Chapter Ten:

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Once more in the Spirit World, Itachi sat on a large boulder, with his hood pushed back, and staring into the distance. His legs were crossed lotus-style and he held his hands over his knees. He kept his breathing even and controlled. He spent most of his life meditating and channeling his chakra. Surely, he could master his new essence.

He was stuck in this accursed magical realm!

Itachi could feel the crows back on the plane of earth, but he could not return to them. He struggled to feel a connection to his onyx key and to wherever Sakura might be, but he only sensed a vague tug in his core.

The sounds of tree nymphs giggling in the nearby woods grated on his nerves. How was he to concentrate with such distractions?

"It takes years to build the energy reserves required to self-summon," Leo said, stepping out of the forest's edge.

"I cannot leave them in such peril," Itachi grumbled.

"Who were they?" Leo asked. "I saw you moments before you returned to this realm."

"Allies against a great evil," Itachi answered. The necromancer was a wretched man, but he introduced Itachi to a villain unlike any he'd seen as a shinobi — an enraged goddess was uniquely terrifying. And the longer he stayed in the Spirit World, the more lives she endangered. It became obvious that the Lion Spirit had no intention of leaving, so Itachi gave him his full attention. Perhaps he might even be useful.

Leo folded his arms over his chest and stared at him with an imperious air. "And your summoning key?"

"Safe."

Leo scoffed. "You did not give it to Lucy Heartfilia, Reaper. How can you be sure it is safe?"

"I simply know," Itachi said. "I gave it to an ally — one of my former life and now in this one."

"You were in the company of humans from your mortal life?" Leo asked in shock. He ran his fingers through his unruly fiery hair. "A hundred years passed between my mortal life and my first summoning."

"Time does pass differently between the realms," Itachi said.

"You risked your life staying away from the Spirit Realm for too long. You haven't the experience or energy reserve to stay so long in the human world." Leo started to pace, shoving his hands into his pockets. "The key is useless without the skill of a Celestial Spirit Mage to summon you."

"I will learn to summon myself," Itachi said. "While I am glad for you, that you like your contractor, I have no intention of making a contract with her. I trust the woman that has my key."

"Do you now?" Leo asked. He stalked towards Itachi's boulder. "Is she your lover?" He grinned. "The ladies of the mortal land are what makes my days worthwhile."

"One, she's not my lover. Two, I would hope that you have more satisfaction in life than numerous conquests," Itachi sneered in disgust. "There is a very serious danger and I need to return so that I can stop it."

Leo started to laugh. "You cannot seriously believe that the fate of the world relies on your participation! I can assure you, as long as Fairy Tail is around, the world is safe."

"Your mages are no match for a goddess of Death," Itachi warned.

"What do you mean? Goddess of Death?" Leo asked.

"I am the Reaper. Do you not think it a coincidence that a goddess of Death should appear and cause murderous havok?" Itachi demanded. "If you cannot teach me how I might increase my powers and summon myself, then be gone."

"It simply takes time," Leo said. He ran his hands through his hair again. "Maybe I can speak with the Spirit King, find out what's going on. You're not an usual celestial spirit. Maybe he knew something about this threat."

"Better yet, I will solicit an audience with the Spirit King. You return to the mortal realm and find out what is happening," Itachi said. "Surely, you are not the only spirit that can self-summon."

"Well, Virgo does it quite often too, but I'm not sure—-," Leo trailed off.

"Take me to Virgo and then you return," Itachi ordered.

Leo narrowed his eyes. "I don't take orders from you, Reaper. I am the King of the Zodiacs."

"And I am something else entirely," Itachi warned.

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OoO

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"I can not believe how stupid you can be," a deep, frustrated voice whispered.

Something cool pressed against Sakura's forehead and she slowly opened her eyes. She was in some sort of cave with only one bright lantern in the corner illuminating it. Sasuke was leaning over her, his brow furrowed in either concern or annoyance — probably the latter.

Sakura lifted her hand to brush her fingers against his cheek. Her arm felt like it was made of lead for the effort. His skin was warm and his face more angular than it used to be. "It's really you." Her mouth was so dry, it felt like cotton.

