Standard disclaimer applied.

Written by Vesper chan

Chapter Ten

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Phlegmatic, Sakura quietly unlocked the western styled door and slipped into her shared room, not really bothering to take notice of how grand it appeared compared to their last place of resting.

Itachi perked up from where he sat on the edge of one of the three beds. Behind him, Sakura could hear the quiet hissing of the shower where Zetsu undoubtedly cleaned himself. Her head was hurting again, but not as badly as it had that morning after breakfast.

"You're back," said Itachi, his tone even and calm. Sakura couldn't detect any emotion in his words.

"I'm sorry I'm late. Were you waiting long?"

"No, not at all."

"Ah, then that's good," she sighed, picking herself up and moving to drop her things in a mess on the floor.

Her weapons pouch, coat and boots came off and were kicked against the wall. She chose the bed next to Itachi's, the middle one, and flopped down, face first. She was too tired to move much more.

"Were you able to purchase all you needed, Sakura san?"

The pink haired girl looked up out of the corner of her eye, tiredly examining Itachi's posture. He stared straight ahead at the blank wall, not even turning his face towards her. Somehow she felt a bit of pity for his situation. He was a proud guy, but that didn't change the face that he was as sightless as a bat on a new moon night.

"Yeah, I got a lot, but I think I should put the rest of the guys to work on hunting or something during the winter. They're sure to get tired of ramen after a while and we have plenty of game that high up."

"They will eat what you give them."

"Willingly? Pff, probably not, and I can bet you there will be whining involved." She thought back to Ren and Hidan and winced. "Lots of whining."

"They will eat what you give them."

It didn't seem like Itachi was up for a debate. He was right, and there was no way around his words. She got a feeling not many people disagreed with him during his time with the Akatsuki. Sakura couldn't argue, so she decided to take their conversation in a different direction.

"Ah... Did you two get everything you needed?"

"We did."

"Oh...well, that's good." She waited for him to say something in reply, but he didn't speak. He just stared out in front of him with unseeing eyes shaded and covered by bangs of midnight hanging like drapes on a window. Somehow Sakura caught herself staring at what little she could see of his face and blushed. She tore her eyes away and rolled over in bed, away from him. "When did Zetsu go in for a shower?"

"Close to an hour ago it seems. He enjoys the water more so than most because of his...unique nature."

"Plants need water." He didn't reply. "Did you have dinner?"

He shook his head.

"Do you want dinner?"

"I am not hungry."

Sakura huffed, tired of trying to be nice. If he didn't want to talk than that was fine. She wasn't too fond of him anyway. Her original thinking was something along the lines of him being something like the devil without the smile, and while that mental image had since been chased away, she still thought of him as something close to a demon. Too many memories and stories and rumors plagued her to trust him so soon.

Still, she looked over her shoulder and him and frowned while pulling back the covers. He wasn't all that bad. He was polite to her at the very least. He wasn't the most helpful guy she had ever known, but he did make an effort, small as it was, to aid her in what she was doing. He was better than Hidan at least.

She pull off her sock and sleeveless top, leaving her in her pants and undershirt. He couldn't see her lack of clothing so it wasn't a big deal for the normally conservative woman who was quick to huddle under covers and beckon sleep. She stilled, closing her eyes and forcing her heart to straighten out. She thought she was about to fall asleep when she heard Itachi move. The shower had stopped and someone was climbing around in the bathroom, getting dressed most likely.

Itachi had stood and moved around to stand in the space between her bed and his, or at least that is what it sounded like. She had her back to him so she could only peace together his movements by sound and sense. Wondering what he was doing she turned to look over her shoulder and nearly jumped out of her skin. He stood between their beds alright, a perfectly even distance from either with his face turned toward her own, staring with what seemed like endless holes in his skull. In the dim light of the room it was enough to nearly kill her. She was thankful he was blind and couldn't see the look on her face, though he probably picked up on her shock through other means.

"Itachi, is there something you need?" she asked.

"What did you hear to make you this restless?"

