A/N:...I just have nothing to say except I'M SO FREAKING SORRY! I have been SO BUSY! You know, two instruments, school, etc...anyways, here's the VERY LONG anticipated chapter :) Thanks to my beta for this chapter, asredwer.
Chapter 4
"Sakura-chaaaaannnnn! Let's go back and eat ramen! I'm hungry…" Kushina whined at Sakura. Minato chuckled off to the side, examining every action that Sakura made.
Laughing, Sakura replied, "Sure. Let's go to Ichiraku!" On their way to the Ichiraku Ramen stand they noticed a boy heading the opposite direction they were walking. He was grasping his wrist lightly, wincing every time it was jostled. His innocent midnight navy eyes looked up at her as they were about to pass each other and she smiled comfortingly.
"Hi there. What happened to your wrist?" Sakura asked.
"I-I was learning taijustu f-from m-my sensei a-a-and I got h-hurt," the little boy sniffled. Looking soothingly at the boy, she healed the boy's wrist. The boy twisted his wrist around experimentally, and finding it to be fine, he smiled and offered a hug to the nice pink-haired girl that helped him. Sakura smiled wistfully and hugged him back. She let go and waved him off. Kushina and Sakura continued to make small talk until they reached the ramen stand.
"Hey there Teuchi-san! One beef ramen for me!" Kushina ordered, slamming her fist down onto the table, smiling.
"Hello there. I would like a miso ramen…that's all, thank you." Sakura politely requested.
"Coming right up ladies. Oh, I don't believe I've seen you before," Teuchi said, referring to Sakura. "And what would your name be?"
"My name is Sakura Haruno, nice to meet you!" She offered a bright smile, though she was secretly annoyed. She had introduced herself too many times today…When he gave their ramen to them, Kushina and Sakura snapped the wooden chopsticks apart, yelling "Itadakimasuuuu!" and excitedly dug into their bowls of ramen.
By the time they had finished, it was nighttime, and they both had to return. Minato had disappeared while they were eating ramen, and for that Sakura was glad. Though he was attractive, he made her nervous. They walked back to the Uchiha Compound together, both of them laughing loudly at a joke that Kushina had spared at her boyfriends expense.
"I swear, Minato reminded me of some weak-assed girl when I first met him in the Academy!" Kushina exclaimed. Sakura laughed, being reminded of Naruto's Sexy Jutsu. When they reached the door, Sakura knocked, still facing Kushina, and walked forward as soon as the door opened, not noting the person standing behind it, and crashed into Minato, again. Sakura blushed, her face on fire. She had already bumped into him once, and she went and did it again! She stammered out an apology, and Minato just smiled, walking around her. Kushina just laughed at Sakura's misfortune, enjoying a loud uproarious laugh.
Kushina, finally getting over her bouts of laughter, managed to choke out, "See you later!" and grasped Minato's hand to leave. Before they left however, Minato glanced at Sakura with an odd gleam in his eye. Sakura just raised her eyebrows, confused as to what that gleam meant, and waved back to Kushina.
Minato inwardly thought of Sakura when Kushina grasped his hand, and thought of her emerald green eyes…before he shook his head. He had a beautiful skilled kunoichi as a girlfriend, who also happened to be his girlfriend for quite a long time…
Minato outwardly spoke to Sakura, saying, "Please meet me at the Training Grounds 3 tomorrow afternoon. I must speak to you about important matters."
"Uhhh okay?" Sakura just agreed, not really knowing why, but getting lost in those bright blue eyes which were a shade lighter than Naruto's.
Sakura walked inside the Uchiha clan main house as they left. Sighing, she carried her purchases up the stairs, when she heard someone laughing. It was a male voice, coming from Itachi's room. She highly doubted it was Itachi or his father. Dropping of her purchases, she knocked on his door, expecting Itachi. What she was not expecting was a tall boy around her age, with unruly black hair, still chuckling.
"Oh-ho there! Would you happen to be Sakura Haruno?" the boy smiled, completely the opposite of Itachi, warm and inviting.
"Yep, that's me. Who might you be?" Sakura retorted playfully.
"My name's Shisui Uchiha, Ita-chan's cousin!" Shisui winked and laughed. Sakura laughed, noting that Itachi was being called Ita-chan and Itachi was frowning.
"Nice to meet you. I want to speak to Itachi…alone please." Sakura said seriously. At that, Shisui exaggeratedly winked at Itachi, who frowned.
