In Joy and Sorrow

A/N: It sucks guys; my thumb got broken in volleyball so it's taking me a little longer than usual to update my story. I have a stupid brace that enables me to type my fastest. My friends who have read my drafts want to kill the person that broke it because it's hard for me to type. Anyway, I loved all of your reviews of the last chapter! Keep them coming!!!

-Love KLW14

WARNING: Death in this chapter. (Don't hate me) .

Sakura woke with a start the next day. She tried to turn but realized that she was wrapped in Itachi's arms. She liked this feeling, it was warm and she felt safe with him. His arms were wrapped around her waist in a protective and almost possessive manner.

"Good morning Sakura,"

She jumped slightly at the sound of his voice fanning across her ear. She turned in his embrace to find that his eyes had turned a comforting onyx black. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Hey Itachi, you in there?" Kisame called. "Deidara's spazing because he can't find the konouchi,"

"I'll be right there," he replied evenly.

He got up and pulled on his boxers, pants and his fishnet shirt. He was just about to grab his Akatsuki cloak and leave the room when he felt a hand lightly grab his wrist. He looked down to see Sakura, shyly holding onto his wrist. He could have easily broken her hold but he was curious of what she would do next.

"Don't leave," she whispered.

Itachi sighed and closed his eyes to concentrate. When he opened them they were a fiery crimson. Never a good sign when it came to Itachi. He glanced down at Sakura.

"You have to forget everything that happened last night Sakura," he said. He took a hold of her hand and removed it from his wrist. And with that, Itachi left a bewildered Sakura alone in his room.

Sakura's heart broke the moment the door clicked shut. The first thing that came to her mind was betrayal. The next was stupidity. How could she have been so blind to believe that Itachi would actually fall for a girl like her? After that came the anger. A large wave of it rolled over Sakura's head. But she stopped and pushed the feeling aside. How could she ever hate the man she loved? The last was hard to explain, but it was joy and sorrow all at once. She felt the joy of loving someone and having the feeling of being loved in return. And sorrow, now that she knew his feelings were all just a lie, she wanted to run. She wanted to run back to Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi back in Konoha, even just to see Ino again.

She got out of the bed and quickly got dressed. She pulled on her Akatsuki robe and packed all of her medical supplies up in her pack. She was about to walk out of the room when Deidara came bursting to the through the door, knocking Sakura down. She looked up at him in shock.

"Come on Sakura… yeah," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Kisame and Sasori found 15 ANBU squad members on patrol, they spotted Tobi and started chasing him back here, we gotta go. They're from leaf," he added.

"Really?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"Let's go Deidara! You're wasting time! Get the konouchi and go!" Kisame yelled from down the hall.

"Come on Sakura," he sighed, grabbing her arm lightly as they ran toward the door. Sakura was so rushed by Deidara that she didn't even notice that her medical kit had landed on the floor.

As they approached the doorway they noticed that Itachi was waiting for them.

"Deidara, go on ahead, Kisame and the rest of the Akatsuki members are waiting for you. Don't worry, we'll catch up with you soon," he said coldly, locking gazes with Sakura.

Deidara was nervous for Sakura, seeing her in Itachi's room that morning had given him bad thoughts of Itachi's death and jealousy. He hesitated a glance at Sakura who had now locked her bold gaze with Itachi's cold one. He didn't want to leave but he found himself hesitating toward the door.

"Sure, don't kill her Itachi," he said as he jumped off into the forest.

Sakura trembled as she realized that she was once again alone in a room with Itachi Uchiha.

"Your team is among the 15 ANBU," he said coldly.

"Your point?"

"You'll be standing next to me; you won't go to them,"

"Fine, now may we leave," she spat back, she tried to walk past him and out the door, but he stood in front of her and she ran into his chest.

"Let me go," she sneered. In a flash Itachi was behind her, holding her still, his breath fanned across the shell of her ear.

"You didn't say please,"

"Let me go, please," she whispered. He let her go and before she could blink he was out the door. She followed him out and into the forest. She sped after him at high speed without looking behind her. Soon they came to a large clearing, Sakura gasped at the sight before her while Itachi just smirked to himself. 'So, they started without me,' he thought to himself. Sure enough… the battle had begun.

