I'm back bitches! Special thanks to xlazypyscho! (remember, worthwhile review = special thanks in chapters) Also, I recieved about one comment on whether to keep Sora and Kirei. Let me know what you want done to the little OC's.
Also, I'm hoping to find some beta's for some of my stories. Go ahead and read some of my other stories, and if you or know of someone else who wants to, please be my beta. A second opinion is always best for stories. =)
Also note that there has been a time skip between this chapter and the last. Beginning this chapter, it has been approximately:
eight months since Sakura left the village and since she healed the Uchiha brothers;
four months since she's been living with Itachi;
four months since Naruto began his search for Sasuke and Ino began her search for the truth about Sakura;
and only a few weeks since Sasuke began his own search for Sakura. I hope that cleared up the timeline for you! ^_^
It was raining outside the wide hotel window; the rain pounding harsh against the window pane. It fell from the skies in torrents, as if the very heavens were crying...for their tiny beloved village. Kirei stared outside the window, watching the droplets of water slither their way down the window pane, leaving wet little trails in their wake, like a tear-stained face. How much Kirei wanted to be like the sky; to cry her heart out and pour her grief out of her like the rushing of the rain, cleansing her soul. But no matter how hard she tried, the tears would no longer come. She had no more tears, and could only sit back and let the sky cry for her.
"Sora-nii, I'm hungry," she turned away from the window and spoke in her cute child voice to her older brother. How much Kirei wanted to cry, but she knew that she had to stay strong for her brother. She had to stay strong and be happy for what she still had. She had to be strong for her mother, who never cried, even in the face of danger.
Sora glanced up at her with tired and dead eyes. He sat with his back against the wall, with his head back and his eyes fixated on the ceiling before looking over at the little girl. He was tired, oh so tired, but he was all Kirei had left. He had to be strong for her.
"We'll eat soon," he mustered up a smile for her, although a weak one," I'm sure Itachi will be back soon."
"Alright," Kirei nodded meekly and stared back out the window, watching the heavens cry. Behind her, she heard Sora let out a sigh and knew that he was now staring at the person lying in the middle bed. Even without turning around, Kirei knew there were three beds lying upon the floor, each placed so close together, that if they wanted to, it could be turned into one huge bed to accomodate three people. And in the center bed, the reason why the other two were placed so close to it, lied the comatose body of Haruno Sakura.
Kirei did not even have to close her eyes to remember how Sakura looked; she had not changed in three days. Even though she never woke up, she appeared frozen in time. Her delicate face that was once wracked with grief now settled into a peaceful expression and even her breathing was even paced. But nothing they did could wake her. Itachi said that she committed what very few medic-nin's did; she placed herself into a self-induced coma. There was only one way to wake her up, the trigger, but those triggers were very unique to each medic-nin and could not be discovered so easily. Sakura would never wake up until that trigger was found and pulled, or until she wanted to wake up again.
Sora bit his lip, thinking back to when this whole mess began. To believe that it was only three days ago when it all happened; only three days ago that Sakura fell into a deep coma; only three days since Kirei last slept. Still fresh in his mind, the memories pained Sora and gave him nightmares in the few hours that he managed to sleep.
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
Scream filled the village, shattering the peaceful silence. They descended upon the innocent villagers like a locust plague, destroying everything in their path. The ROOT operatives were merciless in their warpath, determined to bring this great village down to its knees.
"Go get Doc now!" Kimimitsu screamed at Sora and Kirei when Sora hauled a dying Ryuga inside their home. Kimimitsu had to look at Ryuga only once to know that he was beyond her care and needed Yuki Sakura if he was to survive. Without further ado or even a second thought, Sora made to grab little Kirei and burst out of the house like a cannonball and head straight for Sakura's house. It was only when he picked her up that he realized she was holding an intricately carved sword and scabbard in her hands.
"Your katana, Sora-nii," she said, holding the deadly beautiful object out to him with her eyes wide, not quite knowing the significance of that sword. His own eyes widened for a second, surprised that she even knew about it and his hand tentatively reached out, but froze before he could take the katana in his hand.