"Of course it's me," Sasuke huffed, dropping the wet cloth he had pressed against her. He reached up and clasped her hand, pulling it away from his face. He stood up and walked towards the far wall. "I'll get you some water."

Sakura reached for Itachi's onyx key and sighed with relief at the solid stone. "We've been worried about you."

Sasuke came back and crouched next to her, holding a canteen to her. "Drink."

She drank the water, trying to pace herself so that she wouldn't be sick. Sasuke stared back at her with his dark, unreadable eyes. "You realize you screwed everything up by showing up."

"Sorry to inconvenience you," Sakura scolded. She sat up abruptly, knocking her forehead against his in the process.

Sasuke rubbed his head and frowned. "You're not an inconvenience," he hissed. "You were supposed to stay away. I knew you would come eventually, but I needed you to stay away at least until I figured out how to stop her."

"I guess the lack of letters should have been my first clue," Sakura said. She narrowed her eyes and focused her healing chakra to sooth Sasuke's bruise without ever touching him. "The Hokage sent us on a mission to investigate the bloody civil war in Earth. What are you doing here? After everything that happened, I wouldn't have thought you would betray us again and go rogue."

He gripped both her upper arms with his hands and shook her gently. "I didn't betray you. I would never put you, Naruto, or Kakashi through that again."

"Then why are you here?" She could feel her eyes water and she hated her weakness. Why was she always so emotional when it came to Sasuke? She'd rather be angry and busting something down with her fist. She didn't have time to cry like a whiny adolescent.

Sasuke released one of her arms with his true hand and ran his coarse thumb under her eye, brushing away one of her tears. "I'm here because there is something more terrible and powerful than Kaguya," he said quietly. "You know how Itachi was a double agent. He worked within the Akatsuki to keep worse things from happening. I'm having to do the same thing."

"It's not the same thing, Sasuke," Sakura whispered. "Itachi's mission was sanctioned by the Hokage. Kakashi knows nothing about this."

Sasuke's thumb traced over her cheekbone and then he swept his fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her head, angling her face to look up at him. "Except, I'm not doing it for the village. I'm doing it for you. You and Naruto. I knew eventually Kakashi would send the best out here and you two are the best. I'm stalling until we can defeat her. We defeated one evil goddess, we can do it again."

"We saw some of the destruction this goddess has caused," Sakura said.

"Morrigan is the goddess of death, war, and strife," Sasuke said. "She stirs up trouble where there is already unrest. Iwagakure was a breeding ground for discontent with the rival factions for Tsuchikage." He leaned close so that his forehead was pressed gently against hers. "Why were you so far away from the others? You know the importance of keeping in a tight formation."

Was he really lecturing her about teamwork? How much should she tell him about Itachi? It felt wrong to keep it from him, but she promised Itachi. "I had a partner, but he vanished."

"Vanished?" He narrowed his eyes. "Did he teleport?"

"No, he has powers. He calls himself Reaper. He's trying to stop this Death goddess. He's a Celestial Spirit," she explained.

Sasuke released his hold on her and rocked back on heels. "I have no idea what you're talking about. A Celestial what? Why would you partner up with an unknown? That's very dangerous, Sakura!"

Sakura chortled out a laugh at the hypocrisy. "You're the one working for an evil goddess! And our interests were in alignment. It made more sense to work together for a common goal." She sighed and reached for his hands, surprisingly, he let her hold them. "What do we do now?"

"I can't let you out of my sight," Sasuke said. "I claimed you as my spoils."

"I don't need you to babysit me." Sakura frowned. "And I'm not spoils of some war!"

"She would kill you in a heartbeat," Sasuke said. He squeezed her hands and then released her before standing up and staring down at her. "She wants to, but in order to keep me in her service, she knows not to harm you. Arashi is another matter. He'd love to kill you to get to me. He considers us rivals for the goddess' affections."

"I can't help you kill people," Sakura said, standing in front of him. She had to crane her head back to meet his gaze.

"You're a poison expert. Maybe you can create a massive poison to temporarily create a false death," Sasuke suggested.

"It doesn't work that way. You're the one that apprenticed with Orochimaru. You know more about poisons than I do." Sakura stared down at her hands. She was supposed to heal people, not harm them. "Shizune taught me what she could, but I've no idea of something that can be used on that large of a scale."

