A/N: I'm back. Whoooo. Twirls noisemaker blandly. I really want to continue this story, but I'm having a hard time staying motivated. Feedback is really great. Thanks reviewers, subscribers, and favoriters.
This gets long. I bolded text in the last two pages if you're one of those people who just reads dialogue. You miss a bit, though.
Disclaimer: I don't make any money from this.
Sakura dragged air into her lungs through her nose. She felt the warm, dry atmosphere fill the tunnel in her chest and slowly expand her upper torso. The deep breath seemed to stretch her exhausted lungs as she braced herself against the rough bark of the tree trunk.
"That wasn't terribly intelligent, Pinky" a gravelly, amused voiced echoed through the sparse trees.
Sakura raised her narrowed eyes to the scrap of starry sky visible between the limbs of deciduous canopy. Biting back a swift retort, she brought her hands to her chest and began a series of hand signs. Stupid fish man—he wasn't worth her snappy wit.
"I mean, seriously…you sneezed. Isn't that a little amateur?" Hoshigake Kisame asked her, watching the tree she hid behind suspiciously. Though his tone was mocking and nonchalant, he was wary of the girl. Sure, her petite little "ah-choo" had tipped him off in time, but she shouldn't have been able to get that close to him. Plus, she'd taken longer to locate than either of her other two teammates.
The kunoichi grimaced, agreeing with her opponent. She lightly shook her head to clear her head of Hoshigake's image. Yes, Hoshigake, not Kisame. Kisme was the name of the misty legend, the partner of one of the most feared ninja in the world. The last thing Sakura wanted was to be intimidated by the dangerous man.
It was true: Akatsuki were snooping along the western border of Konoha. However, Tsunade had been wrong when she suggested that they were probably just passing by. As it turned out, Hoshigake had been waiting for someone…someone who hadn't shown up.
When you were Itachi's partner, things tended to go like clockwork unless the Uchiha wanted to have some twisted fun. His idea of twisted fun never lasted more than an hour. It had a whole day since Itachi was supposed to regroup with Kisame in Sand, making every black cloaked man, woman, and plant suspicious. Well, actually, the plant was less suspicious and more hungry; Zetsu had already asked permission to retrieve Itachi's ring.
Kisame, of course, had been good-naturedly outraged. The Samehada had throbbed in his hand at the plant's suggestion, but Pein had the good sense to appease the shark-man before blood (sap or whatever) was shed. Kisame and Deidara were dispatched to wait for the Akatsuki's link to the Sharringan from a position nearer to Itachi's location.
The problem: Itachi never emerged from his old village, even after another twenty four hours. As with Konoha ANBU, the amount of time elapsed was unacceptable. Something was wrong.
Sakura wished she had chosen a different night to start digging into her mission-quota. Like Shikamaru, who had to balance his ambassadorial duties with normal missions, Sakura had to balance her time at the hospital and her time out in the field.
Her team was considered invincible by younger shinobi and admirable by those with more experience: TenTen, Shika, Neji, and herself. When at least three of them were available, the team was considered available for dispatch, which is exactly what Tsunade had done when a chunin scout came back stuttering about red clouds.
Neji couldn't come, being retained as the elite ninja responsible for the defense of the new prisoners.
Shikamaru was unconscious, slumped over a tree branch somewhere above Sakura's head.
TenTen was being restrained by an annoyed clay-master, who was distractedly twirling a stand of her hair as he used his weight to press the girl securely against a tree. Apparently, her pigtail buns had annoyed him to the point that he couldn't leave them alone.
That left Sakura, the girl with summer allergies, present and capable of rescuing her teammates. She knew the jutsu that would do it, too. She just hoped that she had enough time behind the tree. As she completed the last hand sign, she distractedly wondered if Sasuke could summon snakes yet.
Kisame shifted uncomfortably. Itachi was his partner and really the only other shinobi in all five countries that he trusted in engagements with enemy ninja. Deidara was too unpredictable for a delicate situation like this.