Nervous, he looked to Kimimitsu for guidance and she nodded back at him," It's who you are, Sora. Now you must protect your home with it."
Sora could feel something catch in the back of his throat as his hand finally wound around the hilt of the sword, but when the weight of the katana finally rested in the palm of his hand, all of his worries vanished. It felt too right to hold this deadly beautiful thing to be evil. With a silent tear, Sora vowed that he would use this sword to protect his home.
"Now go!" Kimimitsu ordered him again and in a flash, he was out the back door, Kirei tightly latched onto his back.
Sakura and Itachi's small cottage was in blazes when they burst out of the treeline into the front yard. Sora halted to a stop, stumbling to his knees and dropping Kirei, who rolled gracefully onto the ground before rising to see the horrific sight herself. The lead ROOT operative, the Captain, and two others stood on all sides of the cottage. The Captain looked on as the other two blew great jets of fire from their mouths at the cottage, fueling the flames even more.
"No!" Kirei screamed, fearing that Sakura and Itachi were trapped inside that cottage, burning to death. In her fear, she made to run forward, but Sora caught a hold of her and held her still. But it was too late. The ROOT Captain turned his head to look at her, as well as the other two. The jets of flame ceased, but the cottage remained burning.
"Stay behind me, Kirei," Sora ordered and drew the katana from it's scabbard. Scared, speechless, and not knowing what else to do, Kirei obeyed and hid behind Sora's legs, clutching the scabbard close to her heart. With this, she felt a little bit safer, as if the scabbard would protect her if Sora could not.
Sora stood facing the ROOT shinobi, expertly poised with the katana. No emotion crossed his face, as he had been trained, and his eyes rose to meet his opponents'.
"Stand down boy before you hurt yourself," one of them ordered in a cruel, harsh voice," You stand no chance against us."
"Try the other way around," Sora said evenly, calmly closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before opening them again. When his blue eyes reopened for all the world to see, a look of such determination and valor shone from his eyes, that it simply amazed Kirei. His grip tightened on the sword and he widened his stance a tiny bit more, trying to get reaccostomed to the feeling.
The ROOT shinobi growled in return and began to advance.
"Your fight is with me, assholes!" Sakura's pure and melodic voice was now harsh and loud as it rang from the burning home. Shocked, all the men turned and glanced at the blazing cottage in time to see something red explode from the roof. In its wake, the cottage finally collapsed into itself.
Clad in a red outfit Sora's never seen her in before, Sakura before the burning flames; her hair whipping all around her fiery eyes. With those eyes, she glared at the ROOT operatives, the Captain in particular. Sora could not lie, she looked so mighty and powerful standing there, with the flames at her back and such strong emotions burning bright in her eyes.
"Why you-" a ROOT operative threw a kunai at her," You should be dead!" Sakura just smiled that insanely calm smile and let the kunai bury itself deep within her shoulder.
"Baka," she said simply before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"It's a shadow clone, damnit!" the Captain swore loudly before addressing his lackeys," You take care of them, I'm going after her!" And with that, he sped off into the forest.
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
"I see Itachi-kun," Kirei announced happily, still staring outside the window," And he has yummy bags!" Sora could not stop the smile coming onto his face; Kirei was still trying to understand the concept of take-out. After all, there had been no such thing back in their old village.
About two minutes later, the door to their hotel room opened and Itachi stepped in. He was soaking wet, but didn't seem to care as he slipped his shoes off and discarded the green cloak.
Kirei's eyes were bright as she accepted the take-out bags from him. Inside, Itachi wanted to smirk, amused at her happiness over food, but could not bring himself to it. Instead, as Kirei began to take everything out of the bag and set it upon the small table, he all but glided over to Sakura's side and sat upon his own bed.
"She hasn't even flinched since you left, so don't bother asking," Sora said gruffly, not moving from his spot on the wall. Itachi glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing and remained seated at her side.
"Here you go, Sora-nii," Kirei smiled cheerfully ('just like Sakura used to' Sora thought painfully) as she walked up to him and handed him his own food. He tried to smile genuinely for her, he really did, but he could never feel the smile reach his eyes. In the end, he mumbled an arigatou and took the food from her. Itachi did the same and let Kirei 'happily' skip back to her own food sitting at the windowsill.