Sasuke breathed in deeply. "They call me Hawk. They don't know who I am, though of course some suspect. Your hair is too recognizable. You'll have to dye it."

Sakura reached up and tugged at the ends of her pink hair. "I don't care if they know who I am. They'll figure it out soon enough. And maybe you just think they don't know who you are. You're infamous, Sasuke Uchiha."

He smiled at her. "You always had a gift to see past even the most elaborate genjutsus, Sakura. That's part of the reason I love you. You were always able to see beyond my bull shit. But, so far, you've been the only person to see beyond my illusion. Just as I can see beyond the goddess' illusion. To others she appears as a beautiful enchantress. I see her as the wicked crone that she is."

Sakura gaped at him. He just spoke more words to her at one time than ever before and within the midst of it, he confessed his love. "You love me?"

Sasuke scowled. "I thought it was obvious, Sakura." He turned his back on her and hurried to a pack in the back corner of the room and started to shuffle through it.

"Where are we? I thought this was a cave, but now I'm not so sure," she said.

"Your affinity is to water and earth, you should be able to figure it out," Sasuke muttered. "Ah," he said, pulling out a bottle of ink in his pack. "I had this for writing you letters, but kept it just in case. It will do."

Sakura closed her eyes and channeled her chakra into the ground beneath her. They were underground and while it was a cave, it wasn't a natural cave. "You carved this out yourself."

"You always were smart," Sasuke said. He held the bottle of black ink. "Do you want to do it, or should I?"

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OoO

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Lucy stared down at the strange ink creature she was riding. She was sharing the magical creature with her newly discovered cousin while Natsu did his best not to puke on Sai on whom he shared an ink bird.

"I don't feel right about leaving Gray and Erza behind," Lucy said softly.

"I left behind a couple of shadow clones with them," Naruto assured her. "They'll tell them what's going on. They can join us later."

"Yeah, well, it will take them a while since they don't have flying transportation," Lucy grumbled. The ink bird began to dip down towards the earth and Lucy clutched onto Naruto's waist in a near panic. She didn't like flying and she liked falling even less. She squeezed her eyes shut and hoped that they'd be on the ground soon. As she pressed her face against Naruto's back she wrinkled her nose. How can someone smell so strongly of ramen noodles?

She hated ramen noodles. There was a time when she'd gone a month without any work for the guild and had to subside on ramen noodles for most of her meals. It had been a terrible month and it had taken some serious work-out sessions to lose the fifteen pounds she'd gained from the ordeal.

"So, when we finish up this mission and head home I'll show you around. You've got to eat at Ichiraku Ramen. It's the best ramen in the world!"

"I'm not that big of a ramen fan actually," Lucy said. "Though, we just need to find one boy amongst a rebel army. It shouldn't take too long." She touched the keys on her belt absently. "I look forward to seeing the homeland of my mother's ancestors."

Naruto looked down at her keys and frowned. "Why do you have so many keys? I just keep the key to my apartment under the floor mat."

"I use them to fight," Lucy answered. She hurried towards Natsu's side as he slid off Sai's ink bird. She caught him by the shoulders as he groaned. "Are you okay?"

Natsu shook his head, his eyes glazed over for a moment before they cleared up. "Fine, now that I'm on solid ground." He brushed her hands off him and looked around. His gaze settled to an area up ahead. "That's where the camp is."

"Yes," Sai agreed. "I landed us here so that their scouts might not see us, though a spied troops not too far away on the other side of the hill."

"Don't you think it might be easier to see giant birds in the sky than an army on the ground," Lucy argued.

"I'm ready for some company," Natsu said with a cheeky grin.

"And we're about to have it," Naruto said. A dust cloud formed over the hill in front of them as the sound of troops marching towards them drew near. He looked towards Lucy. "I'll leave some shadow clones with you for protection."

"Lucy's tough," Natsu assured him. "She can handle herself."

While Lucy appreciated the vote of confidence, she couldn't help, but feel nervous. A sudden chill raced down her spine. Something very bad approached.

At the peek of the hill a green dog stood. It stared down at them and howled.

"Never seen a dog like that," Naruto said with a frown.