Sakura was shaken off her thoughts by a bird bickering her window. It was morning already, she had spent the whole night reading the journal, and now she didn't have the time to sleep anymore. "All that's just great". She thought angrily.

She stood up and opened the window to let the bird enter, it was beautiful black falcon, it wasn't a bird used by the villager, konoha's messenger birds were usually eagles. The falcon reached its leg so Sakura could take the tiny bit of paper wrapped on it. As soon as the girl took the message the bird flied away.

"We'll leave in an hour, meet us at the main gate, bring your cloak"

The note was very short and wasn't signed, but it was obvious it was from Itachi, Sakura wondered where they were going, it probably had something to do with the Orochimaru, but she couldn't believe that he was actually thinking about leading the attack now, they almost didn't had any time to prepare… But still, it was Itachi she was talking about, if anyone was capable of planning something as big as that in a couple of days this person was the Uchiha heir.

Sakura stood up and headed to the bathroom. Before anything she needed a bath. She let the water stream down her body, feeling the warmth and trying not to think about all the things she had learned, and all the work she would have from that point on. If the jutsu left by Lucy was actually the only way to cure the Uchiha's eyes, then she'd certainly have many problems to accomplish it, risking her life in something like that would be unavoidable, and she had no intention to kill herself to give back Itachi's vision, but also she didn't want to abandon the project, even the idea of failing in her duty made her feel weak.

Since she was thirteen she gave up on nothing on her life, nothing as hard as it seemed, and now she didn't want to gave up on this, if she were actually able to cure the sharingan curse, she'd be the shinobi's world most famous medic, she had no intention to relinquish that. Right now the chances of success were only of fifty per cent, if she made some research, maybe try and combine Lucy's technique with the suna's, she'd be able to raise the chances, and then she'd be able to do it for sure…

Sakura left the bathroom and got dressed as fast as she could, when she was finally dressed she made some easy hand seals and summoned a beautiful white fenix. It had been almost two years since she made the contract with the fenixes, and the bird had become her most loyal partner.

_Sakura-sama, did you called?- The magnificent bird talked with a musical female voice.

_Yes Circe, I need your help.- The kunnoichi said while she wrote a note in a small piece of paper.- I need you to take it to the Suna, hand it to Kadamus, his the medic in charge of the hospital there, he'll give you a book, I want you to find me afterwards and hand it to me, ok?- Said the girl, wrapping the piece of paper on the bird's leg.

_As you wish my lady, but where will you be?- Asked Circe.

_I don't know… You'll have to track me down, you can do it right?

_Sure, it may take some time, but I'll try my best.

_Thank you Circe.

_You're welcome my Lady… Oh! What a beautiful bracelet! Was it a gift?- Asked the bird starring amazed at the bracelet on the girls right wrist.

Sakura almost cursed, she had almost forgotten about the god damned bracelet.

_It's more like an accident.- Hissed the kunnoichi, the bird gave her a bemused look.- Now go Circe, please.

As soon as the bird flied away Sakura put on the Akatsuki cloak, not without feeling a bit weird for doing so. She made some hand seals and tried to break the bracellet, nothing happened, she tried again and still she got no results. Cursing under her breathy she grabbed her weapons, all the medical equipment she might need, some changes of clothes and headed out. Her only option now was to ask Itachi to take that thing off her wrist, he was the one who embed the thing with chakra at first so he'd know how to take it off.

Sakura was almost at her door when she remembered the journal. She got back to the table and gazed the white cover for some time, she considered leaving it behind, but in a whim she decided to bring it along and putted it into the bag.

When she finally got to the gates, Itachi was already there, alone, he was facing the village's exit and didn't turn when Sakura got near. As soon as she approached him she gasped, the bracelet irradiated a warmth through her skin and glowed with vivid crimson light, the Uchiha chakra was reacting to his presence. Itachi turned and gazed at her, his brows furrowed and then two cloaked figures appeared next to them, it was Kakuzu and Hidan. Sakura hid the bracelet under the cloak's sleeve.

_Heh! You look fucking hot with this fucking cloak, Sakura.- Shouted Hiddan as soon as he arrived.

_I don't remember asking for your opinion.- Hissed Sakura, looking dangerously at him.

Hidan opened his mouth to say more, but he was silenced by a sharp glare from both Itachi and Kakuzu. With no other word the four shinnobi headed out, jumping along the trees as fast as they could go.

Sakura was obviously annoyed, she hated when men would start making this kind of comment about her, she felt like a piece of meat or something… And what bothered her even more was that she actually liked her appearance while wearing the damn cloak, it made her feel more powerful, more dangerous. And having someone else stating it made her feel angry about herself.

They traveled in silence, nobody asked where they were headed, either because Sakura was the only one who didn't knew it, or because the other two didn't want to angry their leader by asking.

They were headind to the south, which meant they were going to the earth country, or maybe the grass country… Sakura remembered hearing that some sound ninjas were seeing lurking around the east side of the grass country, it was a possibility they were heading there… Maybe Orochimaru had a hidden base in the area… The Anbu had being investigating it some time ago, but had found nothing, but it was obvious the Akatsuki seemed to have other information, how they acquired it the Pink-haired kunnoichi had no idea.

Soon enough the silence of their journey was broken by Hidan's loud complains, he didn't like that country, it was too hot, and the cloak was killing him, also it had been a lot of time since he killed someone and Jashin would be angry with him if he didn't kill soon…

_Oi! Itachi let me fucking kill the fucking small tit kunnoichi here! I need to kill someone!- Shouted the gray haired man.

