Suddenly alert, she glanced around through slanted eyes, watching as smaller explosions exploded all over Konoha, and fire blazed forth from them.
Turning her glare to the dusty street around her, she spotted random grouping of people, huddled together, screams and whimpers all that escaped from them, as they resounded to panic.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! RUN, ESCAPE, HEAD TO THE FRIKING MOUTAIN" She screamed at the top of her voice, anger and concern pertaining it all in one go.
The huddles of people, looked up at her, as their cries faded and hope filled their eyes, as they remembered the shinobi of their village, the plans of escape and the areas of safety.
Very soon people started up and began running away, heading to where she had told them, leaving hope in that pink hair shinobi's hands.
After Sakura had picked a young girl up and off-loaded her onto an escaping couple, she headed through the streets, in the direction everyone was running away from, towards the greater sources of fire.
After flooding streets and flying through alleys, she eventually switched to running across the roofs of the now empty houses, ensuring a faster route.
Once she spotted a source of fire, she swiftly eliminated it, using a water jutsu, in a blazingly fast manner. Soon realising the start of these fires were all due to explosive tags attached to kunai, spread about all across the village.
After dousing a more than a dozen different sets of fires, she was soon confronted with the cause of all this havoc.
Anger and resentment, stronger than any other emotion or power in her at that moment coursed through her as she took down one blonde, red and black clock.
Having fought a man belonging to one of the strongest and most dangerous group of people in the shinobi world, she sustained few injuries, especially considering the blonde bastard she fought with like to play with fire, and explosives for that matter.
A few ribs were broken, and she had a few gashes along her legs and arms, there was also a single cut across her left cheek that left blood trailing down her face. Still, she smiled or more like grinned, wide, clear and cruel through the blood as she headed back across the roofs, flitting swiftly away from the blonde corpse.
Standing atop the spire of one very tall building, the wind blowing her fire scathed clothing as it danced in the breeze, the cold air spiked with fiery sparks bit at her, as she looked around at the scene's unfolding beneath her in her beloved village.
Before the wind blew in a different direction, causing her long pink hair, now falling from its bun, to obstruct her vision, she closely observed her surroundings, watching as the black and red clocks flew about everywhere, being pushing to corners or pushing corners, creating masses of destruction in their every wake.
"Akatsuki" She hissed.
One lone cloak caught her attention. It had sprung out of a pall of fire, trailing rivulets of bright red and yellows as it jumped up, landing on one of the roofs far away from her.
And for a while, it just stood there.
Waiting.
Finally Sakura understood, it was waiting for her, expecting her. It wanted her to come to it. It wanted to fight her.
It wanted to kill her.
Cocking her head back, her voice echoed through the fiery night, high-pitched waves disappearing with the wind.
"Bring it" The sound low and dark as she laughed, ripping through the night as the cloak ripped fast through the stagnant misty air towards her.
Heading in herself, she stopped a foot away, noting 'it' to be a 'him'.
Her hands gloved within the instant she came across, slid up from her side, to rest on the handles of her katana. Slowly pulling them out, her eyes narrowing at her opponent, as she let her Chakara drown her in its deep blue electricity.
Then she realised.
It was him.
The two long blades, slid back into place as she let go of them.
Her eye brows raised, as she tilted her head to the side, eying her very dangerous opponent.
"Uchiha Itachi"
"Sakura Haruno"
She laughed, low and short, as she let his dark voice penetrate her, remembering their first encounter to be very similar.
"Why did you let go of your katana? Did you think I wouldn't hurt you" The voice began somewhere across from her but finished as she felt it at her ear.
Dark strands feel across her, as his mouth lay at her ear once again, and one kunai lay at her neck.
"Bullshit"
"Hmm" he dragged out, his tone just barely mocking.
"Different things, for different people"
As she said those last words, she twisted her neck to the side, leaving a slight gap between the blade and her jugular, then threw a hand bared with chakara towards the side of his head. Because she knew, if she took out her blades on him in that first move, it would be just that much easier for him to trap her in those dreaded eyes.
Mere millimetres away from his skull, one free hand came up to stop her, blocking her half away, right before he disappeared into a dark, cloud of black feathers, that scattered away with the wind as she watched them float flutter before vanishing completely, only to reappear again a few feet away from her, and reform the figure of her deadly opponent.
Smirking through the nick at her neck that now trailed rivets of blood, his dark countenance returned the same smirk as he felt the bruise on his arm begin to take place.
And so it began. They went at each other, like only true killers would, seeking nothing short of blood, nothing less than death. Doing the very thing they were trained to do, the very thing they were best at and the very thing they enjoyed the most, drawing blood.
They hacked, slashed, marred and scared each other, Sakura had sustained lacerations to her abdomen, arms , legs, chest and one large across her face, added to that a few more ribs and a few fractures. Any normal human, would be incapacitated with such injuries or at the very least unable to move, however she was a ninja, and such trivial things would never bring her down.
