A/N: (Omg emerald! Where have you been?) Well hello there parenthesis guy! I have been so busy that I havent gotten a chance to do any writing! I am not dead and I am sincerely sorry! I hope this chapter and the next will make up for it! The chapter after this one is EXTREMELY short. Originally it was a part of this one but I decided it would be best as it's own separate thing. You'll see why momentarily.
Thank you everyone who has enjoyed this story! I hope it gets better as it continues! Now...BEGIN READING!


Sakura's muscles were screaming from the exerted force of leaping through the trees without any rest. They hadn't taken a break since Sasuke announced the plan and it was apparent that all the members of Hawk besides their leader were feeling the effects. Suigetsu and Jugo's movements were sluggish and the exhaustion was apparent on their faces. Karin seemed the worse off. Sakura had healed her almost completely, but the limp in the redhead's leg was slowing her down, making her have to exert more energy than her team members.

Sakura, who traveled behind Sasuke, kept and eye on Karin at her right side, noticing the way her movements grew more unsteadied with every passing mile.

An hour before sundown, Sakura was less concerned about the pain in her own body than she was about the pain she imagined Karin must be feeling. She made sure to keep half her attention on the redhead kunoichi. This proved to be necessary when Karin's foot slipped against a branch and she let out a scream as she began spiraling towards the ground. Sakura, having already been prepared for that, dove down between the branches and caught Karin's arm, pulling it over her own shoulder and balancing them on their feet before they hit the ground. Jugo and Suigetsu both stopped in the trees when they had noticed what had happened. Sasuke went ahead for a few more leaps and then looked back, irritated that he was being slowed down.

"What the hell is going on back there?" he called out.

"Karin fell," Jugo told him. Sasuke growled in irritation and jumped to a branch just above where Karin and Sakura stood on the ground.

"Keep moving! We don't have time for your petty weaknesses."

"She fell Sasuke! She's exhausted! We haven't had rest all day! Everyone on your team is suffering!" Sakura spat at him. Suddenly the Uchiha was standing before her, his hand wrapped around her jaw.

"You don't have an opinion on how I handle my team. You are my captive. Now get moving." Sakura jerked her head out of his grasp, glaring daggers at him.

"You can't do this Sasuke. Not only are you hurting your team, you're also wasting your own energy! How can you expect to fight your brother when you wasted all your strength on getting to the battle? Do what's good for everyone and just slow down!" Sakura knew that relating things back to his brother was the easiest way to manipulate him right now. Sasuke knew exactly what she was doing, but he couldn't ignore the logic behind her reasons, no matter how much they were in favor of her and his team.

"We stop at the next town. One night only. No more. After that, it's straight to the Akatsuki contact."


The inn was a fairly nice one. Windows lined the hallways and dead bugs didn't litter the carpets in the rooms. The inn even had it's own hot baths.

They arrived well past sundown, Sasuke getting the keys to two rooms. Jugo and Suigetsu carried Karin's pack and weapons into the room the three of them shared and Sasuke disappeared into the other room he would take with Sakura. The pinkette moved slowly down the hall, supporting Karin.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Karin asked Sakura, who simply gave her a small, kind smile.

"Because I can understand you." The look on Karin's face was one of sheer confusion and surprise. "Let's just say, I know what it's like being the weakest link on a team of guys that always surpass you. That always looks at you like you need to be protected. It's not a good feeling."

Karin was speechless. She didn't know what to say to this girl that was supposed to be the captive of her team. Not to mention that she still remembered the strange look of what seemed like longing on Sasuke's face when he had watched Sakura sleep.

Sakura was quiet as she helped Karin into her room, handing her over to Suigetsu, who gave Sakura a look of gratitude. Sakura simply nodded in response and retreated to the room she would share with Sasuke.

This room was bigger than the other inn they had stayed at. Besides the bed there was also a couch that was just barely big enough to fit someone of Sakura's small stature. Walking right past Sasuke, who was leaning against the wall, she grabbed a pillow and a sheet off the bed and dropped it on the couch.