She blinked, thinking back to her Naruto discovery. "What do you mean, I didn't-"

"You heard something." He didn't say anything more but the stern tone he used transformed it into force with a little add on that demanded she share her information with her. And of course, you never deny an Uchiha man what he wants because by hell, he will get what he wants. She wanted to keep her secrets to her herself, but it looked like she would have to try a whole lot harder to get it past Itachi.

"It isn't something so important that you have to concern yourself with it, but there was a rumor that a friend of mine was being perused by root operates specializing in tracking. If he was caught he is probably dead by now, linage or not."

"Is this what Leaf as become?"

"You wouldn't recognize it. Under Danzo all the old ideals and morals were blotted out in the red blood of corruption. I myself would have been executed if he had the sort of control over the elders that he now has. Now he doesn't need a believable reason to exterminate the ones with opposing viewpoints."

"Banishment is a rare thing in the ninja world. How did you achieve that?"

Sakura looked up at Itachi with suspicious eyes, not exactly comfortable with the details of one of the darkest moments in her life. "I hadn't betrayed the village, only violated ethic codes on some matter or another. To keep their good name they needed to cut me loose, but my crime wasn't so terrible it deserved death. I was banished with a seal of commitment never to join another countries' military or aid them in any way against Leaf. Those contracts are as binding as any power on this earth, so I was allowed to leave with my life-something not many others could manage."

"And your development of the solider pills we came here to sell is still allowed by this contract?"

"It's a gray area. I don't know where they go, so as far as this seal goes," Sakura jabbed her forehead. "I'm keeping up my end of the deal. But that doesn't really matter anymore since that seal disappeared when you guys sucked out all my chakra. I must have died in my sleep without realizing it or something triggered the turn off."

"It would make sense."

"It would?"

Itachi nodded his head downwards slowly, possibly thinking his next words over. "Yes, many seals are nullified with the escape of a large amount of chakra; an amount large enough to kill the user. When we were revived, enough chakra to fill multiple men was lost, in turn, disabling your second seal."

"Thank you by the way. I feel so safe without my Yin seal to fall back on," Sakura joked, regretting it as soon as it left her lips. Even when laughing, that wasn't something she should mention around any of them.

It was something that someone who wasn't a ninja would never understand. Cause there is honor and pride in the world still for most of those who carry the ninja name, doing something similar to what Itachi and the others had done was near taboo. If they did it with evil intent than maybe it wouldn't be this awkward, but that wasn't the case. Maybe they were devils, but they didn't want to hurt her like she thought they would. They were living off her kindness and her life force, after all, and they seemed like they wanted to help her. Either way Sakura could see the shame and anger tighten the skin around Itachi's eyes and hastened to remedy it.

"But it's not such a big deal! I don't use it much anyway. It's not like I'll miss it. You know, living like a hermit most of the time isn't all that taxing so you shouldn't feel bad."

Itachi didn't say anything, but after a moment turned and readied himself to climb into his own bed. Sakura frowned to no one, mentally slapping herself in the face. Great, now she had gone and made him angry, and right after she had been able to get him talking. At least she thought he was angry. He would probably never strike up a conversation with her again.

Zetsu came out from the bathroom fully dressed and ready for bed. On his way over to the last bed he turned the wall switch off, plunging the room into darkness. Sakura tried to fall asleep after that, but could still hear things in the room. Right before drifting off she could have sworn she heard Itachi say 'We apologize,' but then again, it was late and she was tired, so she probably only dreamed it up.

The night passed quickly enough for the three of them, but for Sakura especially. Waking up was like pulling upwards out of a vat of tree sap. Her eyes refused to stay open for long and her her limbs protested loudly with creaks and pops as she maneuvered onto her hands and knees while still under the sheets.

Blinking quickly, she rubbed her face and yawned. When she pulled her fingers away from her eyes she saw her pillow, stained darkly with blood. She touched some of it and found it old and nearly dried. Old traces of the substance caked to her skin from below her nostrils. She had another nose bleed in the middle of the night, something she hadn't experienced since landing a seat on team seven's squad.