Being his opponent, Sakura couldn't tell the extent of Itachi's injuries, however she could tell those blows which did do damage. She secured one blow to the chest, resulting in few broken ribs and causing a slight gash some place across his torso, there were also bruises to his hands, arms and legs, from blocking her blows, lastly one cut above his left eye bled out, almost obstructing his vision, being less than what she hoped for.
Soon they bounced away from each other, both now standing on opposing buildings, as they calmed their muscles and steadied their breathing.
More than just to her body, Sakura had sustained otherwise damage. For one her treasured cheongsam was in tatters, the trailing end parts were now billowing in the fiery breeze, having been ripped and torn and chunks taken out- the fire had licked at it, and the fights had clawed at it, leaving it a beautiful mess. The black cardigan she previously wore was reduced to a mere, nothing. It remained small strands of black material here and there, yet the main frame of it was long gone, revealing the newly engraved tattoos on her shoulders, where skin wasn't torn, the butterflies danced.
Apart from the outfit she wore, the only other thing that bore holes was her fishnet tights, which she inevitably cursed the world and beyond for deciding to wear, especially since she was fighting this bastard which she couldn't help but not deny the fact that she somewhat wished she hadn't worn tights at all .
Itachi gazed over his pink haired opponent, taking in her tattered clothes, revealing plenty of sweet, pink skin, stained with trails of blood. Noticing the strands of black fabric all that remained from the jacket that previously covered her now revealed, and newly engraved; (compared to the last time he saw) tattoos.
Pink hair falling from her hopeless bun danced with the wind, as his eyes hair travelled along the remnants of the tights that could no longer sufficiently cover the length of her long slender legs; white in the stark moonlight, as they trickled blood from cuts all over. Smirking inwardly at the sight before him, he couldn't help but think; what a beautiful disaster.
Gazing around at the slowly dying fires of her village, she turned to her opponent again, then towards the sky, sighing with the wind.
Reaching into her hip back, she pulled a pack of cigarettes, drawing one to her lips.
"Want" she held the pack out, offering Itachi, a good 8 feet away.
Eyebrows raised, he chuckled ever so briefly, from that same relaxed position of his, with that same aloof expression.
"No thanks"
"Your loss" she shrugged as a side note, not bothering with pretences, as she began exploring the small expanse of her pockets and packs for a lighter, the cigarette dangling from her lips.
"What is the occasion?"
"Hmm" Sakura looked up from her pockets to look at him inquisitively.
One hand rose from his side, and one finger rose to point at her, gesturing with it up and down along her outfit.
"Oh, um, well isn't it obvious" She replied simply, pointing to the now burning hokage tower.
"Really just for that" he said betraying no sigh of interest what so ever, without even sparing a glance towards the tower.
"Of course"
"Or perhaps it's your birthday?"
"Now look whose the stalker" she replied mockingly, feigning mock shock. "I see those eyes are useful for something else, oh I don't know, say prying" no emotion entered her voice, whether or not he knew she truly didn't care, she wasn't purposely trying to keep it a secret after all, either way at the end of their fight one of them was going to have to die, so it didn't matter in the least.
Sighing, at the little epiphany, that its death either away, pretty much kill or be killed, she told him things that didn't really matter yet made her feel so much better for getting it out there.
"Look its Naruto's day, not mine, and if he knew it would kill him, he would go out of his way to do something, that I don't really need, I mean who needs a party at 20, 20 is the age were you get old, where all the parties end, were you've got to get serious, grow up."
"But you have been serious a lot longer than that though, haven't you."
Slight shock was evident on her face.
Throwing her head back, looking up towards the stars, she racked a hand through her long, tangled, pink hair. Without thinking about it, she already knew her answer.
"Does it matter? Does it really matter? I mean, we have all go to grow up some day, perhaps some earlier than others, but if that 'some' doesn't then who will? Who will lead the way for others to follow and take off on ahead of them?" Inhaling the deep smoky air, she tilted her head back down again to face Itachi once more. "Don't act like that wasn't you once either"
The barest hint of a smile blessed Itachi's lips, and for once in Sakura's life, in those few seconds she witnessed such a thing, she felt it wasn't mocking.
Another explosion interrupted their little moment, blasting hot air and flickers of fire and smoke their way. The look of disbelief stayed on Sakura's face from Itachi's smile throughout the explosion. The sudden mass of explosion did not shock her, it was strange how she had become so accustomed to such a thing, yet after all she had been through she still wasn't accustomed to the smile on a killers face. However the same applied to her, just as she had a hard to getting used to the image of her smiling self in her bedroom mirror.
It was then she realised that she really didn't care, she didn't care whether Itachi died or she died, for once she wanted to relish in the intoxicated feeling of death and the ecstasy of self-destruction, she figured she was damned to hell either way, so what did it matter how she got there or how soon it happened.