The blonde would give information away instead of probing for it tactfully…or at least Kisame expected him to. He'd taken Itachi's role of diplomacy in this temporary relationship, threatening the blonde with his life if he dared open his mouth. Kisame's threatening glare wasn't up to par with the Uchiha's glinting Sharringan, but the golden shark eyes were effective enough to shut the blonde up for once.
"Where's your demon friend, kid?" Kisame asked Sakura, sounding slightly bored.
From her position between Deidara's shoulder and the smooth bark of an elm, TenTen shot Sakura a panicked glance, knowing that her expression wouldn't pierce the tree that Sakura's chakra signature emanated from. Much to her relief, her pink-haired friend didn't respond to Kisame's question, even with a lie.
Her relieved sigh made the bomber nudge his shoulder blade into her a little harder. He pulled the strand of hair he held, pulling the weapons mistress's head back towards him a little more. "As pointless as this is, you shouldn't try to end it your own way, yeah. Sharky's in a mood" he whispered. TenTen had a hard time believing that the clay master was taking his job seriously.
She told him so, and he shrugged. The motion pushed TenTen's head back into the tree. "I could school you kiddies without even caring, then? Doesn't that say something about you, yeah?" he snickered in to her ear. As he the last word left his mouth, the ground began to shake and Kisame's chakra flooded the area, bristling in apprehension.
Sakura's summons had arrived.
The slug was slightly less impressive than Sakura remembered. She stood a little taller than Sakura, but was considerably thicker. It's girth was matched by its chakra pattern, which made Kisame snort in appreciation. No where near his own level, but fairly impressive. The slug looked lethargic at first, but then became alert as a glaring Sakura emerged from behind it.
"Can you take the blonde? He's holding a friend of mine. The Nara boy you met last time is somewhere above us. Find him please" Sakura directed sternly, not letting her narrowed eyes stray from Hoshikage, who was shaking his head as he pulled his massive sword off his back.
The slug cocked its head to the side in a concerned manner.
"I'll be fine" Sakura responded, tossing her head to toss a few strands of her pink hair away from her face. The motion also tossed her long rosette braid across her back and loosed a senbon from its place underneath the hair elastic (it fell into her waiting hand). She wondered if the shark or the slug could detect her fear.
Tsunade's shoes clicked menacingly, echoing along the hallway before she even rounded the corner.
"Hyuuga!" she bellowed, not caring that she was probably awaking every prisoner on the hall. They weren't paying for privacy or turn-down service, and certainly not a good night's sleep. This was a prison, damnit, not a hotel.
"Yes, ma'am" Neji replied from the darkness in front of the two unknown ninja's room.
"You're coming with me!" Tsunade growled, grabbing his bicep gruffly. She was already turning on her heel as dragged the Hyuuga forward.
Neji complied, casting one last glance at the secure doors before falling in step behind the dangerous woman. "What's going on?" he asked darkly. The woman was sober, but this state of agitation usually implied that there was trouble with her precious apprentice.
"Sakura summoned a slug on a mission" the Hokage hissed, continuing to drag Neji through the dark halls.
Using his "mission voice", Neji probed further. "What mission?" he asked. Sakura would never abuse her summons, so he recognized the situation as a grave one.
"Intruder surveillance. Akatsuki involved" Tsunade monotoned.
Neji stopped moving his feet. "It was not that highly ranked" he hissed. He'd talked to his pink-haired friend while she pulled her ANBU mask on in her apartment just hours ago, and she'd mentioned a C rank mission, not one that was nearly unclassifiable.
"I told Sakura to lie to you. You wouldn't have let her go without you there to help the team" Tsunade reigned the volumed of her voice with difficulty. Frustration and guilt flooded words.
"No. I. Wouldn't. Have." Neji forced out of his clenched teeth. Every word was accompanied by a thud of his sandals against the polished wood floor.
