A/N: Phew, our chapter is finally out! we thank you all for reading. Enjoy the chapter...

Disclaimer: Never will we own Naruto

An appointment with death

The new morning's sun shone through the window. As the hideout was half underground the sunshine didn't fill the whole room making it dreary. Sakura's eyes flickered open a small smile played on her lips. She felt refreshed. Slowly sitting up she scanned the room. Her smile fell once she reminded herself where she was. Sakura held her pink hair up with both her hands. She let her arms flopped down, but regretted her action when her right hand hit a lump. She forced herself to look at what she had just smacked even though her heart beat against her throat. Haruno Sakura was watching the Uchiha sleep.

This wasn't exactly how I imagined it, she considered rolling her fantasy of her and Sasuke with a bottle of wine, while rose petals dropped gently from the sky. Sasuke would approach her and speak in his husky voice and then… She was suddenly ripped from her reverie by that same voice.

"It's rude to stare, Sakura." Sasuke said his eyes still closed.

Her face grew hot. She bit her lip from embarrassment. Only now did she realise how close she really was to him. Sakura jerked back, giving them less proximity. He opened his onyx eyes slowly and for a second they gazed ate each other. The Kunoichi's blushing increased. It felt as if Sasuke knew what she was thinking.

Inner Sakura disapproved of her fantasy and for bringing it up at a time like this. She reprimanded herself for letting her guard down as well.

" I-I didn't, " those were the only words she managed to stutter out. Damn it, Sakura thought. She had no idea what else to say other than, " sorry". The Kunoichi lowered her head and decided to rid the bed sheets of its little balls of loose fluff.

Sasuke found it amusing that Sakura would get so lost in her thought that he was awake the whole time. Describing woman as strange was an underestimation.

"Hn,' was his reply. Deciding to get up and dressed, Sasuke sat up swung his legs over the edge of the bed and rubbed his face with his hands. He pushed himelf up and turned to Sakura. Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, however the knock at the door interrupted his action. Sakura saw a hint of annoyance on Sasuke's expression, but could not assure it was because the Uchiha turned around and headed for the door.

What now? Sasuke thought moodily as he opened the door.

"Good morning Sasuke-sama," Sakura heard a gruff voice coming from the doorway. Curious she craned her neck to see the guard, but Sasuke blocked her view. She wondered what the man wanted so early. Sasuke stared callously at the guard giving no greeting in return.

Nervious the male swallowed the accumulating spit that had formed in his mouth and continued. " I have an important message from Orochimaru-sama. He wishes to see your new training partner," he stated in a weak tone.

Sasuke didn't understand why Orochimaru was so interested in Sakura. His mentor had a nasty habit of getting into his business. He was afraid Orochimaru would want a meeting with Sakura, but he was more afraid of what he might do to Sakura if they were to meet alone. Nothing good would come out of this. The raven-haired teenager didn't want her to go, although knew he couldn't keep her away from him either.

"She's busy. She'll come and see him later today," delaying their 'appointment' was the only thing he could do for now. He started to close the door, but the guard's foot blocked Sasuke from fully closing it.

" You don't understand. Orochimaru-sama would like to see her, now." His tone seemed to change into one of urgency, this made Sasuke moodier. His dark eyes narrowed this man was likely to leave without a foot…

Leaning a bit back he turned his head to Sakura who was sitting on the edge of the bed. She was giving him a questioning look, which he ignored. " Sasuke?" she asked. He ignored her and faced the messenger.

"Give her ten minutes, now leave." He ordered, slamming the door behind him. Not caring whether the man managed to remove his foot or not. " Get dressed," he said to Sakura who still looked puzzled. She wanted to know what was going on. Sakura knew their conversation was about her, but it felt as if she was being kept in the dark about something on purpose. Sasuke would probably spring it on her later. The Uchiha marched to the couch and sat down. His mood had been officially ruined, however no one would say Sasuke was ever in a good mood.