"Hai?" Itachi said.
"It's about the training tomorrow. What time would you like to train?" Sakura asked. Itachi thought for a moment, before replying.
"I believe that 6 in the morning would be acceptable." Itachi slowly replied. Sakura nodded then walked back down the hallway into her own room. Sakura sighed, sitting on her bed. She thought for a moment, having a moment when she was alone. She wondered about many things. Why did Itachi choose her, out of all the other people he could have chosen, to be his sensei? How was her team? What happened to Itachi after the jutsu? Why did Fugaku still want to train Itachi? Was everyone suspicious about her? Sakura's head started to ache, so she decided to take a little nap until Mikoto fetched her for dinner.
Back in the Present Time
"Where's Sakura?" the Fifth Hokage asked. When she got no response, she asked more forcefully this time.
"Where. Is. Sakura?" she spat at the group of men. She glanced at their faces, finding them completely serious as well as worn and tired.
"Baa-chan…." Naruto trailed off, unable to complete his sentence.
"…we can't find her." Sasuke bravely finished. Tsunade looked astonished, before fixing her expression.
"Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto…meet me in my office in 2 hours. Exactly 2 hours." Tsunade said gravely, looking pointedly at Kakashi. She turned around, ordering medics to come to bring a stretcher. She activated her Mystic Palm Healing jutsu, and started to heal Itachi. As soon as the stretcher came, she gingerly put Itachi onto it, and told them to rush him to the Intensive Care Unit.
Team 7 minus Sakura walked to Ichiraku Ramen, and decided to eat a little to get themselves busy for 2 hours, while Kakashi escaped, most likely to the memorial.
Sasuke and Naruto sat on the stools at Ichiraku silently, a huge feat for the blonde. But they had nothing to say. They failed to protect their teammate; their best friend; their family. How could anyone say anything in their situation?
When they finished eating, which consisted of moving their food around, Teuchi, the ramen stand owner, said, "Boys, where's Sakura? Is she on a mission?" Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other, and then looked away. Sasuke replied "Something like that." Both boys did not want to admit that they had lost Sakura, no matter how temporary that would be. They paid, sullenly making their way to the Hokage tower. They were an hour early, but they didn't have anything else to do anyway.
When they got there, they were surprised to see that Kakashi was already there, staring at his beloved Icha Icha Paradise book…upside down. When Kakashi's book was upside down, everyone knew that he wasn't even reading…and that shit was going to hit the fan. Kakashi smiled, though it looked as fake as anything. His lone onyx eye gazed at the book, his mind far away.
"Hey…teme…." Naruto trailed off.
"I know dobe. Kakashi's early." Sasuke finished lamely. Sasuke sighed then knocked on the door, since they were already there early.
"Enter," came Tsunade's flat voice. As they walked in, they notice the stronger-than-usual stench of sake and the numerous empty bottles littering the entire office. Some were stacked up into pyramids, others were broken into shards. …Sasuke, Kakashi, and Naruto shifted around, feeling uncomfortable.
After an empty silence, Tsunade said, "Well, Itachi is fine now. It seems he was actually sick. Though there was no record of it…" Tsunade took another swig, gulping the entire bottle before tossing it to the corner of the office.
"…I would have thought that someone would have caught it, but apparently not. And, we'll be able to heal Itachi up to health, though he'll probably still be debilitated by that damn Sharingan." Tsunade sighed.
The boys just sat dumbfounded, staring at her dumbly. "Well then, tell me how you lost Sakura, and give me every detail." Her eyes hardened.
"Well, uh we were just on our mission, and we were passing through the Forest of Death for fun, and then he just came out of nowhere!" Naruto exclaimed.
Saskue continued, "And then there was a genjutsu, a very strong one that even I took a while to get out of. That was when I knew it was Itachi. He apparently took Sakura into tsukiyomi…" he trailed off.
Tsunade sighed. She knew what happened next. But why was there no sharingan with Itachi? She questioned them and they had no idea.
"Shizune! SAKE RIGHT HERE!" Tsunade called. Shizune quickly brought her a cup, which she ignored in favor of chugging the whole bottle. 'What do I do now? I know that Itachi's innocent…' she thought.
A/N: What do you guys think of this chapter? I know it seems a little rushed in spots, but this is what I get for writing like 4 sentences every other week haha! just kidding...but seriously. Please PM or review for any complaints! and compliments :)