"I know! So let's go already!" Tsunade bellowed, finally fed up with the Hyuuga's time-consuming agitation. She grabbed his arm again, but he ripped it out of her hand and ran past her towards the door to the complex. "Where?" he yelled over his shoulder.
"We're going west!" Tsunade yelled back, performing the seals that would open the door before the obstinate Hyuuga burst through it.
With a growl and a rough toss of his long, chocolate-colored hair, Neji was off.
"Well," Sasuke grunted, "That was interesting". He was referring to the recent bout of shouting that had echoed through their pitch-black cell.
Itachi nodded at the floor. "Our guard is gone" he whispered. His eyes raised slowly, sadly.
"I don't know about you, but I can't even move my legs very well" Sasuke huffed grudgingly. Inside, he was hissing curses at fate.
Itachi was smouldering, but he managed to make his voice soft and regretful; "I can barely keep myself conscious" he exaggerated. He wanted his companion to imagine him as weaker than he really was, so he didn't admit that he was in half-way decent condition. However, it was true that even the older Uchiha didn't have much chance of escaping the village so soon after having his chakra drained completely.
Without openly admitting it, both men had agreed that they were in no condition to take advantage of Neji's absence.
Though they hid it deep in the folds of their consciousness, both men exhaled the patented Uchiha sigh. Anyone in Konoha would have recognized it as it passed through their lips, but because the twin exhalations were merely subconscious, neither of the Uchihas heard the tell-tale sign of the other's lineage.
Kakashi sat on the roof of the Hokage's tower. One knee was pulled up to his chest and the other dangled freely over the moonlit streets of Konoha. Naturally, an orange book sat in his gloved hand.
But how was he reading in the dark?
Kabuto knew that he wasn't. No, the copy ninja was holding a multitude of shuriken and kunai within those pages as he always did, merely using the book as a cover. Really, it was ridiculous that people didn't see how the man used his trademark literature as a front for his vigilant paranoia.
The snake sannin's medic watched Kakashi's back for a moment before materializing behind the motionless jounin.
"Reading in the dark, Hatake-san?" he asked mockingly, before he was gripped by the shin and dragged down with a feral growl from behind the famous black mask.
"Yes" was Kakashi's acerbic reply.
Kabuto was about to nonchalantly reply when he noticed something rather important.
Kakashi's other distinctive trait was glaring at his with eerie crimson light. The copy ninja HAD been able to read in the darkness.
"Handy, no?" Kakashi asked tonelessly, yanking Kabuto off the building and dangling him by the ankle. The traitor medic assumed the copy ninja was referring to the exposed sharringan eye that was currently staring him down.
"So Sasuke says" Kabuto replied, grinning even as he hung upside down dozens of yards above the street. His lack of concern told Kakashi that he was actually holding another one of Kabuto's reanimated corpses. Though the thought made him want to gag in disgust, he held on to the dangling body.
"I don't think you have a right to talk about him, traitor" Kakashi growled.
"But, he's a traitor just like me, Kakashi-san. We're EQUALS." Kabuto reminded him politely.
Kakashi felt bile rise in his throat, but realized that he had nothing to say to that comment. The moment of silence was filled with the sensation of a kunai being twirled through a father's heart. Kakashi had, after all, been like a second father to the young man who left years earlier.
"So…seen him lately?" Kabuto asked. In any other situation, he would have taken advantage of the pain in the creases around the copy-ninja's eyes, but he was walking on thin ice at the moment.
He'd already determined that Uchiha Sasuke was not among his old friends…at least not to friends' knowledge. Medical records of captured ninja revealed that of the recent captures, only two occurred in a manner befitting Orochimaru's slave-boy…the rest were captured too easily. One even got a kunai to the head from one foot away.
The Konoha ninja weren't hiding him in their interrogation cells; Kabuto had already infiltrated and searched those. And, Sasuke wasn't just taking a vacation in his old village; Kabuto would have been able to find him through his chakra signature…or so he thought.
