Senko: I am so very sorry for leaving you readers like that xD but I just had to. Evil, eh?
sakuraasakura So sorry for such a late update D: and as for the ItaSaku scenes...eh...uh...('.') aha...ha o.O; well, uh I think you'll hate me for this chapter? T-T
Rain YimikoNatsuya: Nuuuh :) your reply (as you said on my DA) is not short XD the cookies and lollipops made up for it! X3 lol
JUCHKO: OMGOMG :D I feel so honored to have you review to my story! I love you and I love your awesome awesome awesome fanfics! XD
Infinity Edge: I have a beta reader, but of course I still appreciate more beta offers because it would help my writing more ;) are you offering?
Many thanks to ayane04, MinakoeternallyfallingsnowXinoria, ANBU InuSkullcandy, Yukiko, InuKeiferRandomTopic, Heartless Ghostiedeviltwit, 43InuAsha, CosenAngelunbeatablehinataHao'sAnjulSkivaVixenitachi-samaa.k.acathrun, Gothic Saku-chan, Sakura2.0, Deidaras Masterpiece WinglessFallenAngel, les-liaisons-dangereuseskattylin UchihaSakura95, renyunBlackBaccaraRose, Mayumi Crescent Moon and mahalo4ursupport for reviewing!
Last but not least, super special thanks to my awesome beta-reader Alphadale for beta-ing :D What would I ever do without you :O
Disclaimer:Me no own. Duh.
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Chapter 10
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To Sakura, it felt as though time itself had stopped. It was as though she was in a movie, and her audience had malevolently pressed the pause button on the remote control, leaving her frozen in front of her former Uchiha teammate. She felt the urge to run up to him, to smile at him and tell him how everyone had missed him, to ask him how he had been all these years, and to try to convince him to stay with them.
But her gentle grip on the hand of Sasuke's older brother, prevented her from doing such things.
Here she was, standing in the center of everything not knowing what to do. For so many years, she had pined the attention of Uchiha, Sasuke, and although he had decided to leave her and everything else that he had for revenge, she could never find it in her heart to hate him. Now the one time she had finally seen him again, she was holding the hand of his ultimate enemy.
At the same time though, she couldn't bring herself to leave Itachi. She had come to learn too much about the Uchiha brothers, and now she found it impossible for her to leave either one.
"What is this, Sakura?" Sasuke's ever so smooth voice spoke, earning a blink from Sakura as she was dragged away from her thoughts.
"S-Sasuke-kun," she managed to choke out.
"You've grown," he smirked, but his smirk soon disappeared and was replaced with a frown as his eyes shifted to focus on his younger/older brother. "It's too bad your companion didn't. I wonder why?"
Itachi remained silent as his gaze with Sasuke locked. He had wanted to aid Sasuke in avenging the Uchiha clan but now that he was facing his brother, he wasn't sure what to do. Run up and hug him?
"Why are you here...Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, slightly tightening her grip around Itachi's hand.
"So eager to have me leave?"
"No! No, of course not, Sasuke-kun," Sakura exclaimed, a weak smile on her face. Sasuke's intentions were unknown to her but regardless of whatever they were; she definitely did not want him to be under the false belief that she no longer welcomed him. "It's just...surprising."
"Sasuke-kun!" a voice squealed. It was a woman with red hair, and she was running towards the direction of Sasuke, followed by two other men. "Suigetsu and Juugo just fought some guards. If we leave now, (a fangirl-ish glint shined in her eyes) you and I can escape together."
"Hn. Be quiet, Karin," he said, his eyes never even looking at her to acknowledge her. Instead his eyes were glued to the two figures before him, taking notice of the closeness of Sakura and Itachi. "I see you're as weak as always, Sakura."
"Sakura?" Karin peered over at the rosette kunoichi, her index and middle fingers brought up to the side of her glasses, adjusting it.
"Sakura is not weak," Itachi spoke up at last, defending the girl he was infatuated with. "You shouldn't judge someone without knowing who they are."
Itachi was surprised to receive a glare from his brother. "You think you know her better than I do? I know her longer and better than you ever could! Sakura is weak and she'll always be weak! To be so intimate with someone of your nature (his eyes shifted to look at Sakura), how pathetic."
"It's not like that!" Sakura argued, not wanting Sasuke to think anything bad of her.
"You've betrayed me," Sasuke said in a low growl.