Ten minutes later Sasuke and Sakura were making their way down the familiarly dreary passageway with the sound-nin leading the way.

"Sakura, Orochimaru wants to meet with you," Sasuke said scowling.

Sakura's green eyes widened, " you could of told me earlier". She wasn't really that surprised, the correct term would be uneasy and every step toward his lair now seemed to make Sakura skip a breath. Her fingers played with the hem of her Anbu outfit. Inside Sakura's turmoil of stress made it unbearable to think straight that she was almost at the brink of losing consciousness. Yet she kept her cool, her façade not showing any emotion.

Soon the snake's chamber doors came into view. This only took her back to the first time she was here. The experience was not one of sunshine and happiness.

The guard came to an abrupt stop and reached out to grasp the door handle. Opening the door, he let Sakura step inside first. When Sasuke made a move to go inside he was stopped by a hand being placed on his shoulder. Kabuto walked around Sasuke and then stepped in front of him, still grasping his shoulder firmly.

"I think it will be better if Sakura-chan goes in alone." the Medic-nin said with a menacing grin on his face.

Sasuke's brows furrowed. He had a nagging feeling that something dire was going to happen and Sasuke hated it. He glanced over Kabuto's shoulder barely seeing Saukra's pink hair in the darkness. Sasuke saw Sakura turn slightly to look at him, but before he could see her face properly, Kabuto shut the door. Separating them.

Sakura didn't know what to think when Kabuto closed the door. She was alone, no Sasuke. Wait, I don't need Sasuke, she told herself. I'm Anbu I shouldn't be afraid. Sakura was fully capable of defending herself, but why was she so scared?

The Kunoichi swallowed hard and concentrated on looking ahead of her. The room was considerably darker than the hall, so her eyes had to adjust to the faint flicker of ginger light. Sakura shuffled forward, not sure if that was the right choice.

She readied herself for anything. That however didn't help much for raising her confidence.

She stepped again and stopped. In front of her stood the silhouette of a man. Sakura knew it was no ordinary man. She couldn't see how he could even be considered a man.

"Orochimaru." Sakura had never spoken with so much disgust in her voice. The more she stared at the shadowy figure, the more her fear started to fade. Orochimaru stepped into the dim glow, revealing his pale face and ominous yellow eyes.

"It's good to see you too…Sakura" the ashen-faced man spoke, his voice dripped with an amusing malice.

The girl's eyebrows lifted. How? How can he still remember me? Sakura was shocked and Orochimaru noticed this easily, bringing a sickening smile to his face.

"I knew I saw you before but I just couldn't quite remember where." His voice was calm as he began walking towards Sakura. " I make a point on knowing Sasuke-kun's old team-mates…" Orochimaru said whilst circling Sakura.

Stopping behind her, the sanin lower his head next to her. "You've grown a lot. You're stronger than you were and you're even almost able to keep up with my Sasuke-kun. Very, very impressive." He raised his hand and brushed his fingers through Sakura's pink hair.

Although she was clenching her fists and jaw, Sakura closed her eyes to calm herself, which did not help.

"Don't touch me!" she spat out threateningly. This resulted only in making Orochimaru laugh.

"Sakura, Sakura. As I'm sure you've noticed, this is my domain and I can do anything I wish. As long as you're here, I'll do what a please." This was not something that Sakura wanted to hear.

"Not if I can help it!" Sakura swung her arm at the former Akatsuki mukenin but dodged it and was once again before the kunoichi.

"Don't try my patience girl!" Orochimaru warned. "You are in no position to do so."

"You don't frighten me anymore. You are a traitor. You have betrayed your village, killed many innocent people and have taken Sasuke away from us. You must be a complete lunatic if you think I'm going to take orders from you." Sakura said boldly.

Orochimaru smirked and then moved with immense speed in Sakura's direction. Before she could move, he had already seized her throat with his hand. Sakura gasped for air, his hand restricting any air to get to her lungs.