He'd even gone to the Uchiha compound, where he found a withered rose deliberately placed in the center of a locked room. He thought that Sasuke must have put it there.
All in all, Kabuto hadn't done a very good job on this mission.
Now, he was wasting time by chatting with the renowned jounin, grasping at straws. To his dismay, Hatake Kakashi would not be giving any information away if Sasuke's presence had been felt in Konoha. Kakashi demonstrated this by letting his long fingers loosen around the suddenly cold flesh underneath the purple fabric.
The hard resolve in the silver-haired ninja's eyes dimmed as he realized that he was holding a corpse instead of an intruder. Apparently, Kabuto was close enough to withdraw his control over the body before it was released to the ground with his chakra still bound to it.
With a cold sigh, Kakashi summoned his dogs in the moonlight. A light breeze made his summoning scroll flap in the breeze and carried the scent of his blood into the crisp night sky. Had Kisame been a few more yards above sea-level, he would have been able to catch a whiff of the copy-ninja's lifeblood, but as it were, the shark man was down on the ground trying to pull a senbon out of his shoulder and reach for the Samehada at the same time.
The swordsman cursed under his labored breath. He knew Deidara was already unconscious, slung over the weapons mistress's shoulder with surprising ease. She and the slug could be heard combing the trees for their fallen tactician. Every few seconds, Kisame could see their girl's form blur to a new branch with Deidara's legs bouncing against her lower back.
"No partner, no sword…you are in a rather precarious situation, Hoshigake-san" Sakura drawled. Her voice was the carefully practiced voice of her former sensei. She emulated his tone, hoping that it would have the same effect on her appearance as it did on his. Sakura was slightly more confident now that TenTen had taken out Deidara before the slug could even get to her, but she was still nervous.
"No partners, no slug…so are you, pinky" Kisame responded with a dark chuckle. He batted a barrage of kunai away before they hammered into his chest. He raised an eyebrow at the girl's audacity. Did she just attack him while he was on the ground?
He shrugged. The attack made sense; Kisame was still a threat, especially now that he had palmed the Samehada. Smart girl, not sticking to the shinobi code in order to preserve her life. "So, Naruto's not here, huh?" he asked, dodging another non-lethal weapon with speed that should not have been possible for someone who had just jack-knifed his torso off the ground.
Sakura didn't answer. Instead, she combed the area for a hint of Kisame's partner for the thousandth time. No, Itachi wasn't around. Sakura was well known for her ability to pick up on even the most well-hidden chakra…a side effect of searching for the last vestiges of life in dying patients' bodies.
Itachi's absence explained why Kisame was so reluctant to engage in full-on battle. After all, Sakura wouldn't want to start something without her teammates. The kunoichi didn't have time to ponder the matter further, though.
Within a second, Kisame was off the ground again, pressing Sakura's throat a tree with piece of the Samehada he had wrapped thickly just for this purpose. His golden eyes were even more distracting than hid gills as Sakura pulled chakra into her fists.
"Nnnnnnnnnno" Kisame smirked, grabbing her hand and pushing it against the tree. He eyed the other fist warily, then used his knee to ram it against the tree trunk. The satisfying crunch of bones make his smirk flicker a little wider for a moment.
Sakura's eyes glazed over in pain. She doubted she could cry—even if she wanted to—after all the ANBU training she'd been given, but the agony pulsing in her left hand made spots dart around her eyes.
"Answer, Pinky. No Magnekyuo, but I promise I can make things painful" Kisame said, seemingly unaffected by Sakura's condition.
He had hoped that this girl, the apprentice to the Hokage and one of the village's elite ninja, would show some sign of recognition at the mention of the Uchiha, but she didn't. Plus, by the way the girl kept probing for his partner with bursts of chakra, Kisame guessed that Sakura had no idea where Itachi was. His grip slackened just the slightest bit.