"Take the bed," he said suddenly. Sakura turned towards him, eyes wide with surprise.

"What?"

"I'll sleep on the couch. You can sleep on the bed." Confused, Sakura nodded. Sasuke wouldn't fit on the couch, but she'd be stupid to pass up an offer of comfort. Even if it was from a bastard like him.

She became very aware that she hadn't changed her clothes in a few days. She needed a shower and she needed to wash her clothes. Any change of clothes she had would be in her pack and there was no way Sasuke would let her get her hands on that. Sighing, she went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Sasuke didn't stop her.

She filled the sink with warm water and stripped out of her dirty clothes, dropping them into the water. She took one of the complimentary hotel robes and pulled it on over her body.

She left the bathroom and went to walk into the hallway. Sasuke appeared in front of her as she reached for the handle of the door.

"Where are you going?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

"To the baths."

"What makes you think I'll let you?"

"Because you can suffocate and kill me the second you realize I am gone." They held the staring contest for a little while longer, but for different reasons. Sakura was subconsciously competing for a type of dominance over the Uchiha. Sasuke however, couldn't look away from her eyes.

Eventually she broke away first and stomped down the hall towards the bath, leaving a very confused Uchiha. It certainly was a rare sight indeed and he was grateful that no one was there to witness it.


Safe in the steam filled room of the baths, Sakura dropped her robe towel by the edge of the tiled pool and stepped in. Most of the guests were probably all sleeping now, so she had the bath all to herself.

The warm water felt like heaven against her skin. It came up to just above her breasts and she allowed herself to drop under the surface. She opened her eyes under the warm water, using her hands to play with the swirling strands of pink hair.


Sasuke was left in the room to wonder at what he had just felt. Something about the staring contest between him and Sakura had felt so… wrong. Since when had she been able to return his glare with equal ferocity? It didn't feel right. He was so used to the twelve-year-old Sakura who was obsessed with him and more concerned about her appearance than her ability as a shinobi. This clearly was no longer the case, and it deeply unsettled him.

Exactly how much had changed since he'd been away? (He ignored the images of seeing Sakura's memories of lying in bed with that blonde idiot.)

And yet he had still seen some of the old Sakura in the way she interacted with Karin. Sakura had always seen the good in people, always loved the unlovable. That aspect in her personality had not changed, and it stirred strange feelings in him. Feelings he thought he had long since buried.

He had never felt homesick after his decision to leave Konoha. Never regretted his choices. But looking at the matured Sakura, he found himself feeling those emotions that he had never felt before.

He saw a bit of his old life in the fiery words and gestures and the bottomless green eyes of his former teammate. He was still human, despite the opinions of others, and he couldn't deny the attraction he felt towards what she offered. She was like a little piece of the village that had raised him. A little bit of his first home. He wanted to grasp it. Just a tiny part of it. To feel what he had not had the chance to feel back when he was still considered an innocent.

With that, he made a decision.

After all, whatever he wanted, he took.


She lost track of the time she had spent in the water, allowing herself to let her body float under the surface with her head leaned against the edge of the pool, her eyes closed in bliss.

She heard a splash from the other end of the pool, letting her know that someone had joined her. She paid them no mind and continued with her private time of luxury. God only knew when she would get this chance again.

The person was approaching her, and the closer they got the more concerned she was that the person was some creep. This concern was strengthened by the fact that it was a shared bath between men and women.

When the person was less than a foot away from her, she decided it was time to speak up.

"Move an inch closer and you will never have children." Her voice was deadpanned, and perfectly serious.

"Is that a threat?" She froze. She knew that voice. Willing herself to be mistaken, she cracked one jade eye open, and it locked onto the Uchiha. She jumped from her position and backed against the tiled wall, covering her naked chest with her arms.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" she exclaimed, glaring at him angrily, a hot blush covering her cheeks.

"Taking a bath. What does it look like?"

"It looks like a serious invasion of space!" She decided her private luxury time was over and moved to leave the bath.

A hand wrapped around her wrist stopped her.