'Stress?' she wondered. That had been the cause of it years ago. She didn't think anyone would blame her for being stressed considering her current situation. Most people would feel a bit odd about sleeping next to a cannibal and a mass murderer of his own family.

She didn't allow herself much time to dwell on it since beside her she could hear Itachi stirring. Zetsu remained immobile, still soundly asleep. How she had managed to wake up before either of them was beyond her comprehension. Quietly and quickly, she hurried to strip her pillow of its covering and turn over the stained side so no one else would notice it right away. Itachi of course wouldn't see it, but he might notice if the smell was strong, so she had to wash the pillow cover before he could get up.

The room swayed and sank all around her as she stumbled towards the bathroom. Somehow she managed to steady herself enough to reach the sink. There she dropped in the soiled fabric and watched as the newly turned on water spread the red around before sucking it down the drain. She turned to look away when she heard someone press his sheets into a rumple. Itachi was sitting up, getting out of bed with less trouble than it had taken her.

"Itachi, you don't need to..." Her eyes were too heavy to stay open and she fell to the floor, loudly hitting her knees on the ground.

He didn't say anything but she felt his sharp breathing as he rushed to her side to steady her on her knees. She swayed a bit under his large hands so he pulled her closer to his chest. "Don't try to stand, not yet."

"I'm just tired, Itachi... What are you doing awake?"

"Hm," he grunted, righting her against a wall and pulling away. "Watching out for you, apparently. When was the last time you ate?"

"The restaurant with you and Zetsu."

"If you've skipped two meals and lost as much blood as you have I wouldn't be surprised if you faint along the way."

Sakura's eyes widened. "How did you know about that?"

"I didn't, not until just now when you confirmed it, but I did smell blood, too much for a monthly cycle. What caused it?"

Only Itachi could get away with mentioning her period in such a manner and still appear dominate in the conversation. If it had been anyone else Sakura would have hit them upside the head. She had done so plenty a time before when Naruto had teased her about her time of the month during emotional outbursts. Sakura couldn't manage to imagine smacking Itachi upside the head for talking about her girly issues. It seemed too dangerous an adventure.

"It's nothing, only a nose bleed. I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

"That heavy?" He wasn't looking at her when he asked, but stared at the wall behind her like a blind person would.

Sakura ran a moist hand through her hair, pushing it out of her eyes. "You are just extra sensitive to things like smell. It wasn't a heavy nose bleed, just a small one caused by stress."

She saw his eyebrows furrow. "We are... stressing you?"

"Not you per say. I mean, I'm not all kitten and roses about the whole situation concerning you and the others, but that's not my main worry at the moment. I told you about my friend last night and I can't stop thinking about him. Aside from that I haven't heard from others who I expected to keep in touch with. This moth has been...amazingly difficult for me." Sakura laughed weakly to herself. "In fact, if the lot of you hadn't shown up I would have worried myself to death about the well being of certain people. Thank kami for small mercies, huh?"

Itachi didn't say anything, but eventually reached out to touch her elbow. He held his fingers to her skin for a while before speaking. "Are you steady enough to stand, yet?"

She sighed, chastising herself for appearing before someone in such a pitiful manner. "I'm fine. I can get up on my own. Maybe you should rouse Zetsu." She pulled herself away and climbed to her feet by her own power. For whatever reason she refused to look at Itachi after pulling out of his touch. "I would like to leave as soon as possible."

"Of course." The way he said it suggested there was something else he wanted to ask or tell her. She should have just ignored it and pushed on, but acting out of character she ran her hands through her hair and asked.

"Is there something else, Itachi?"

His face turned towards her voice, searching through the blur that made up his vision for her eyes. He stared into her and for a moment Sakura forgot he was blind. He made the effort to look at her when he talked. "Do you typically loose chakra when you have nose bleeds?"

"Huh? I don't, not that I can recall. Why?"

He turned his face away from her and moved to the end of the bed where his things rested. "You should eat before we leave." And that was all.