For the longest time, they sat in silence. Every now and then, Itachi would tear his eyes away from Sakura and glance at Kirei, still amazed to see her smiling...
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
"Kimimitsu-san, I need that mask," Itachi damned all politeness and confronted the village leader with a determined look in his eyes as he appeared in the doorway. Kimimitsu seemed not surprised by his sudden appearance, nor his lack of manners, and tossed something black his way. With speed of a well seasoned shinobi (yet another thing Kimimitsu was surprisingly not startled by), he caught it; it was a full face mask, with a long slit for his eyes to see through. Without further ado, he pulled it over his head, completing his all black composition, and emerged looking like a classic black-clad ninja.
"Stay here," he ordered Kimimitsu, who was tending Ryuga's wounds," I'm going after Sakura." Kimimitsu smiled minutely, realizing as he left that he had thought first of Sakura, and nothing else. She smiled even more, realizing that he had called their doctor by her given name, something he made a point to never call her; he only addressed her as Doc, like the rest of the village had... But little did either of them know that the remaining ROOT operatives would soon descend upon their house, just like they did the rest of the village...
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
Sakura had never fought someone as ruthless and desperate as the ROOT captain, even when against Sasori or Orochimaru; they had fought with precision and grace, something this man did not possess. She remembered eight months ago, as she escaped Konoha, this very same man had nearly been the death of her. Even now, he was just as determined to kill her and seemed determined to do it in the most violent way possible.
But back then, she had been running. Now she had a village to protect. These people took her in and loved her like one of their own; she could not turn her back on them; she could not abandon them. No, she had to stay and fight for them.
"You're a bit braver than eight months ago," he taunted," If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to protect this pathetic village."
He had to have been a master of clones. Everytime Sakura thought she had him, he would just reappear somewhere else. In the back of her mind, she registered that the one she always hit never vanished in a cloud of smoke. No, he would simply appear somewhere else, and when she'd look back at the body, it would be gone.
"But it's beyond me why you would want to protect them," he sneered at her, making her blood boil," Your a murderer."
"Shut up!" she roared and punched him into oblivion, only to have him reappear right behind her," I'm not a-" She choked on her own words, unable to bring herself to lie. Everytime she tried, Danzou and the faces of all those that she's killed in the past, on that fateful night, appeared before her eyes; covered in their own blood.
"See?" he grinned," You can't even deny it."
"!" she screamed loudly, covering her ears and shaking her head violently. She couldn't take it anymore. The memories of what she's done haunted her too much; they haunted her dreams; they haunted her very existence; she was as dead as the ones she's killed.
The ROOT Captain smirked; he had been waiting for this moment...
"You're mine now," he appeared directly behind her, his malice showing clearly in his eyes and voice. In less than a second, one hand pinned her arms to her sides and the other held a kunai close to her throat. She gasped, both furious with herself for letting her emotions get the best of her again, but even more afraid of the Captain. She knew what he was capable of...
Shivers of pure and unadulterated fear raced all along her spine when he lowered his head to her neck and took a deep breath.
"Mmm, you smell of fear," he grinned maliciously,"...Just my kind of woman."
She tried to scream. Really, she did. She opened her mouth and tried to let the fear out of her when he slowly drew the kunai across her neck, his tongue slithering out to lick the blood running down her neck. But she couldn't move; so frozen in fear she was.
It was a shallow cut; nothing life endangering. But his evil surrounded her completely; it suffocated her. Lightly licking the blood dripping from her neck, he was drinking in her fear with complete ecstacy.
"Remember what I said?" he whispered in her ear, thoroughly enjoying the shivers running along her spine," I told you I'd make you suffer; make you wish I'd just kill you...I've had eight whole months to think exactly how I'm going to..."
"Rest assured, I don't need eight months to torture you," a rough voice cut through the air like a knife.
