… what had happened? She was no longer making complete sense. He'd lied to her? From the sounds of it there was never any promise made, then again he wasn't getting much of the story. Mixing Byakugan and Sharingan. What was that supposed to mean? Byakugan was limited to the Hyuuga clan, did Sasuke unite clans with them? In order to do that he'd have to… it was starting to make a little bit of sense.

He broke a silent promise. Maybe she had engraved it into her mind that he would eventually be with her; it was all just a lie. She'd repeated that, over and over again. Itachi assumed that meant that she was wrong, very wrong indeed.

Trauma. That word came to mind. There was no reason a person would go into a state like that with little prompting unless they had been through a lot of trauma already. What had his brother done to her?

He had heard that Sasuke had gone to work for Orochimaru, to kill him of course. They must have had seen some signs that would prepare them for his departure. Then again, I was blinded by faith, I couldn't hear all the warnings. She didn't want to believe it.

Foolish little brother, how could you have been so stupid? There was a strange thought. He didn't feel sorry for this girl, why should he care… right?

He sighed and laid down, falling into a light, and very alert sleep.

IxS IxS IxS

Itachi awoke and found Sakura still asleep. He started a fire and began cooking a small breakfast, thinking the smell would wake her up if the dumb ass birds that were circling their camp didn't. Whichever it mattered little, for she did awake before he had to. She silently accepted the meal passed to her, still looking half-asleep.

"The ground around my head was wet," she said after she had fully awoken. "I don't drool, why was it wet?"

So she didn't realize what she had said. "You were crying," Itachi responded bluntly.

"I was… that's strange… I don't remember…. Well, being with you would send a person to tears, I wonder how Kisame puts up with it… then again, he's just as bad…"

"You were crying while you were babbling on about my foolish little brother," if she was going to insult him, he'd throw the facts back at her.

"I don't babble."

"I beg to differ," he muttered.

"I can't wait until I get back to Konoha! I can tell everyone that the Uchiha Itachi was begging."

"Whoever said you were going back?" she was getting annoying, and it wasn't even 10:00 yet.

"I'm a hostage, which means you'll trade me for Naruto."

"I believe you said yourself, you're nothing special, they won't comply." That shut her up.

Itachi extinguished the fire, before standing and beginning to continue their journey.

"Where are we going?" All good things come to an end he supposed.

"Akatsuki head quarters."

IxS IxS IxS

Wow, quick update… ok, maybe not, but its quick by my standards. I know its short, but I had the idea, before getting hit smack in the face with writer's block… DAMN YOU WRITER'S BLOCK!

Ok… over dramatic… lots of sadness in this chapter, but I just got dumped, so I wasn't in the mood for writing anything other than that. And to show my uncreativeness, a lot of Sakura's little speech was song lyrics… although, I don't think many people would have noticed if I didn't say this.

PLEASE REVIEW!

UchihaSakura-always