{Well! Here's the next chappi! I hope you all like it :P I got some great ideas for the future from my lovely friend Alice-chan, so don't worry… I know where I'm goin with all this XD have fun!}
Itachi and Sasori turned a corner through the trees, and were confronted with a large inn, framed in the sunlight of a new morning.
Itachi shut his eyes briefly, then opened them again.
"They're here, Sasori."
"Good. Are we going to confront them now, or wait for dark?"
"Pein wants us to be as quick as possible."
"And I hate to wait."
"So now?"
"Now."
After this was settled, the two entered the reception room of the hotel. A skinny, pockmarked teen stood behind a counter, doing what looked like filling out forms. He looked up from his papers and coughed.
"Hello sirs, what can I do for you today." He didn't ask it like a question. He said it like a demand. Then he noticed that one of the men had strangely coloured eyes, and the other wasn't shaped like a human.
Then he noticed nothing, because he was lying on the floor, unconcious.
**
The group assembled to retrieve Sasuke stood around a certain two members.
Sakura, Naruto, and Sai looked worriedly (well, Sai's expression was blank, so we'll just have to assume) down at Kakashi and Gaara, two boys who had not made any signs of waking yet, and it was already eight in the morning.
"Should we wake them up?" Naruto asked this for the eighth time.
"No!" Sakura wouldn't tell the other two why she was so against the idea.
"Isn't the mission our top priority? We should wake them up so we can continue on our journey." Sai reached down to poke the sleeping Kakashi's face.
"Stop!" Sakura grabbed the dark-haired boy's wrist and pulled his hand away from Kakashi. After her sensei's conffession, and hers, they had kissed gently before going to bed. Kakashi had felt too sick to stay up any later. She knew that the poor man needed his sleep, or his hang over would be blantantly obvious to the other members of the team. And she knew Kakashi could loose his job for that.
"You know best, so all right." Sakura wasn't really sure why Sai would think she knew best, or what she knew best about, but she was just glad he wasn't attempting to awake Kakashi any longer.
Meanwhile, Naruto was knelt down by Gaara, peering into the other boy's face intently, as if that would wake him up.
"What are you doing?" Sakura frowned.
"I'm… Wondering."
"Wondering? We don't have time for wondering!" Sakura frowned deeper. "Get up Naruto! Let's eat some breakfast, so we actually have some energy – " Sakura found that she couldn't breath for a second. Kakashi had turned in his sleep, so now his (masked) face was visible, his loose silver hair tangled around his relaxed features. His appearance had taken her breath away.
"Some energy…?" Naruto prompted her. Sakura ripped her gase from Kakashi's figure.
"Some energy for running across water and bridges and through towns and for confronting Sasuke!"
"Oh." Naruto stood and made his way to the breakfast room.
Sai nodded and followed, because he wanted to look like he belonged.
Sakura waited until the two were gone before giving Kakashi a soft kiss on the forehead. Then she followed the two boys.
**
Itachi watched as a blonde boy ran down the halll towards him and Itachi. He stood still, observing how both him and a dark haired boy and soon after a pink haired girl skidded to a stop in front of him and Sasori.
"Ah. Naruto."
"This is him?"
"Yes."
"Are you ready, Itachi?"
"Of course."
**
Naruto looked dumbfoundly at the two Akatsuki facing him. Their appearance was so sudden he really didn't have a chance to do anything but let his jaw drop open… Before a long, segmented, razor-sharp tail flew out from under the cloak of the low, wide Akatsuki member.
"Kage Bunshin no Justu!"
Three Narutos appeared. One ran forward, holding a kunai with an aggressive expression. The other two made a combination rasengan, and came flying down, a huge explosion crushing Sasori's outer shell.
Itachi stood by and watched the happenings. The dark haired boy painted something on a large scroll, and flourished it in the direction of Itachi. A huge two-dimensional lion melted off the paper and growled at the Uchiha.
Itachi took one glance at the boy and he was on his knees on the ground, the lion collapsing into a pile of ink.
The newly freed Sasori stood from his low puppet-capsule, muttering something to himself. Itachi believed it to be something like "now I'll have to rebuild it again…" Itachi was surprised once again with Sasori's human body.
The man was extraordinarily good –looking, that was for sure. He had long dark lashes and a peculiarly dark red shade of wavy, chin length hair. His skin was a smooth, pale, golden color. His eyes were the color of sand in the morning. He had an amused, and a little annoyed, expression on his face. That rasengan had come out of nowhere.
