Chapter Ten

With Her

A/N: So I was reading my reviews for the last chapter and I must say I'm very pleased that Reflection has people's mind working. How is everything going to work out? The most I am willing to say is that it's probably not going to end the way you expect it to. When I started this story I knew the beginning and the end. What happens in the middle, I know only shortly before you do. I also have to thank everyone for the suggestions to this story. They are noted, appreciated, and also very good.

Um, for those of you who are engrossed in one particular pairing in this story, I'm sorry to tell you that there probably won't be any skipping. One chapter will be Saku's chapter, and the next will be Sakura's in order for the story to progress evenly and expeditiously. It also helps me to keep from getting writer's block if I continuously shift the story like this.

Also, I can assure those of you that have asked that there will be no SasuSaku in this story. Just slight implications. Sorry, all the love goes to Kakashi and Itachi.

Unfortunately, I have to say that I had a small slip up in the last chapter that I'm surprised no one caught. I wonder if I can incorporate it into the story somehow.

That being said, on with the story…

Saku awakened the next morning, knowing that something wasn't right. It took her a moment to realize what it was. She was alone in her bed – the lingering warmth of another body was not there by her side.

That was when she remembered everything.

How could she have been so stupid? Sakura rolled over and began hitting her pillow – because really, it just wouldn't do to hit herself.

He loved her. He loved her all along, and she was too blind to see it. What was wrong with her? She stopped pummeling her pillow and covered her head with it, muffling her frustrated scream.

Two raps on her door cut off her mini-fit. The door cracked open and Sakura lowered the pillow from her face.

"Saku, we're supposed to train today with the team."

"When?"

"Don't worry. You have plenty of time."

Saku frowned, suspicion laced in her voice. "Just how late are we?"

He didn't reply before closing the door, but she did hear an amused chuckle. Sighing, Sakura sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed so that she could get up and prepare for her day.

She was almost ready when she realized she was about to meet a completely different Naruto and Sasuke. Kakashi's warning about Sasuke ran through her mind.

He had killed Itachi. His brother. What had it done to him? And Naruto...how different was he?

Sakura went in search of Kakashi after she had readied herself – only to find him once more reclining on his sofa reading his 'novel'.

"Your attachment to those things is unholy."

Kakashi looked up, his eye creasing happily. "Ready?" he inquired.

Saku nodded, and Kakashi stood up so they could head to the training grounds.

They were already training when the two arrived. Saku's eyes widened as the two went back and forth. She had never seen so much killing intent radiating off these two shinobi. It made her nervous. She glanced up at Kakashi, who looked on impassively. Saku flinched when Naruto landed a rather nasty blow on Sasuke – which only served to infuriate the Uchiha.

"They're going to kill each other," Saku whispered.

"No, they won't," Kakashi assured her.

A myriad of Naruto's shadow clones populated the grounds – one of which approached her and Kakashi.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted warmly. A small smile formed on Saku's lips. His arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly.

"Hey, Naruto!"

"I see you're picking up Sensei's bad habits. You guys are three hours late!"

Saku opened her mouth to tell him she had overslept – but Kakashi beat her to the punch. "Well, you see, there was this old lady who—"

"Liar!" Both Naruto and Saku, who had been with him, yelled. Kakashi looked at Saku, hurt. His expression caused both of them to laugh.

"You guys ready to train?" the Naruto clone asked curiously. He turned his head and saw that Sasuke was close to beating him. "Sorry, guys, I have to go attack the bastard from behind," the clone said and ran off.

Kakashi chuckled.

Saku stared.

"Did he really just call Sasuke a bastard?"

"Yeah, and he was being nice."

Saku shook her head.

Kakashi eyed her curiously. "So, did you want to train?"

"Why? I'll only beat you."

Kakashi looked at her, affronted. "You can't be serious."

"Why would I joke?" Saku asked nonchalantly.

"Let's go," Kakashi said. They both moved further away from Naruto and Sasuke so they wouldn't get caught in the cross fire. (Literally. Sasuke had just used his fireball technique and Saku could feel the heat from where she stood.)

Sakura pulled out her gloves and slipped them on her hands. "Bring it," she said, causing him to chuckle then disappear. Sakura glanced around her, calmly surveying the area. When she saw nothing that would reveal the presence of the Copy Ninja, she closed her eyes and let her other senses search for him.

There.

Saku quickly tossed a kunai into the trees to her right. Knowing that the kunai would miss its target because he would have moved by the time it had reached him, Saku decided to throw several in plausible locations that he would move to.

She heard a cling, indicating that he had to block one of her kunai. She opened her eyes and sped towards the sound, fingers forming a shadow clone as she moved. A loud pop sounded, indicating that just as swiftly as she had formed the clone, Kakashi had appeared behind her. Her clone saw this and guarded her back. Saku spun around, swinging her leg towards Kakashi's head. He easily dodged her intended blow – so she raised her other leg, twirling her body in midair. Saku then pushed a bit of chakra through her body, which stopped her initial rotation and sent her spinning in the direction that Kakashi had moved to.