Because to both of them, it didn't matter anymore.
Adrenalin shot through her, as she drew her cigarette closer in her mouth with her tongue, and plunged chakra through her hands and feet, all the while, getting into her stance, crouching like a tiger ready to pounce.
That same cruel smile, which did not belong on a bloody angel's face, spread across her lips once more.
"Bring it Itachi, its kill or be killed" She shouted across the distance, her sweet voice, full of a malicious undertone echoing through the dusty air.
"Does life hold that little of significance to you anymore" he questioned, still in that same empty, stoic tone, that only a person like Itachi could keep through such a stimulating exchange.
Upon her lips, the cruelty that lay there broke into a once sweet Sakura smile, as she tilted her head in reply, her position softening with her words.
"It takes a killer to understand a killer, ne Itachi"
And for once, since the time he met her, after hearing her words, he felt he was finally able to understand even just a bit of her.
"Need a light" Changing the subject as there was nothing more to say on it, Itachi's voice began somewhere across from her, and ended in her ear.
Two lean fingers clicked in front of her face and a small flame appeared in between them. It light Sakura's cigarette, as it slowly burned away, the flame between the two fingers spread across his palm, as it moved to lay dangerously close to her neck, close enough for the blood from Itachi's previous slice at her life, to bubble and burn slowly to a crisp.
One other strong hand lay wrapped around the side of her tiny waist, and the moment she felt it there, she knew it wasn't there for decoration, it was there, in the exact spot which only a person wielding a technique such as the sharingan could see, or which a person fully versed in the working of the human body would know of.
If needs called for it, his hand was in a spot where a single shot of precise chakra, could blast through and pierce one of the most important area's on her spine which held her up, meaning paralysis, or worse- death.
However this is what Sakura had prematurely prepared for, this was the moment, she had let go of her swords for. Her hands, which had moved to behind her back, in the moments he appeared before her, now drew the two long blades, which had accompanied her to almost every battle in the last 2 years. Using one of the moves and skills she was most proud of, she whipped the blades out in one blindingly fast movement, and brought them to a stop, one arm under the hand that was across Sakura's neck, laced through Itachi's silky hair to rest on his neck. The other pierced through the thick fabric of his cloak to rest across the side of his lower abdomen.
Despite getting her blades into threatening places just like the disposition Itachi held her in, the blades only resided there, she did not yet draw blood, because in that one blinding movement, all power was lost to the speed of drawing the swords, enough to evade even the eyes of an Uchiha, and therefore no power was left for the kill-the one downside to her prideful skill.
With Itachi's hand on her jugular, and the other threatening her spine, and Sakura's blades on his neck and stomach, they were both in a very dangerous position, either way, one or both had to die, in other words- deadlock.
Nevertheless Sakura wasn't yet disheartened as she had only just managed to get into her position ,even with Itachi's, never in hell would she give up just yet.
"Now see, if I had used these earlier and you were to previously counter it before this moment, I wonder which kind of position we would be in? Hmm, a very bad position for me now wouldn't that be Itachi?" She mocked the arrogant smile of her own predetermined win with her lips.
"And this is any better" he replied with one smile, same as Sakura's but all the more confidence leaked into it.
"Shit" The smile dropped from her lips within seconds and her eyes widen, right before they shut tight, and her body released its over practiced defence mechanism against her greatest enemy, the sharingan.
Chakra threads flooded around Itachi, from the girl he held captive in front of him. She had released them a second after she closed her eyes, avoiding his as they bled deep crimson. He was undoubtedly impressed, by such a practiced attempt to avoid the power and dominance his eyes held.
In the milliseconds Itachi planned to end the fun game he was having, hesitation ended it itself. His hands dropped and went cold, both void of any killer intent, as he watched behind the pink hair in front of him, as unavoidable massacre headed their way.
The katana in Sakura's hands suddenly felt too heavy for her hands to bear, as she felt along her chakara threads what Itachi saw. Her eyes opened wide in response, undiluted shock, pertaining her whole body, as the two cold metal blades, slid from her hands, and clattered against the hard floor.
Without warning both braced themselves as the large gates of Konoha, flew across the village, within the mere seconds it took them to conjure up such shock, it was already half across, gaining such power on momentum, catching the deadly fire, as the burning doors of hell unavoidably headed their way.
And when it happened, all was reflex.
A/N: i feel like im ultimately failing here with my last 2 chapters, the writing is terrible, i cant do a dramatic scene for my life, and it doesnt seem to flow well either =_= Either way, i hope the nxt few chapters will be better or the next in the very least, u see im having a hard time deciding wat to do next, i dont want a typical story line, i have ideads, but we'll see how far that takes me. So in short, if u have ny suggestions as to wat you want to see happen, plz suggest and review XD