It was all Sakura needed to free her uninjured hand and ram it into the shark-man's abdomen, sending him back almost twenty feet. The thud and rumble of his harsh landing was accompanied by a crackling explosion somewhere above Sakura's head. The rosette paled. Deidara was awake.
As if in response to this revelation, the blonde haired man leapt out the trees gracefully and landed in a crouch next to Kisame.
"The other one says the bastard isn't here, yeah" he whined. "Let's kill them and get this over with". Clay was already churning in his palms.
Before Sakura could process what he'd said, Kisame interjected as he stood up. He glanced at Sakura coolly while grumbling, "No. Later.".
He raised an eyebrow at Deidara's incredulous stare. "What? I want to kill them, too, okay? It's just that now isn't the best time"
"Sure, Itachi" Deidara mocked, letting his fists fall to his sides in a defeatist posture.
Kisame was sure that Deidara handn't meant that as a complement, but he wasn't offended. Instead, he just knocked the blonde over the head for friendliness's sake and nodded at Sakura. "Knock her out" he ordered, but he was too late.
Sakura was flying into the woods, searching for her teammates—both of whose chakra signatures were weak and erratic.
Tsunade's eyes widened with every new fracture she found in Sakura's hand.
"Bastard" she whispered under her breath, thinking of a certain swordsman being roasted over a cooking fire with a nice array of salmon and trout.
"Yeah" Sakura sighed without enthusiasm. "I shouldn't have summoned the slug. I didn't really have a plan with what to do with her once she got there and the bloodless summon drained more chakra than I could spare".
"Well, at least it got me there" Tsunade grumbled. She tried not to let her anger show while she worked on patients, but Team 4 had been SO DAMN FOOLISH. The Nara kid would get a piece of her mind…and fist…when he woke up. Sakura would get her punishment now.
"Sakura, what the hell were you thinking? What on earth was going through your head?" Tsunade hissed, amber eyes narrowed in rage and disappointment. "I thought it was all my fault, and then you tell me that you and Nara planned and AMBUSH of two Akatsuki!"
Sakura hissed back. "It wasn't like that! They were sleeping! We stumbled onto their camp, which wasn't even concealed with genjutsu! We had no choice but to attack them once the blonde one woke up and saw us"
"You could have run!" Tsunade shouted, making Neji grimace from his place on the outside of the door to the room.
"Sure! Kisame Hoshigake would never have caught us with his insane speed and strength! Oops! That's exactly what we should have done!" Sakura retorted. Her jaws ached for some reason. Had she been gritting her teeth?
Tsunade had nothing to say. She simply turned her head sharply towards the window in the room, where a glowing orange ball could be seen hovering above the dark trees. The sky was pastel pink and purple. It was beautiful. "You will take over the position of head-medic at the prison. Effective immediately. Tasogare Rin will take over your position at the hospital and Ino will take your position on team 4" the robust woman sighed. Her solemn tone warned Sakura that she couldn't argue, couldn't bargain, and would have to accept that her duties began immediately.
They hadn't even heard the door open.
"Uchiha Itachi is AWOL from the Akatsuki" TenTen whispered, fearful of breaking the silence threaded through the empty room. Neji had put his hand on her shoulder as she passed him, warning her not to intrude on the Hogake and her apprentice. TenTen shook her head. "This is important" she'd muttered.
Tsunade, glancing at TenTen briefly, responded, "Thank you. Sakura suspected as much. I'll need a report from you as soon as you look well enough to hold a pen. Speaking of you condition, though, TenTen…GET YOUR ASS BACK TO YOUR ROOM!". Tsunade's voice finished with a roar.
The weapons mistress bowed curtly and backed up towards the cracked door.
Kakashi heard the Rokudaime dismiss TenTen and leapt off his perch on the roof. "Sasuke has left Orochimaru" he sighed, slipping in through the window Tsunade had been glaring at. Kakashi stopped moving as he realized that Sakura was in the room as well. Oops.