"I have warned you but you chose to be stubborn," his grip tightened. "You might actually be a problem if you are going to stay here. Well, we're just going to have to fix that now don't we?"

Sasuke stood outside the door. Starting to feel restless, he tapped his foot against the stone floor. Sakura had been inside for merely a few minutes and although he didn't want to admit it, he was worried. Orochimaru could have injured her by now, or worse.

I can't let him hurt her. If he injures her how does he expect me to become stronger? He clicked his tongue and pushed Kabuto out of the way. Swinging the door open he did not care what Orochimaru would do to him. He took a few paces before coming to complete stop. Although his face showed no emotion, inside Sasuke couldn't believe what he was seeing and had to blink a few times before confirming the scene before him was real. Orochimaru's hand was grasped around Sakura's throat and it looked like she was struggling to breathe.

I knew this would happen Sasuke thought angrily.

The snake sanin turned his attention to the young man who had barged in unannounced. Sakura saw an opening and with some effort seized Orochimaru's wrists and ripped them off her throat. Wheezing the bubblegum haired teenager cocked her fist back and collided it with Orochimaru's cheek. This caused the man to stumble back a little. He narrowed his eyes at Sakura and wiped off the blood at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

The young medic took a second to regain her composure. Standing up straight she stared at Orochimaru who looked as if he was about to attack her. On the other side of the room, Sasuke was standing with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. He was impressed that Sakura had the courage to do this to Orochimaru.

"Don't… ever… touch…me…again." Sakura puffed out. She turned to the person behind her and gave him a weak smile.

"Sakura let's go." The raven-haired teenager called to is training partner. Sakura did what he said and stomped over to where Sasuke stood. She didn't even reach him before Orochimaru decided to speak again.

"You should be very lucky Sasuke-kun has a soft spot for you. We both know what would have happened earlier if he didn't have such concern for you and barged in." it seemed as if his words carried a certain disappointment. Disappointed that Sasuke could possible care about Sakura? That he interrupted him? Or maybe it was because of both.

"Come Sakura." Sasuke said again, trying to overlook what the mukenin had just said. Why he wanted to ignore what his mentor had pointed out, not even he knew.

Huge relief passed through Sakura once they were out of the room. She didn't want to spend one more second in the presence of that thing. Orochimaru disgusted her to no end and the reality that Sasuke had chosen to go with him all for the sake of power saddened her.

No… it angered her.

"You know I would have been fine on my own. I could have handled it by myself." Sakura said while glaring directly at the Uchiha.

"Hm really? Was that before or after you couldn't breathe?" Sasuke said while turning to look at the girl who was walking beside him. A faint smirk placed on his hansom face. Sakura was utterly speechless.

Sasuke examined Sakura's expression. She looked like a boulder had just hit her. He was going to ask what was wrong, but when a warm hand was place on his forehead that question flew right out of the window and a new one was formed.

"What are you doing?" his eyebrows knitted as he spoke.

"I'm just checking to see if you have a feverl. Something has to be wrong because the Uchiha Sasuke just made a joke!" Sakura retracted her hand and was smiling so widely that she thought it would be hard to wipe it off.

"You just nearly escaped death and yet have the energy to mock me?" Sasuke didn't know what was wrong with him today. Joking was not really something he would do, but Sakura was changing him and he knew it.

"Excuse you! I couldn't have been farther away from death. I had everything under control." the stubborn Kunoichi crossed her arms. Sakura couldn't believe this was happening. Sasuke was actually acting…normal.

"Sure." the Uchiha responded turning around to start walking but a guard blocked his path. Sakura's smile instantly faded.

"What?" Sasuke snapped. He was not in the mood for another sound-nin.

"Sasuke-sama." the guard bowed, "We have some news that might please you. We've found him. We've found Itachi."

A/n: Whoo we hoped you guys enjoyed it! Tell us what you think, until next time.