She shouldn't have given it much thought, it was probably just Itachi thinking of the future and what troubles would arise if one companion fell behind due to poor health choices, but she couldn't shake the feeling of concern, and that got under her skin. He wouldn't care about her any more than he had to, he just wouldn't, and she would do well to remember that. Entertaining the notion that he might actually/possible/if only a little bit, care for her was not in her nature. What was she becoming?

Closing her eyes she gave herself a mental checkup, scanning chakra reserves and sugar levels and what not. Itachi had been right about the eating, so she popped a specially crafted solider pill from her bag and ate a rice patty from yesterday. It wasn't the tastiest thing in the world, but it had a lot of injected vitamins in it so she forced it down. It felt like sandpaper on her tongue when she got to the center of it and nearly gagged out loud.

"Hehe, you could have just waited till we found a restaurant to stop at." Zetsu laughed from his bed. He was staring at her with a face splitting grin of jagged teeth, and glowing yellow orbs for eyes. There were no pupils to pinpoint, so it felt like he was looking at all of her at once as well as eye to eye at the same time. Freaky man/men indeed.

"It's kind of early for that, don't you think?" Sakura asked, swallowing the rest. Indeed it was still dark out, but just barely.

"Not if you know where to go. There are plenty of 24 hour places for ninja and travelers. You have to admit, most anything would be preferable to what you just ate. You should have seen your face, it was f-ing hilarious! So much fun to wake up to."

"Has anyone ever told you, Zetsu, that you're a whizz a pillow talk. What woman wouldn't want to wake up to that in the morning?"

'The one without her head,' she thought silently.

He seemed thoughtful in his answer, actually thinking it over before speaking, "I wouldn't know. I've never entertained one with life long enough to discover."

Itachi dropped his pack on the bed with a muffled thud, meaning to sound as loud as possible with his work. From the looks of it, he appeared ready for departure. His coat was on and every button done up except the two closest to his neck. He probably left it like that so he could reach in real quick and pull weapons out if the need arose.

"You should arm yourself before leaving, Zetsu."

"You believe we will encounter hostilities?" The lighter side had taken over for this conversation, but it still seemed to carry some black sided snap in every word. How odd.

"It never does any harm to be prepared, but even if I do no believe, I would not want to be a burden on the only one who can use chakra here."

The two exchanged looks and it felt like they were having a conversation only Sakura couldn't enter. Once Itachi mentioned her something seemed to click between them. Maybe it was a pride thing that had everything to do with neither of them being as powerful as they once were. Sakura would imagine it being humiliating to suffer so great a loss in front of someone they had to rely on from then on.

"I'll be ready in a minute," Sakura interrupted, turning her back on both of them to collect her things and slip her outer shirt on. She had forgotten in light of the blood mess that she had been walking around in only her undershirt. At least Itachi couldn't see, right?

She heard Zetsu sigh and move behind her, picking up things and dropping them into his bags. There was the familiar snap of a strings on a drawstring bag being pulled and then the shuffling of shoes across floor. Zetsu walked in front of her to stand by the door where his coat had been abandoned. Sakura looked up after finishing the straps on her weapon pouch and followed him to where her coat was stuff under all the others.

The bi colored male was out the door first with Sakura close behind, slowing down so Itachi wasn't left too far behind. She didn't want to seem pitying, but it was obvious to her how much his lack of sight was affecting him. Without his mangekyou sharingan to act like glasses, everything was too dim to discern no doubt. It Itachi noticed her slow down for him or knew why she did it he didn't complain or draw attention to it. His face was how it always was; unchanging.

Zetsu left the keys an change at the desk, noticing that there was no one present. Someone was probably up watching them, but they won't stir unless they tried to leave without paying. That's the way things were run regardless of where you were. Ninja existed everywhere.

"Oh god, so chilly," Sakura breathed, once the outside air hit her.

The darker side of Zetsu chuckled only to choke as the other half of the face pulled against his movements. He mumbled something like 'your one to talk' to himself before pressing forward with his head bowed. It wasn't long before sakura noticed how he shivered in the late autumn/early winter temperatures.