"Want my bread?" Sasuke asked.
"Sure. Thank you. You may have my apple if you want it" Itachi replied, scrunitizing the small green fruit that had rolled into the room through a small door after the bread and bottles of water were inserted.
"Yo, Sakura" Kakashi sighed, "When did you start masking your chakra even in the village?".
"Since Neji suggested it" Sakura replied blandly. Did Kaka-sensei think she still suffered from her infatuation with her old teammate? It appeared that he did, rubbing his neck awkwardly, watching Sakura for some response to the name "Sasuke".
"Oh" was Kakashi's simple reply. He glanced at Tsunade, who was giving him an amused smile, daring him to mention her apprentice's dead obsession.
"Go see Neji so that he stops pacing, Sakura" Tsunade chuckled.
Sakura gladly complied, nearly skipping out of the room. Neji opened the door for her before she could reach for the handle. His pale hand shot inside the room, grabbing Sakura's extended arm and dragged her outside.
"You scared me" Neji said with an even glare. His white eyes didn't reflect the bright fluorescent light.
To his shock, he found himself breathing in the scent of Sakura's shampoo, pink locks—now slightly frizzy—tickling his nose, and lanky, strong arms pulling him towards her. Of course, Sakura couldn't budge him, but the hug brought her more firmly into Neji's chest.
"I scared you?" Sakura asked. Neji stiffened at the feeling of her lips moving against his chest.
"Tsunade-sama was correct when she said that attacking them was stupid. You should have called for backup" he replied.
Sakura gave him an inquisitive smirk that he couldn't see because her face was still pressed into the black shirt he'd worn beneath the ANBU vest from last night. She ignored his response, though.
"Thank you for caring" she said, pulling away from him. She smiled as she walked down the hall, and laughed when she realized Neji was jogging to catch up with her.
Neji scowled when Sakura broke into a run, but leapt out the window to intercept her as she flew out the doors of the hospital. He knew why she was playing with him, acting so affectionate…she was either saying that the progress he'd made wouldn't be lost because Sasuske wasn't tangled up with the snake anymore, or she was saying goodbye in the sweetest way she knew how to.
"So…what can we do in this concrete box, anyway?" Sasuke asked, glancing at the older male who was recumbent on the floor across from him. He ran his hands through the spiky yellow mop on his head and stretched. The motion made him feel weak and dizzy.
Itachi's amber eyes flickered for a moment, noticing the other's discomfort. The older Uchiha couldn't understand how they had managed to get poison into the bread which he had so thoroughly checked. The sedatives in the fine layer of mist on the apple had been detectable, but….
Itachi felt a wave of fatigue pull at his eyelids. Apparently, the bread was more heavily drugged than the fruit, meant only to be consumed with the lighter portion of drugs on the apple. He'd unwittingly consumed a double portion of the more potent stuff and left two doses (plus whatever was in the water) of the lighter sedative to the younger shinobi.
He regulated his breathing to keep from passing out, but apparently it wasn't a strong enough effort. Sasuke looked at the unconscious older ninja, and narrowed his eyes. He should check him for identification or anything useful…but he somehow felt that it was better to leave the man his privacy. If Itachi's false character had done anything, it had managed to make Sasuke respect him…even if it was respect for the acting instead of respect for the character.
The now-blonde walked over to the door and began pounding. "Hey! We need a medic! No joke!".
Holy crud. I just wrote 12 pages. That's a bit more than my usual 5. I guess I missed writing. I'm sorry if my endurance limits me to shorter chapters and this one sucks. I promise this won't become too Sakura-centric…and sorry about the fluffiness between her and Neji. Actually, maybe I'll go back and post this as two chapters.
Lots more of the Uchiha brothers in the next chapter, I promise! I need them to have a reason to interact.
PLEASE TELL ME IF THIS IS GETTING BORING AND I NEED TO MIX THINGS UP. GRACIAS!