She turned back to look from him, to the hand wrapped around her wrist, thumb smoothing over the metal of the chakra band.

"What are you doing?" Her voice was much quieter now, but no less firm.

"I came in here to talk to you."

"And you couldn't wait until I was back in the hotel room with clothes on?"

She did not miss the way his eyes flickered over her wet skin.

He pulled her by the wrist, causing her struggle, but he was stronger. Soon she was back in her position against the tile wall, her arms covering her and him standing in front of her, her eyes locked on his face. She wasn't happy.

"I don't…" He looked away and took a frustrated breath. Sakura's expression of anger changed to one of curiosity. Sasuke? At a loss for words? Forget a loss for words. Sasuke looking for words to have an actual conversation with another human being? What was the world coming to?

He turned his attention back on her.

"I don't, understand what I am feeling." His eyes dropped closed. "I'm confused by it. By you."

Sakura was speechless. How was she supposed to respond to something like this?

"I don't understand."

"Well neither do I!" His eyes shot open and he gripped her shoulders. Sakura was starting to get really uncomfortable being this close to him, in the water, naked. "I thought I had broken my bonds when we captured you. You were nothing to me. Now, you're stuck in my head like a virus. What is happening to me? I used to hate you."

Sakura, as a child, would have been thrilled and hurt at his words. It proved that had once cared for her and still did. But she had long since given up on this man in front of her. She was not the same young girl that she had been when he had left the village six years ago. Hell, she wasn't even the same girl from that day when she had ditched her teammates and went to kill Sasuke herself after the Kage Meeting, and had failed miserably. No. She was different now. She had only one feeling towards this man in front of her.

Angry indifference.

"Guilt." Sasuke's eyes widened at the word that came from the girl's lips. She was not looking at him. Her wet hair was covering her face so he couldn't see her eyes. "Guilt, and selfishness." Now she looked up to him. She locked those breathtaking jade eyes on him, filled with a hardened expression he had never seen on anyone else except himself. "You feel guilty, because you know you abandoned the only people left in the world that loved you." He was stunned silent. Gaining confidence, she straightened herself up, keeping her arms folded over her breasts. "And you're a selfish bastard too. You always wanted all the things you couldn't have. Your family, the death of your brother, to surpass Naruto. You will never get any of those things and yet they were what you wanted most. Now, you've lost Naruto and you want me." She smirked, and he had no words against her as she continued her speech. "But you know that neither of us want you back. You know the only people that loved you now know better and want nothing to do with you. So you want them back. You want me, because you can no longer have me." Abandoning her modesty, she dropped her arms and used them to pull his hands off his shoulders and move away from him.

Sasuke was frozen. He couldn't move, even if he wanted to.

She moved to get out of the pool, wrapping the towel around herself quickly.

"I will help you find your brother, and I will heal you after you fight him. But then, you will take off these bands, and I will go back to Konoha. Back to Naruto. Back to my home." And with those words, she left.

Sasuke sunk down into the water. His whole life he had bitched about how alone he was in the world. Now, it was truer than it had been ever before.

Now he knew what 'alone' really was.


They were just a few miles away from where the Akatsuki contact would be and they had stopped to put the pieces of the plan together.

"Whoever it is won't believe that you are a shinobi without your weapons. So I'm returning your belongings to you." Sasuke handed Sakura her bag, seeming to know she wouldn't suddenly pull a kunai on him.

Their talk last night had not been forgotten. He had slept on the couch in the hotel room. Neither had said a word to each other until now. Sakura did not regret the words that she said to him. Not one bit. In fact, she was grateful. It had been the final test. The proof she needed to show that she was stronger. She was not Haruno Sakura, weak little cherry blossom and president of the Uchiha Sasuke fan club. No. She was Haruno Sakura, top medical ninja and badass extraordinaire.

She strapped on her weapons and medic's belt and secured her pack over her shoulders.

Sasuke reached into his own pack and came out with a small earpiece and microphone, handing it to Sakura, who put both pieces in place.