----------------------------------------------

The first person that she saw was Kakashi. He was fighting alongside two other special jounin. One was Genma who, as always, had a senbon needle hanging from his lips.

She saw a flash of orange and looked to her far right to find Naruto engulfed in a fiery red chakra. He was fighting his heart out, and it was all for her. She suddenly felt a burst of weaker chakra, she turned again to see none other than Ino.

Ino was fighting Sasori. Her teeth were clenched and she had a nasty wound on the right shoulder. Sakura could feel her eyes swell with tears. She never thought that Ino of all people would fight for her. They were rivals after all. There were other jounin as well; along with 4 special jounin including, Kakashi, Genma, Gai, Iruka, and Asuma. The jounin consisted of Chouji, Hinata, Ino, Kiba, Naruto, Neji, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Shino, and TenTen.

They were all fighting their hardest to save her, even just to see her again. No one let down their guard. Each Akatsuki member was there. Deidara was fighting Chouji, Shino and Hinata with skill and ease. Kisame fought wildly with Naruto, Shikamaru, and Kiba. He was dodging the fang technic while trying to avoid Shikamaru's shadow possession jutsu. Sasori was battling with Ino and Iruka, enough to keep him on his toes. Sasori always did enjoy a challenge.

Kakuzu and Hidan fought side by side. Both had two opponents. Kakuzu on the right with Genma and TenTen; while Hidan was left with Neji and Sasuke.

Asuma and Kakashi decided to take on Zetsu which left Gai to deal with the runt of the Akatsuki litter… Tobi.

Itachi stood on a tree branch overlooking the soon to be bloody mess of a battle field. He glanced down to see Sakura.

Her whole body was trembling. Her eyes were wide with shock and horror. She had obviously never seen a battle to this degree of intensity. He looked back at the battle and exhaled calmly. Someone would surely die here.

The sun was shining down on them signaling high noon. A glare swept across Genma's kantana. A bright light flashed into his eyes. He groaned in pain as he dropped the sword.

That's when it all fell apart.

Deidara had broken away from Chouji, Shino, and Hinata and now held the sword firmly in his hands.

He wanted bloodshed; they deserved it, picking fights with Akatsuki. He ran at the first person he saw… Sasuke.

Sakura yelped and tried to run from the branch but Itachi had her firmly by the shoulders. She wasn't going anywhere.

She looked down at Deidara and whimpered when she saw murder and blood lust flaring in his visible eye. Sasuke's back was facing Deidara. Sakura struggled desperately to break free of his grip but Itachi wouldn't let her. She finally found her voice and started screaming.

"STOP!!!! Deidara please STOP!!!"

Everyone turned to see who had screamed. Sasuke's eyes met Sakura's tear brimmed orbs. Everyone stood still, everyone except Deidara. He raised the sword high above his head and screamed.

"Aaaaaarrrghhhh!!!!"

His sword met flesh and blood flowed freely over his hands. It flew onto his clothes, soaking them in blood. He opened his eyes and met shocked blue orbs. Sasuke stood behind the figure in shock.

Sakura was snapped into reality at the sight. Deidara stood, sword now slowly being pulled out of the stomach of his victim. Her gaze fell on Sasuke who was unharmed and bewildered. Then her eyes moved to the figure between them… Ino.

She had jumped in front of Sasuke just in time. Her abdomen bled and bled leaving and large pool of blood on the forest floor.

Tears brimmed Sakura's eyes. Itachi had let go of her shoulders when he felt her small figure shake violently in his arms.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she cried. She ran toward Ino with her heart and mind racing.

'This isn't happening! Not Ino God please not Ino,' she thought.

Deidara stepped back, Sasuke did the same. Ino fell to the ground in a bloody heap.

"Sakura," Deidara whispered.

"Move!" she cried. She kneeled on the ground, cradling her dying friend in her arms.

Ino's eyes opened and she glanced up at Sakura and smiled.

"I thought you were gone for good billboard brow," she laughed. A line of blood slid down the side of her mouth.

"Gone but not for good pig," she laughed back as a tear slid down her cheek.

"God, you were always weak," Ino sighed.

"I break under pressure, remember? I wasn't even strong enough to get Sasuke," she whispered sadly.