Had Sakura been able to get a good look at his face, she would have seen his eyes widen in surprise before he ducked out of way. He then raised his forehead protector, knowing that he had to bring out the big guns because Saku wasn't playing games.

Saku, knowing she had missed her target, flipped and did a cartwheel, turning her body upright. Glancing at Kakashi, she noticed his Sharingan. She smiled in anticipation, then disappeared from his sight.

Kakashi glanced around him, looking for the kunoichi. She had displayed some impressive skills. She had moves that his Sakura hadn't quite made it to yet. He had to admit he was impressed and more than a little pleased. Of course, this only lasted for a moment. His distracted thinking caused him to lose focus – and erupted from the earth borrowing a move of Naruto's and Saku's fist sent him flying across the training field.

He lay on the ground in a daze, when he saw Saku's concerned face hovering over him.

"Are you okay, Kakashi? I didn't think I'd hit you."

The green glow of chakra flowed over his body.

A quick glance told him that they had an audience.

"Wow! Kakashi-sensei, you lost," Naruto said, laughing.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Naruto," Kakashi replied blandly. He turned his head towards Sasuke, who was frowning intensely. "Why did you two stop training?"

"Are you kidding me?! After seeing a blow like that, why would I train with the bastard? You'll train with me, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

Saku blushed slightly at the attention she was getting. She glanced up and over at Sasuke, who had said nothing since he had joined them.

"Are you okay, Kakashi?" Saku asked as the silver haired jounin sat up slowly.

"I'm fine."

"When did you stop calling him sensei?" Sasuke asked, his voice frigid.

"I—" Saku started.

"When I asked her to this morning," Kakashi interrupted, smoothly covering her slip. "It's about time this sensei stuff stopped anyway."

"And when did you learn to move like that?" Sasuke asked, continuing his small inquisition. The whole team was staring at him because it was the most he had spoken in a while. "You certainly weren't that good last time we trained."

Saku stared at him, insulted. Not good? How dare he! She could probably take him in a fight any day!

"I'll have you know that I was the apprentice of the Hokage—"

"Hn," Sasuke replied dismissingly.

"and I'm engaged to Uc—"

She broke off, realizing what she almost said. Her head whipped around and looked at Kakashi wildly, panic written in her eyes.

"You're engaged!" Naruto yelled. "When did that happen?!"

Kakashi sighed. Saku was certainly not good at keeping secrets.

"To whom?" Sasuke asked.

Saku's mouth opened and then closed. She realized she had to quickly pull herself together. There was something unnerving about Uchiha Sasuke's gaze. She had to lie, but knew that if she were caught in one, things wouldn't go over well.

Not with him.

Sakura reached her hand out and took Kakashi's in hers. He didn't pull away, but she was certain that shock covered his features.

"To Kakashi," she finished ignoring the WTF look on Kakashi's face.

"I knew something was going on between you two, you perv!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke looked at Sakura's hand, looking for a ring. He found that he couldn't quite believe that Sakura's relationship with Kakashi was anything more than platonic. Most people thought that there was something going on between the two of them. He never did. Sakura never seemed to have the time or the inclination for a relationship, so her words rang false to his ears.

Her gloves covered her hands, but he could see the tell tale sign of a ring on her finger.

Since when did Sakura fight in jewelry? Not only was it impractical, it was stupid, given that her strength lay in her hands.

He leaned down and grabbed her left hand, pulling her up from the ground. He removed the glove from her hand.

Saku watched as the look of indifference on Sasuke's face wavered momentarily as he gazed at her ring. She hardly ever removed it from her hand. It wasn't really necessary. It wouldn't be destroyed no matter what happened – Itachi had made sure of that.

"Where did you get this?"

Saku didn't reply, but instead continued to look at his face as it finally decided to settle upon anger. Sasuke had never looked at her with anger before. Irritation? Yes. Anger? No. She found herself a bit frightened, and yet more than anything, she wanted to wrap her arms around him and make it go away because while there was anger in his eyes, she was certain there was pain there as well.

She hated it when he was in pain.

"Where did you get this?" he repeated.

"Sasuke—" she started, taking a step closer to him – intending to close the short distance between them. But he wouldn't allow it. He dropped her hand and took two steps back.

"You're not Sakura," he said, gaining control over his turbulent emotions.

"I am—"

"Don't treat me like a fool."

"Sasuke—" Saku reached out to touch him, but he shrugged her hand off and gave her a look that made her feel like she was dirty. He then proceeded to turn and stalk off. Saku's immediate impulse was to stand and follow him – but Kakashi's hand reached out and grabbed hers.

"Don't."

"I messed this up, Kakashi," Saku said, pulling away from him. "I have to fix it."

"You'll only make things worse," Kakashi replied. "I'll go."

"But—" Saku started. There was something in his eyes. Something she didn't understand and desperately yearned to fix. It was just wrong to see Sasuke like that. He shouldn't have so much pain in his heart. "No, Kakashi. I'll fix it. Isn't this something that she would do?"

At Kakashi's answering silence she walked off after Sasuke.