Behind her Sakura felt Itachi pick his pace up and had to struggle to stay ahead of him. He passed her and Zetsu in one moment and continued moving forward.

"What's the rush?" Zetsu barked, more annoyed than curious.

"The faster you move the sooner we will be there. At least try to build body heat, Zetsu san."

"You sure you know where you're going, Uchiha?"

Itachi just 'hn'ed and kept walking forward, eyes unblinking and clear like black glass. It seemed the two were more confrontational than they had been when coming down. What caused that was something Sakura couldn't quite understand.

Their hotel had been deep in the town, closer to the rest of Iwa civilization rather than the mountains where Sakura hid out, so it took a bit longer to reach the end. By the time there were passing the last few houses and stores the owners were coming out with their signs and outdoor tables. The sun was up by this point.

Sakura felt frozen dew drops on the blades of grass that were crushed underfoot and was reminded of how cold it could get the higher they climbed. Snow would be coming soon and if they were caught in it coming down it wouldn't be any good for walking. It was faster running down the terrain side than climbing up it, but only slightly because of the trees and tangle that could really mess you up if you ran into them at any high speed.

Looking up, the pink haired woman saw dark smudges of clouds choking out the sky and sun. Spurred on by the possibility of getting caught in what was a very possible snowstorm, Sakura increased her speed without the aid of chakra. Her pills were working wonderfully so she was on full by now, but neither of her companions could keep up with her if she used chakra over long distances. In three hours the town they had left behind was merely a fist sized clump of brown down in the distance.

That was when Zetsu stopped.

"Did you feel that?" he asked, sounding serious.

"Feel what?" Sakura asked. She waited, stopped as well, but could feel nothing. "What should I be feeling?"

Itachi seemed tense, having felt it as well.

Zetsu only turned to look towards the town and pointed to a small mushroom like cloud from the outskirts closest to where Sakura's home was located. "Someone was using explosions."

"What? Are they headed this way?" Sakura asked.

"They'll overtake us in a few hours if we don't push it," Itachi cut in, turning and walking off, waiting for the others to follow.

Zetsu grunted in agreement, turning as well to start running. "It's best if we try to avoid them regardless of who they are or what they want. Sakura are there any other residents up in the mountains they could be headed towards?"

"Yeah, there are one or two other places, but I don't know if any of them are in use this late in the season. Hey-uh what?" Zetsu had grabbed Skura's wrist and pulled her forward, swinging her in front of him while running. "What are you doing?"

"Fuyuki has chakra and can fight. You need to run ahead and bring him to us. We'll keep heading in the direction of your cabin but you'll need to not let us hold you back."

"But you two-"

"For all you know it could be Leaf ANBU." Itachi added, still running and looking ahead as if he were not blind. "Regardless, your protection is top priority. We have not forgotten what would happen to us if you should die."

"Itachi you-"

This time it was the Uchiha to grab her and yank her forward. His face turned towards her own and Sakura would have sworn in that moment that he could see her as perfectly as any other man. His features were sharp and his eyes narrowed with annoyance and determination. There was no arguing with him when he looked like that. He could have been a fallen angel in all his frightful beauty. "You. Will. Go. Now."

This time Sakura didn't try to protest. She jerked forward and felt the lead ease out of her legs as chakra was pumped into her tendons and toes. Her speed doubled and than tripled, leaving the two other Akatsuki members in her dust.

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Hi...

I missed you guys.

I just noticed I haven't been adding lyrics to each chapter. Forgot about that...oh well, it's not important. Heh...Itachi is melting my heart a little bit each time. He's not the type to fall in love right away, but depending on Sakura as much as he does he is bound to care for her, don't you think? I like writing him but I'm looking forward to the guy who will show up in the next chapter and the other males who will came back. Deidara needs some attention and poor Hidan is like...non existent, poor sap.

I'm sorry this took so long to update, but like I said, I have work now and school. It's crazy as hell since I'm going somewhere 7 days a week. Every morning I wake up early and go somewhere so my spirit is in terrible shape for creative writing. I'm actually surprised I could get this much done. I hope you all liked it somewhat.

Just Review!