Sakura stood, amazed. There had been no warning… They had just… Stumbled upon the Akatsuki. She was angry at the two boys for jumping into battle so quickly. They should have waited for Kakashi to wake up and –
"Sakura! Get back!"
She turned to see Kakashi , standing as if it were a challenge, his sharingan eye exposed.
**
Kakashi was viewing this scene through a thick haze of headache and hangover clouded vision.
All he really knew was that Sakura was in trouble, and, well, so was the rest of his team.
"All of you! Back!" He found that his voice was hoarse. What had he done last night? All he really remembered was drinking a lot of sake… And… Had he seen Sakura, too? He faintly remembered kissing her, her hair damp and smelling of cinnamon… Pay attention, he chided himself, if you don't… Well, then, you'll probably be killed.
It was Itachi. And Sasori, two of the most feared Akatsuki.
"Don't…" He began feebly, then attempted to add more volume into his speech once Sakura and Naruto were behind him. "Don't look into Itachi's eyes… Or else you'll end up like Sai…"
Sai was still on his knees, looking at the carpeted floor beneath him as if it were the death of everyone he loved, the written account of every bit of pain he had inflicted on another human. He looked utterly frightened and horrified.
Sakura reached forward and pulled him behind Kakashi with the rest of the group. She gave him a sharp slap, and he seemed to get over it, but did not appear to be able to speak any time soon.
"Kakashi of the Sharingan." It was Itachi speaking. His voice sounded calm.
"Itachi Uchiha."
"Itachi, he doesn't look too good. Are we really going to take out such an easy target? If I'm correct, he has a hangover. Is that even fair?" Itachi turned to Sasori and seemed to be deep in thought.
Naruto glanced up at Kakashi. He must have taken advantage of the free sake last night, as well as Gaara. But… Kakashi? Drinking on a mission? Something was definitely wrong.
"Sasori. Now is not the time."
"It isn't?"
"No. Let's go."
The redhead looked completely confused and angry.
"But –Pein will get really, really angry if we come back without a jinjuriki. We have to bring Naruto back!"
"Let's get a different one. Now. Is. Not. The. Time." The finality of Itachi's words even frightened Kakashi in his woozy state. Still, the man's voice was utterely calm and controlled.
Sasori seemed to get the idea.
"Bye guys. We may meet at a later date." He gave a little wave before picking up the pieces of his shattered puppet and following Itachi out of a window.
The mission (minus Gaara) stood, silently, only just registering what had happened .
**
"Well," Naruto exclaimed, "this shows that the Akatsuki are after me." He looked at Sakura's pale face. She looked, literally, as if she had just seen a ghost. "You okay, Sakura-chan?"
The girl just nodded.
"Okay. Do you guys want to go wake up Gaara?"
The others followed Naruto back into the hotel room.
Gaara was just sitting up, holding his head.
**
How much sake did I drink last night? I hope I didn't do anything I'll regret in the future… Did it have something to do with Naruto? And stars? Hmm…
**
The rest of the group filled Gaara in on what had happened.
They decided, against Naruto's insistent please otherwise, that they would stay until the evening so as to let Sai rest and recover from the mangekyo sharingan attack. Or that's what Kakashi said. He really needed the rest for himself, and he supposed that Gaara did too.
**
Sakura didn't know what to think.
Seeing Itachi's face had brought back such potent memories of Sasuke… Well… She didn't know what to think…
**
In a deep underground cavern, a poisonous voice slicked the air with its evil tones.
"Sasuke…"
"Orochimaru-sama?"
The candle-light of the lanterns hanging from the walls flickered off the face of an extremely handsome boy. He was practicing the handsigns of some sort of evil jutsu. His fingers made the patterns over and over again, etching the memory of the jutsu into his very hands.
"Itachi Uchiha is at an inn only a day's journey from here. I thought you should know… If you think you are ready…"
Sasuke lifted his eyes up sharply from his hands.
"Do you give me leave?"
"I do…"
And without further hesitation, Sasuke left the room, a cool fire of intense hate burning through him.
{I don't really have much to say here, cept REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! Is that clear, dahlings? XD but really -.- it doesn't take much time to give me your opinion, and it makes the fanfic that much bettah! I cant make it more like you want it if you don't tell me how you want it! XD luv ya, ja na!}