It all happened so fast, that Sakura barely had time to keep up. All she knew that within one tenth of a second, she was yanked from the Captain's arms and an arm made of iron pulled her into a taunt chest. She heard a loud sound, as her savior's fist collided with the Captain's face, then another loud crash, as his body smashed into a tree. With surprised green eyes, Sakura looked up into her saviors face, only to see a face covered with black material, but the eyes showing through were even darker.
"Ita-" she whimpered, but quickly shut her mouth; she could not afford to give away his identity when he's worked so hard to keep it a secret from the outside world. His onyx eyes looked down at her impassively, but she could've sworn she felt his body twitch when she almost said her name.
The next second, she was pulled harshly away from his chest and she feared the ROOT Captain had her once again. But a blink later, she was staring at Itachi's back with his arm outstretched to keep her behind him.
'He trusts me enough to let him face his back while he's distracted by another opponent?' she thought meekly, surprised by this sudden protective side of him.
"Go back to the village, Sakura," Itachi ordered, never taking his eyes off the ROOT Captain, who was standing up," They need you there." She could only nod mutely, never noticing how he had spoken her name for the first time, and ran off towards the village.
"Oh no you don't!" the ROOT Captain made a rush at her with a kunai. She dodged it expertly, not wanting to be caught by him again, and did a backflip away from him. The next second, the Captain was destroyed as Itachi punched a hole through his heart, but he just appeared on the other side of the clearing, glaring hard at Itachi. Itachi glanced at her and she locked eyes with him; his stern eyes were the last thing she saw before she took to the trees again.
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
"We should leave soon," Itachi spoke all of a sudden," I don't want to stay in one place for very long." Sora frowned and set down his food. Kirei pouted from her spot on the windowsill.
"So soon?" she pouted cutely," Shouldn't we wait for Doc to wake up?" At her words, all three of them spared glances at the motionless figure, all except for Itachi, who never really looked away from her.
"We don't know when she'll wake up, Kirei," Sora said quietly, with a hint (a rather large hint) of sadness in his voice and eyes. He looked up at the youngest of them all, nearly crying himself when he saw the tears welling up in her blue eyes. "Come here," he opened his arms in an invitation. Without another word, Kirei leapt from the windowsill and ran over to her older brother and into his arms, thankful taht she still had someone to love and take care of her.
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
"No, Kirei! Stay back here!" Sora held onto his little sister as she desperately fought to escape his grasp.
"No!" she screamed," Mama! Mama! Where's Mama!?" Tears ran freely from her eyes; she just wanted the day to end; to hear her mother say everything would be alright. Her mother, Kimimitsu, always made everything alright. She had to make everything alright, especially now after her little girl had seen so much in this one day. She had seen her kind and gentle brother kill not two, but five men in an effort to protect her. She had heard the explosion as it wracked havoc on the forest. She had felt the heat of the fire. She had seen Itachi walk out of the forest and admit to Sora that that horrible man who tried to hurt Sakura had gotten away from him.
And now she wasn't allowed to see her own mother?
Kirei could see Itachi standing with his back to her, standing amid the remaining villagers, looking down at something white and red. Hidden to her view, but not to her ears, Kirei could hear Sakura shouting and sobbing all at the same time," Wake up! C'mon, open your eyes! Wake up, damnit!"
"Sakura..." Itachi spoke calmly, his use of her name once again going unnoticed as he stood above a kneeling Sakura," She's gone."
"No, she can't be!" Sakura cried. But Itachi's expression never changed.
"There's nothing more you can do," he told her," Kimimitsu is dead."
"NOOOO!!!" Kirei screamed as loud as she possibly could, hearing Itachi say those three words; the three words that would forever haunt her," Mama! Not Mama!" As she cried, Sora took her in his arms and tried to comfort her. But tears streamed down his cheeks as well as he closed his eyes, trying to block out the truth.
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
Sakura could not stop herself as she looked over her shoulder. Peering though the gap between Itachi's legs, she saw Sora and Kirei sobbing uncontrollably. Slowly, she drew her eyes up Itachi's body until she locked eyes with him. He had long ago torn off the mask, unable to stand it any more. His eyes were unreadable, as she knew full well that her own eyes must be red with tears and exhaustion.