Itachi questioned what Sasuke had meant by that statement. He knew that Sakura would never betray a friend, and he also knew there was no way Sakura would have committed a betrayal by...going to the movies with Itachi?
Sakura could feel tears stinging her eyes, and her hand that was still around Itachi's hand, unconsciously tightened in infuriation before she finally let go of her hold on him. Of all the times she had stayed by his side when he was injured, of all the times she had woken up in the middle of the night worried about him and praying he was all right, and of all the times she had cried for him. "I did not betray you, Sasuke!"
"Then why-"
"Don't even try to pretend to be innocent!" Sakura glowered at him, her eyes lit up in rage. "What about the hope that everyone and I had for you? We gave you everything, but you betrayed all of us. You have no right to come back here acting innocent like you've done nothing wrong! I did not deceive you, so don't accuse me of betrayal when you don't even know the truth!
"The truth?" Sasuke growled, drawing the blade of his sword. "I know the fact that you're with Itachi, and that's all I need to know. I won't allow him to keep on taking everything away from me!"
And with that, Sasuke lunged towards the direction of Itachi with his sword in hand. Sakura gasped and attempted to cover Itachi, but he was quicker and shoved her away before dodging Sasuke's attack.
Just when Sakura thought she was safe, she sensed a kunai directed at her and instantly jumped out of the way. The kunai flew past her and dug into a nearby wooden fence. Sakura looked into the direction of the kunai to see Karin standing there, a smirk on her face. "You should show some respect to Sasuke-kun."
"Karin," the buff man said in a warning tone.
"I know, I know, Juugo," Karin glared at Sakura.
"Then you shouldn't, you know," said another man, a skinnier one, recalling a certain event and understanding the consequences of killing this pink-haired kunoichi before them.
"I won't kill her, Suigetsu, as much as I would love to."
Sasuke sat leaning against the wall of the hotel room, the giant window right above him, allowing the moon's illumination to gently beat against his skin. As always, he looked so perfect. To save money, the four of them would always rent a room and share it. After all, it wasn't as though any of them needed any major privacy.
"Sasuke-kun, you should really get some sleep," Karin said, worried about the boy who was bandaged up. It had been days since they left Orochimaru's hideout.
Unluckily for them, while Sasuke had been left with Karin (much to his dismay), and Suigetsu and Juugo went to hunt for food, they had been attacked. They had been to a town earlier that day before continuing on their trek to Konohagakure and apparently, a villager must have spotted someone from their group and recognized the person – most likely Sasuke – and alerted ANBU. The ANBU then began to scout the area and found Sasuke's team and attacked.
Reflecting back on the events, Sasuke was infuriated because of his lack of power. He was successful in fending off the ANBU members, but a year and a half with Orochimaru didn't get him enough power yet. He mentally noted to bother Orochimaru for more training when he returned.
So here he sat in a weakened state.
Suigetsu sighed. "I knew I should have stayed. If I was with Sasuke, we could have seriously kicked those ANBUs' asses. I bet you just sat there and played princess while Sasuke had to be burdened with saving you, huh, Karin?"
"S-Shut up!" Karin argued. "I fought some!"
"Some," Suigetsu sighed, "but not enough, right Scaredy-cat?"
"You bastard!" she screamed in anger, getting up and walking over to him to commence 'kicking the crap out of him'. Normally, here would be the perfect time for Sasuke to tell them to quit fighting.
But that didn't happen.
Instead, Sasuke's light chuckle filled the dark room.
And three pairs of eyes darted over to Sasuke's direction, shocked at this. Sasuke had always been so stoic and serious, so straight-to-the-point, indifferent, impatient, and never tolerating such childish behavior.
"Sasuke...?" Juugo whispered, unsure of whether Sasuke was being possessed by some unknown force.
"You two are funny," Sasuke remarked upon being reminded of how he and his former blonde teammate used to act, earning even more confused gazes from his present teammates.
Clang.
Itachi's shuriken came into contact with Sasuke's own shurikens and both were deflected. He had to admit that he was impressed with Sasuke's abilities; in fact, Sasuke rivaled him in strength as of now. The only thing he was disappointed about was the fact that instead of fighting alongside his brother, he was fighting against his brother.
Why was this so?
Was this really the brother he had known?
"I think he meant Karin's face looks funny," Suigetsu teased, earning a deadly glower from Karin that went unseen in the dark.