"We will be listening to everything going on and I will be able to speak to you through the earpiece. If I hear you asking for help or trying to escape or even if I notice that you have removed the pieces, I will suffocate you. Understood?" She nodded. "Good. Now go. We will not go any farther with you in case whoever it is has a perimeter set up."

Sakura glanced behind him at his team- or in her new opinion, permanent hostages- and nodded, turning on her heel and taking off.

"Do you think she will obey your orders?" Jugo asked, glancing at his leader.

Sasuke nodded.

"She has no choice." His eyes narrowed remembering her words from the night before. "She wants to get back to her home. Betrayal against that home is her only option."


Sakura arrived outside the place she was meant to meet the contact. She stretched her mind to remember the details she had read in the decoded message from Tsunade.

She was just beyond a rocky shore, the ocean making the air smell like salt. She turned away from the ocean. There was a rocky cliffside that climbed several stories up. There was supposed to be some sort of hidden entrance that she would be able to find by some sort of sign. She approached the cliffside, scanning the jagged rock for some sort of hint of where she was supposed to go. Her hand ran along the rock as she walked. She noticed the texture of the rock had started to smooth out, and her focus sharpened.

Her fingertips glided over a cut in the rock that didn't feel natural. She paused and looked at the spot.

"Konoha," she said to herself.

The Konoha leaf symbol was carved into the rock.

Acting on instinct alone, she grabbed a kunai form her holster, and imbedded it into the rock, right in the center of the symbol.

She waited.

Soon, the rock started to shift, and a massive crack split through the rock from the point where she had embedded the blade in the stone. It opened just wide enough for her to pass through.

"I've found the meeting place," she said into the microphone. "I'm going in."

She started walking. As soon as she was inside, the wall closed behind her.

Only one way to go now.

She walked down the dark hallway, lit only by the occasional lantern hanging from the wall. Her footsteps echoed in the stone hall. How deep into the cliff was she?

The hall started to slant upwards and made several turns until she came to a heavy wooden door. Not knowing what else to do, she knocked.

A small light underneath a speaker next to the door glowed red.

"Are you Uzumaki Naruto, student of Jiraiya with his team?" The voice that was coming through the speaker was fuzzy and distorted.

She swallowed before speaking.

"No. I am a teammate of Naruto. But I was separated from them, and I am here alone. I don't know where they are."

"How can I know you are telling the truth?"

Not knowing what else to say, she smirked.

"You don't."

Silence came from the person on the other side of the door, and then a slot opened on the door, a metal drawer sliding out.

"Deposit all your weapons and supplies into the drawer." Silently obeying, she removed all her weapons and her medic belt and dropped into the drawer, removing her pack as well and dropping it in. She pushed the drawer in, closing the slot as it went. "Enter."

She heard the door click, and she opened it.

Inside was a small chamber, a bed barely big enough for one person pushed off to the side and a small table and three chairs set in the middle. Candles were lit and a books and scrolls were stacked in various places on the floor.

She walked into the room, the door closing behind her.

Suddenly, she was very afraid to turn around.

Whoever was behind her was genius enough to get close to the Akatsuki and report information back to Jiraiya without having ever being caught or even detected. Whoever was behind her had to be a powerful shinobi. More powerful than she was or perhaps could even hope to be.

Swallowing her fear, she set her features in a determined expression, and turned around.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

It was like a whole different nightmare come to life. She was facing one of her village's most feared enemies. Quite possibly the strongest ninja alive.

He pressed a long, pale finger to his lips. His face was calm, and stoic. All she could do was stare wide-eyed. She could not breath. She could not move. She was frozen in place with shock. She could not have spoken a word if she had tried.

Red clouds filled her vision and she could not look away from the person standing in front of her.

She was locked in a room, barred from access with her chakra, and under the observation of Sasuke- who was only miles away- with the most dangerous man alive.

Uchiha Itachi.


A/N: Well, I did promise Itachi would be in this chapter... xD Dont worry he is in the next one a lot, although you could have probably figured that out by the way this chapter ended. So quick! Onto the next chapter!

-HeartOfEmerald