Emotions welled up within her and her whole body shook with the effort to keep it all under control. Kimimitsu...She was always so kind; always taking care of everyone. She gave everything and expected nothing in return. She even gave her life to protect Ryuga from the invading shinobi...
Sora and Kirei were orphans now, with nowhere left to go. Kirei would never again see her mother or know a mother's love again. Who could she talk to as she grew up, needing a real mother's advice? Who could love her as only her mother could? Who could she turn to when she needed her true mother? Who could possibly replace Kimimitsu?
And then there was Itachi. How could he simply stand there and not feel the same pain she felt? Kimimitsu had loved and cared for him the same as she had for Sora and Sakura. Even when she asked herself these questions, she knew the answer. Itachi was familiar with death; he knew it inside and out, knowing it was something that everyone must go through sometime.
Sakura didn't know why his eyes made her remember that night, but just looking into his eyes, she remembered the night Sasuke had left the village. Had left her. She had been there to try and stop him, to show that he had a home with her and Team 7.
But there had been no one to bring her back the night she left Konoha forever...
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
Kirei looked back to her mother's pale body, now visible through the throng of people, with tear filled eyes. Kimimitsu looked so pure, with her silver hair and her white kimono. It was stained with blood, but the white still shone through brightly. Kirei saw Sakura kneeling beside Kimimitsu, but her eyes were turned upwards toward Itachi's face. He looked down at her in return, but Kirei could not see his face. But there was something in Sakura's eyes; something that made Kirei want to cry all over again.
Finally, Sakura toppled over, so unexpectedly that Itachi didn't even have time to catch her. Kirei screamed for Sakura, feeling her throat burning from being overused, but her fear was greater than her pain. She feared that Sakura had died, just like her mother just did. But even as Sakura's eyes closed; even as Itachi kneeled over her body, trying to shake her awake; Kirei could still see her eyes. Could still see the pain in them. It was a look that could torment her dreams for weeks to come.
The look of complete and utter hopelessness.
~S~E~C~O~N~D~C~H~A~N~C~E~
He sat in a bar, just sitting there and listening to the conversations going on all around him. His face was sullen and weary from long travels and all he wanted right now was a nice hot back and a soft bed.
"Oi, Naruto-kun!" a familiar voice rose above the gentle roar of the tavern. Naruto raised his head and blinked until the green blob in front of him focused into a comprehensible person.
"Bushy-brows?" Naruto blinked, confusion written all over his face," Why are you here?"
Rock Lee took a seat beside him and diligently held out a very thin manila envelope. "Ino-chan told me to find you," he explained as Naruto took the envelope," About two weeks ago, she finally managed to get Shizune-san to let her in the Archives. But Sakura-chan's file was missing. Three days ago, she found this."
Curious and still confused, Naruto tore open the manila envelope and pulled out a nearly empty folder. Within it were two more folders, each as nearly empty as the first. The first was labeled 'Haruno Sakura' and in a hurry, he opened it.
A lone picture of his only female teammate fluttered out and onto the bar. Both men froze and stared at the smiling face of the girl they both loved.
"This is it?" Naruto whimpered," Sakura-chan's file is just...gone? But I thought we'd find proof that she didn't do it..."
"True," Rock Lee agreed," I'm even wondering if those surveillance tapes the Council told us about even exist..."
Naruto said nothing and instead opened the other folder without looking at the name. A small picture the same size as Sakura's fluttered down and landed right over Sakura's, but upside down. Tentatively, Naruto reached out and flipped it over.
The older brother of Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi, looked up at their shocked faces with the trademark Uchiha stare...
"I guess you really need to find Sasuke-kun now..."
THE END OF THIS CHAPTER! I'm so so sooooo sorry! This was such a sad chapter to write; the destruction of Second Chance. I tried to capture the actual event along with the emotions everyone went through afterward and how it's still affecting them. It was very hard to keep Itachi in character, as I kept wanting to turn him into a more affectionate person with Sakura, but their relationship hasn't quite formed all the way.
As usual, please review and tell me what you liked about the chapter.