(1) "Do you miss them?" Juugo asked out of the blue.
Suigetsu, Karin, and Sasuke looked over at Juugo's dark figure that rested against a wall adjacent to the one Sasuke was leaning against. Suigetsu and Karin stopped their arguing, pondering why Juugo would ask such a question, and why he would even dare to ask it to Sasuke.
Clearly, Sasuke was not the type to smile and say "I love everyone and miss everyone; flowers and bunnies are my favorite and I want to go back home to Konoha." Well that was exaggerated, but you get the point.
There was an eerie silence in the room as Sasuke's teammates awaited his answer. When he gave none, Suigetsu and Karin were prepared to return to their dispute. But it was then that Sasuke interfered.
"Sometimes."
The words came out so smoothly, and his three teammates sat there in disbelief at what had happened. Sasuke had told them something personal.
"Who?" Karin asked, wanting to have a clarification of what the two boys were talking about.
"Man, you're retarded," Suigetsu said. Everyone knew that Sasuke had belonged to the Leaf before joining Orochimaru, so what other "them" could he be possibly missing? It was most definitely Konoha that Juugo was referring to.
"Then why did you do it?" Juugo questioned further.
Sasuke exhaled, leaning closer against the wall and closing his eyes. "Because sometimes we must give up the things we want about in order to obtain the things we need."
Sakura leapt backwards to evade the punch that Karin had thrown at her. She didn't know who this girl was, but all she knew was that it was an enemy. Yet at the same time she couldn't bring herself to seriously face this opponent because this girl was Sasuke's comrade.
'Focus, Sakura!' her inner self screamed. 'She's an enemy!'
'Alright, focus...' Sakura told herself inwardly and inhaled. Sakura gathered the chakra into her fist, lunged towards Karin to close the wide gap between them and punched the ground, causing the ground to erupt. She saw a look of shock appear on Karin's face for a split second but to her dismay, the man Karin had referred to as Suigetsu, jumped in and pushed her away.
"Man, you're so weak," he said, dropping her on the ground.
"Shut up!" she screamed, glaring at him.
"Watch how it's done, Scaredy-cat," Suigetsu said, immediately launching himself at Sakura.
"I can fight too!" Karen exclaimed, taking out a few shurikens and aiming them at Sakura in an attempt to stop Suigetsu from taking all the credit.
"The life of a shinobi is never easy," Juugo's whisper was barely heard throughout the quiet room.
The two Uchihas stood a good distance away from one another, gently panting from their fight. But of course as Uchihas they tried to suppress it and act as though they were almighty. For a moment they did nothing but stare at each other, hatred from one side and confusion in the other.
"Why, Sasuke?" Itachi's barely audible voice questioned.
Sasuke was infuriated. He knew that Itachi would ask why due to the lack of memories, but that word coming from the mouth of the murderer of his clan still enraged him. He felt that Itachi had no right to ask why they were fighting because Itachi had destroyed his family and now stolen the people he had cared about.
"Because…" he brought his hands together forming seals, and immediately a sound of chirping birds radiated from the bright blue glow surrounding his hand.
"SASUKE!"
"YOU KILLED MY FAMILY!"
Suddenly, the Mangekyou user couldn't find it within him to dodge the strike.
And it was only when he felt the liquid soak his outfit, shifted his head downwards and saw the once clean road, stained in a crimson shade that he finally registered what had happened.
"SASUKE!"
Naruto's voice roared throughout the area, causing Sakura to look up from the fight and focus on the blonde shinobi who'd just appeared. It was then that the all too familiar sound and shape of Chidori filled her senses, and an immediate feeling of fear rose from within her. She prayed that no one precious to her would be hurt or worse, killed, but it seemed her prayers were not answered.
To her, it was as though time itself had stopped as she watched the younger Uchiha aim his chidori at his elder brother. It had happened so quickly and with Sasuke's tremendous speed, the scene ended in the blink of an eye.
When she witnessed his blood dripping to the ground, her legs admitted defeat in her battle against Karen and Suigetsu. And she soon found herself dashing as fast as she could towards Itachi. "Itachi!"
Sasuke simply stood and watched the weakened form of Itachi drop down to his knees. For so long he'd waited to do this, for so long he had anticipated to see Itachi defeated by his hands.
"Sasuke!" Naruto reached out and grabbed his former Uchiha comrade by the one collar that wasn't slipping off his shoulder. "Why did you do that!"