Ino coughed up blood, laughing at Sakura's response. Another tear ran down Sakura's face. Reality suddenly kicked in and Sakura laid Ino gently on the ground.

She placed her hands shakily over Ino's bleeding abdomen. Green chakra started to flow into Ino's body, desperately trying to heal her.

Out of nowhere, a fist came up and punched Sakura. She fell to the ground. She whirled around to see who had hit her… Ino?

Ino collapsed on her back again. Sakura crawled over to her, her clothes and hands now drenched in Ino's blood.

When she reached her friend her eyes became wide and sad. Ino had waves of tears now flowing freely down her pale face.

"Damn it Sakura! Why try and heal me when you and I both know it's too late!?!" she sobbed.

Sakura saw Ino's eyes starting to glaze over. She took Ino's hand in hers and held it. Ino's silver wedding band was spotted with blood.

The clouds had covered the sun and the sky was darkening into a fierce shade of gray.

Sakura could feel cold rain drops falling onto her head. She looked up and noticed that Akatsuki was standing behind her. In front of her, stood leaf village jounin. One that caught her eye was Shikamaru.

She glanced down at Ino, who was now smiling at Sakura.

"I'm glad you'll be the last person I see," she whispered. Both of their eyes swelled with tears.

"Because even though you were my arch rival," she paused. She coughed and more blood spilled from her mouth. She looked directly into Sakura's eyes.

"You were my best friend I could have ever asked for," she sighed. Tears streamed down her face as her eyelids grew heavy.

Rain poured down on them now.

Ino's hand suddenly went limp in Sakura's.

Sakura frantically looked at Ino.

Her face had a look of peace on it.

Sakura had tears violently streaming down her face.

The leaf village jounin went silent. Hinata was crying into Kiba's shoulder. The rest had a look of sadness about them, especially Shikamaru.

"No…," she whispered, shaking her head. " NOOOO!!!" she cried. Sakura couldn't count all of the emotions running through her. But one that clearly identified itself was anger. Sakura could feel waves of it flood over her.

She turned to Deidara. Her eyes blazing with hate and rage.

"YOU! You did this!!!" she cried, throwing herself at him. His eyes widened with shock.

Itachi stood in front of her, blocking her objective to kill the man behind him.

"Bring her back Itachi!" she screamed. Her arms came up and hit his chest. He simply stared down on her with a cold gaze. He grabbed her by the forearm while she continued to hit his chest.

She fell on her knees, bringing him with her.

"Bring her back!!!! Please God bring her back!" she wailed into his chest. Tears pouring down her face.

He couldn't stand her crying. She was covered in blood. Her hair was drenched with freezing rain.

Naruto tried to walk toward Sakura, his face concerned yet slightly angry.

Kisame jumped in front of Itachi and Sakura.

"Back off fox, you won't get your little konouchi back," he spat

Naruto's expression didn't change. He just stood nose to nose with Kisame. They both studied each other for a moment.

Nothing had changed about Kisame, but there were differences in Naruto that could be plainly seen. He had grown a lot taller. From a 4'9 brat to a 6'4 man. Eighteen now, Naruto's personality hadn't changed since he was 12. Although he was more mature.

"Then tell him to keep his hands off of Sakura," he warned.

Kisame chuckled.

"Itachi can do whatever he wants to your precious little Sakura," he laughed.

Itachi stood and helped Sakura to her feet. Her eyes were red and puffy.

Sasuke's heart clenched and his eyes blazed when he saw his brother.

Itachi looked down at Sakura and leaned his head in toward her ear.

"I'm knocking you unconscious konouchi. You've been through a lot today," he hummed. She closed her eyes when she heard his voice.

"Thank you Itachi," she whispered.

She felt his hand lightly trace her jaw line. It found her neck and he gently stroked her pressure point.

"It'll only hurt for a moment," he whispered huskily into the shell of her ear.

He could see Sasuke out of the corner of his eye and smirked. He pressed down onto the point and Sakura's eyes became heavy. Her world became black; the pain of losing Ino was leaving her. She felt herself fall into Itachi's strong arms.

Then… her world went black.

A/N: I'm sorry that I killed Ino. But the story will get happier! I loved this chapter because it was at a length that I like. Please leave comments! I love you all! Next chapter coming soon! I might need a few ideas so, message me!