Sakura greeted her teeth at that. "Small tit??" It was true her breasts weren't as big as Tsunade's or Ino's, but he certainly has nothing to do with it! The kunnoichi was about to tell him to shut up, but Kakuzu beat her to it.

_Shut up Hidan! You're noisy! I'll kill you if you continue to annoy me!- Hissed him glaring at his companion.

_As if you fucking could kill me!- Hidan snorted.

And soon the two of them were arguing about Hidan's immortality, Kakuzu's death threats to him and a bunch of nonsense that Sakura didn't bother to pay attention to. She remembered some other arguing teammates instead, back them things were pretty much the same, one would be noisy, the other would snap at him and they would argue all the way to their final destination, of course the argument involved much less cursing back them, and the threats weren't for real, now she wouldn't be surprised if Hidan wind up with his head being ripped off.

Another crucial difference between the situations was herself, when she was twelve she'd most likely enjoy watching her two teammates bickering at each other and giggle at them while she cheered for one of them. Now she was very displeased at those two noise, both because it was giving her a headache and because she didn't like anything childish anymore, she had become too much of a cold hearted woman to actually enjoy something as carefree as two old friends having a silly argument.

The group's leader seemed to enjoy the whole ordeal as much as she did. Sakura rushed forward as to be running side by side with the Uchiha. Itachi glanced at her, she kept looking a head and said nothing, he kept quiet too, but couldn't help but wonder… He had figured that she was annoyed by the silly bickering between the other two, but still placing herself by his side wasn't something he expected her to do, actually he was half expecting her to start shouting at them to be quiet. What he expected even less to happen was he to let her stay there, he usually didn't allow his partners to be side by side with him, he didn't like it, but he wasn't bothered by the girl's presence, and that made he wondered why.

Her personality was very alike his own, and a lot unusual to be found in a Konoha's shinnobi, which were usually cheerful or at least friendly at their comrades. The pink haired girl on the other side seemed to keep people at a distance. Maybe this was why he indulged her presence, she wasn't really trying to be friendly or anything, she didn't wanted to start a chat or to please him as his fellow Akatsuki usually did, she was just there because she didn't want to walk next the other two, and he was fine with it.

They walked during the whole day, with no pause to lunch or anything, nobody seemed to care though. When the night came and it started to be troublesome for the non-sharing an users to see, Itachi decided to stop. They found a clearing and jumped down to it. Nobody bothered to prepare dinner or anything, kakuzu mumbled that he'd take the first watch shift, and Hidan, thrower himself on the ground complaining about the discomfort and was asleep soon enough, loudly asleep actually, it seemed that the gray haired nin could do nothing without a good deal of noise.

Sakura and Itachi both sat leaning against a tree across from each other, the dark haired shinnobi closed his eyes, but it was obvious he wasn't sleeping, the kunnoichi gazed at the stars through the tree's leaves, she was tired, but didn't felt like sleeping so soon. Soon she found her fingers stroking the warm silver around her wrist, she had almost forgotten about it, the warmth it gave out made her feel good, and she wondered why…

_Itachi…- She called out to him, her eyes now focused on the man's face. For a moment she wondered when she called him just by his first name? Actually, now that thought about it she rarely said his name at all, not while talking to him anyway, she usually just spoke to him when he spoke to her first. He didn't seemed to mind her talking to him so casually though.

The sharingan user opened his eyes, the crimson staring intently at the green, while he awaited her to continue.

_Who is that old lady?- The kunnoichi was certain that he'd know who she was talking about.

_Why do you wanna know?- He asked back.

_She came to me again while I was in the library. She gave me something that might help me to find a definitive cure for your eyes. She gave me Lucy's journal, Madara's wife Journal. She had developed a jutsu to cure her husband's eyes.- Sakura explained.

_She never succeeded.- The Uchiha stated matter of factly.

_I know… I mean… Judging by the technique she described the chances of her doing it were very low, and the risks of her dieing in the process were high, but her calculations weren't all wrong, actually the jutsu were just right. The thing is that it's too unstable. I think I can combine it with a technique from Suna and raise the success chances…- The medic explained.

Itachi just nodded, he was relieved that the girl hadn't simply considered healing his eyes a impossible task after knowing what happened to Lucy while trying to do the same thing. But also he couldn't imagine why she hadn't gave up yet, for it was plain that even if she raised the jutsu stability she'd still be risking her life by doing it, and even knowing that she was a medic of great fame and probably with a high pride, he still couldn't believe someone was actually risking themselves to help him.

_And… The bracelet…- Sakura added hesitantly.- The woman… She tightened it around my wrist, I can't pull it off, and the jutsu's aren't working either…- The kunnoichi said feeling a bit silly to ask for help over something apparently so simple.

Itachi stared at the glowing bracelet around her wrist. It was once used by his clan to keep prisoners from running away, or to guide someone to a some place, as he had done to Sakura to find the library. The bracelet couldn't be broken by anyone besides the one who made it, and would always react to the creator's presence, allowing the person using it to know when the other were nearby, and also it would allow the creator to always find the one wearing it. He could brake the bracelet and take it off the girls wrist, but for some reason he didn't felt like it.

Itachi hadn't a clue about why the mysterious woman would want to bind Sakura to him, but also knew she had a reason for it. That woman had appeared for him just once in his life, on the night he killed his clan, and in that night he knew she was a dead person, and also that he should trust her… Yes… He didn't want to brake that bracelet. It belonged where it was, and in addition it looked beautiful against the girls skin…

_The bracelet can't be broken.- He said before closing his eyes again.

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