Sasuke only held a look of indifference, completely unfazed by the fact that he might have just killed his own brother seconds ago, and this allowed for the anger inside of Naruto to rise. For so long he'd been alone and when he met Sasuke, he had thought that he finally found the closest thing to a brother he could ever have.
Sure, he knew that all the things Itachi had done were bad, but he had to admit that Itachi in his condition was completely harmless, and Sasuke had no right to perform such a technique on a blood-related brother. This could have been the continuation and renewal of the once shattered broken bond between Sasuke and Itachi, this could have been the chance for Sasuke to come back to the Leaf.
And just like that, Sasuke would attempt to kill his own brother and do so in such a stoic manner.
When she got to him, Sakura wasted no time. She immediately channeled the chakra to her hand and placed it on his stomach. Her other hand encircled his shoulder, forcing him to move from his kneeling position to a sitting one. She was sure he could feel her hands shaking in fear. "It'll be alright, Itachi-kun…"
She was scared he had died (although she knew that a prodigy like him couldn't be taken down soon), but his breathing told her that he was very much alive. It was the distant look in his eyes that she feared, and she wondered to no end as she healed him if he was alright. "J-Just a bit more and you should be able to have enough strength to walk to the hospital."
But as soon as she said those words, his hand reached up and grabbed her hand that was healing his injury and directed it away from him. The scene of her healing him reminded her so much of that time when he'd first used the Mangekyou Sharingan on her by accident. "Itachi-kun…?"
Why had he stopped her healing?
"You're right…" he muttered.
Naruto and Sasuke stopped their dispute to watch Itachi.
"Itachi-kun?" Sakura stared at him with worry-filled eyes.
"I did kill our family."
"W-What, Itachi-kun? You did no such thing, now just let me continue healing you and…and we'll head over to the hospital and finish up the healing-"
"You're right…that age isn't an issue," he said, directing this statement more towards Sakura.
"Itachi…" she had unconsciously taken off the intimate suffix.
"Because the real problem," his head lifted and his blood red Mangekyou Sharingan bore into her innocent, emerald orbs, "is that I am Akatsuki."
And she found her world turn dark.
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"IS SHE OK?!"
"Yes, yes, Tsunade-sama. Naruto informed us that she was exposed to the Mangekyou Sharingan."
"What the hell happened!"
"I apologize, Hokage-sama, my flame of youth must be slowly fading, for my senses were not sharp enough to detect the presence of Sasuke and his companions in Konohagakure."
"Geez…this is so troublesome…"
"What about the guards?"
"Knocked out. Seems Sasuke has some strong comrades."
"Tsunade-sama, I told you to stop drinking so much. If you weren't so drunk, maybe you could have caught him."
"Yeah, yeah, Shizune. Anything else?"
"When the other jounins were informed and arrived at the battle scene, well, you know what happened there because you saw Sasuke use the Summoning no Jutsu and escape. Naruto went after him."
There was a silence in the room.
"What about Itachi?"
"Perhaps he ran away? Is it possible for him to recover his memories? He did use the Mangekyou Sharingan on Sakura-san."
"Perhaps. We'll have to wait until Jiraiya brings Naruto back, so we can ask him."
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Senko:The end. Haha I'm just kidding. This is NOT THE END :P if it really was the end, I bet everyone would kill me lol nope, this is not, cannot, and shall not be the ending. There are about four chapters left :3
And I'm so sorry for the late update! Well, anyway this is my Halloween treat for all you wonderful readers, and have I managed to scare you with the ending of this chapter:P hope I did xD
I really don't know much about Juugo or Suigetsu. I made Juugo say this because, well, what with the whole animals detecting chakra and stuff, he sounds rather sensitive and kind to me :)
One final thing! Halloween is approaching ;D and I am working on getting treats (er…fanfic and fanart treats) for you awesome readers ;) The first treat is this update, and the second treat is…-drumroll-
http:// animesenko. deviantart. com / art / PeinSaku-A-Painful-Love-68445086
Remove the spaces :) Hopefully all PeinSaku fans will like this treat and for all the non PeinSaku fans, I hope this has scarred you for life o.O; there MIGHT be more treats, which will most likely be "Thank You" update, TobiSaku fanart, or Team Seven Halloween fanart. I'm trying to get it done D; but I'm lazy and busy with school. I'll try my best.