It didn't take long to find him. He had simply moved to another training ground. He didn't acknowledge her presence, so she stood quietly as he idly threw shurikens at his target.

An hour had passed when she realized that he had no intention of saying a word to her. He was going to continue on with his business, oblivious of her – or at least pretending to be oblivious. Instead of letting anger get the best of her, she decided to just say her piece.

"I lied to you. I should have known that you would realize the truth. You do know me better than most people." Saku could tell she had his attention, because his hand paused almost imperceptibly in mid-throw. "Kakashi knows the truth. It's only right that you and Naruto should know as well. There was a mishap. I'm not sure how it happened, but I switched places with the Haruno Sakura that you know."

He looked at her then. His onyx eyes were full of mistrust, and barely controlled rage.

Silence.

"Switched places," he said at last, slowly – as if trying the words out.

"Yes. Kakashi found me and brought me to the Hokage, where we shortly learned what happened."

"If you're not Sakura, then who are you and why do you have my Grandmother's ring?" Sasuke asked, not quite believing and really not trying to understand.

Saku glanced down at her hand, surprised. She didn't know that it was a family heirloom. Itachi had never even hinted…

"I'm from another dimension, Sasuke. I lived in a world parallel to this one. I am Sakura. Just not your Sakura."

"And the ring?" he persisted quietly, his eyes becoming impossibly darker than they already were.

"My fiancé gave it to me."

"You were engaged to me in this other world."

Sakura briefly debated whether or not to answer that question – but she knew he'd sense a lie, and that would make things worse. She didn't know how he would take the truth, though, and it worried her.

"No," she said softly.

"Then…"

"I am the fiancé of Uchiha Itachi."

He moved faster than she could blink.

His hand closed around her throat, but he didn't squeeze.

"I would not play such games if I were you."

Saku raised her hands and slowly removed Sasuke's from her throat. "Tell me what happened," she said.

And he did.

Saku sat, stunned at Sasuke's revelation. His explanation was brief and terse, but she got the point. It was a tragedy. It was a great tragedy that could have been avoided.

So many people lost. So many lives wasted. She was suddenly very glad that her Itachi had the insight, the wisdom to walk another path. The Sasuke at her side was broken. He was not whole, and she wondered if he ever would be. Could anyone ever fully recover from a loss that great? Saku reached out to place her hand on his and he didn't pull away – but his body did tense slightly. She didn't dare to do more because he was like a wild animal.

Skittish.

The silence stretched between the two. Saku sat, quietly being the presence she knew he needed after telling her his whole story. Surprisingly, Sasuke was the one who spoke first.

"Are they alive?"

"Hmm?" Saku asked, looking at him curiously.

"My parents."

"Yes," Saku replied, looking away from him. She knew he wanted her to tell him about them, but there wasn't much she could say. "They don't like me."

Sasuke's brow rose inquiringly. "They just don't. They treat me like I'm the scum of the earth. I'm not worthy of Uchiha Itachi." She laughed a little bitterly. "In fact, when I dated you, I wasn't worthy of you, either. I'm actually just figuring out why."

"Hn."

"I'm in love with Kakashi. My Kakashi. I'm just now figuring it out, now when it's too late. I think your parents knew that. They're good people. They love both of you guys so much. They only wanted what was best for you. They just knew before I did that I'm not what's best for the Uchiha men."

He didn't ask anymore questions. Had she known him a little better, she would have known that he expected her to keep talking. She didn't, though. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze before leaving him by himself for a while.

"Is it true?"

Kakashi looked at his raven-haired visitor, studying him silently. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Saku had told him the truth. You could see it in the tension in his shoulders, the flicker of uncertainty and anger in his eyes.

"It's been confirmed."

"Are you sending her back?"

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask, wondering why Sasuke would ask that question.

"I promised her she'd make it back and she will. I will find a way."

"When you do, tell me."

"Why?" the Copy Ninja asked, a curious note in his voice.

"Because you're going to send me with her."

Silence.

A myriad of emotions flickered across Kakashi's face – then settled on being stunned. It had never crossed his mind that Sasuke would want to leave. He shouldn't have been surprised, though. Is that what he wanted all along?

His family.

But it wasn't the logical choice. Any number of things could go wrong. Kakashi opened his mouth to reason with Sasuke. But before he could speak, the door opened.

"Sasuke?" Saku said, giving him a tentative smile. Sasuke looked at her blankly, then proceeded to leave Kakashi's apartment – completely missing the hurt that flashed in Saku's eyes.

"Remember what I said, Kakashi," he called over his shoulder, before leaving the two alone.

Saku immediately sensed a shift in Kakashi's mood. Something had happened that had him worried. She was certain that it had something to do with Sasuke.

"We need to get you home as soon as possible," Kakashi said as he nicked his hand and summoned Pakkun.

In a few seconds, a cloud of smoke filled the room, slowly revealing the nin-dog.

"Yo," he greeted. Then he slowly looked around the room, taking in the surroundings.

"Pakkun, I need you to take a message to Sakura."

A/N: Many thanks to cutecrazyice for looking over this for me.