A/N: This chapter is more of just a link. Because the Itachi arc officially starts in the next chapter! yay! sorry it took so long to get there. I got sidetracked in a few places. Lol. But this time I promise! I can't decide if I'm completely satisfied with this chapter but I think it came out ok. Let me know what you think!
Sasuke pressed himself back against the crumbled pillar, willing his body to get as far away from his approaching brother as possible.
Itachi stumbled closer and closer, blood streaming from his eye and mouth and dripping off of his chin. Sasuke's breath was coming in heavy pants, his heartbeat sounded through his head. He was out of chakra, this had to be the end.
Itachi was right in front of him now, his hand raised as he reached for his little brother. Sasuke trembled as Itachi reached forward.
He shut his eyes in fear, waiting for the end.
A small pressure on his forehead made him open his eyes.
Itachi was… smiling. His two fingers pressed against Sasuke's forehead in an action that Sasuke remembered from childhood.
"Foolish... little brother…" And with that, Itachi fell forward, his hand dragging across his brother's face, leaving a trail of his own blood across Sasuke's cheekbone. He fell against the pillar beside Sasuke, and slid down until he lay in a crumpled heap on the ground.
Rain began to fall. It sprinkled his face and began its work on washing away the blood that painted the battlefield. Sasuke couldn't move.
He looked down onto his brother.
Itachi didn't move.
He looked up, and vaguely registered a bobbing spot of pink before the edges of his vision went black, and he fell face first into the ground.
Sakura rushed forward as fast as she could, leaping over piles of rubble and doing her best not to slip in the puddles of blood.
She ran towards Sasuke. The other Akatsuki members were probably already on their way. She didn't have to time to heal him here. She bent over and grabbed him by the arm, using her strength (which was impressive even without chakra) and managed to pull him to his feet, slinging his arm over her shoulder.
"Sak…" she heard his small mumble.
"Sasuke, come on. We have to move." She dragged him away, stumbled away from the battle ground into the surrounding forest. She pulled him as far into the forest as possible until he let out a groan and fell to his knees. She knew he could go no further.
She bent down next to him and pulled his face up to look at her.
"Sasuke, listen to me. You have to remove my chakra bands," she spoke firmly, and it appeared that Sasuke registered her command and lifted two shaky hands, forming a seal. The bands on her wrist and neck began to loosen, and as soon as they were wide enough, she removed them and dropped them to the ground.
Entering medic-mode, she quickly laid Sasuke down on his back and scanned his body for injuries. He had a shuriken imbedded deep in his right side, four broken ribs, a deep gash across his chest and cheek bone, and burns across his left shoulder. Nodding to herself, she began her work.
An anxious blonde sped towards the battlefield, Sai and Kakashi followed close behind. Before they could get too close, however, the ground in front of them rippled. They froze, waiting to see if this was sort of trap.
They stood still as what looked like a giant venus fly trap emerged from the ground, followed by a body clothed in a black cloak with those all too recognizable red clouds.
"Where do you supposed they're going?" came a dark, gravelly voice from the plant.
"My best guess would be the battle field. Could they be looking for their precious lost teammate?" said another, lighter voice. It occurred to Kakashi that the two voices were both coming from the plant man, whose face was half white and half black.
"We're not after Sasuke to bring him back!" Naruto shouted, frustrated that he was being kept away from his destination.
"Ah… perhaps they are after revenge for that pretty cherry blossom."
"Where is he?" Naruto shouted, earning two different types of chuckles from the plant.
"You won't find him. He was carried off by his ah...pet." Another laugh from the white side of the plant. "Uchiha Sasuke is the victor of this battle."
The hearts of the three men fell. Naruto lost the will to move forward. Sasuke was probably gone by now. He had managed to slip away at the last moment every time they had pursued him, and this time would surely be no different.
"Let's turn back…" Naruto said, defeated, before anger rose in his chest. "We'll find him later."
The first thing he felt was a cool, soothing sensation across his shoulder. It reminded him of when he was a little kid, and he had burned himself trying to use the katon. His mother had soothed aloe over the burned area.
"Sasuke?" There, the most beautiful voice he could have heard at the moment. He opened his eyes. The world was blurry, as if he had been sleeping for a long time. "Sasuke? Can you hear me?"
He groaned and blinked is eyes to focus.
Pink.
That was the first thing he saw. Then green.
"Sakura," he said, his voice was raspy and his throat burned.
"Sasuke, try and move your body a little. Is there any pain anywhere?" Sasuke did as he was told, slowly moving his limbs and shifting around his back. He was sore, that much was certain. But there was no pain. Just a few dull throbbing muscles here and there. He shook his head and began to sit up. "Careful," she said. "Don't sit up too fast. I didn't heal you completely, but your body will be able to do the rest on its own."
Sasuke stared with a blank look up at the medic-nin. Her face was carefully set in a hard mask.
"Sakura I-"
"How does it feel Sasuke?" Her voice was sharp and direct.
"What?"
"How does it feel?" She turned and stared right at him, her jade eyes piercing deep. "How does it feel to finally achieve your goal? The one you abandoned Naruto and I for. The one you risked your life for, over and over and over again. The one you nearly handed your body over for. How does it feel?" A type of smirk flitted across her lips. "Was it worth it?"
Sasuke couldn't think of anything to say. He tried. He rooted through every possible response, but he was still in too much shock from the battle to say anything to the fierce girl, no, woman in front of him.
She laughed without humor.
"Are you okay?" He nodded shakily. "Good." She quickly shoved all her supplies back into her bag and stood up.
Sasuke, realizing what she was doing, stood up quickly.
Pain shot through his head. He gripped his head and groaned.
"I told you not to get up idiot," she remarked, and turned to walk away. Sasuke's hand shot out and wrapped around her wrist. To be honest he had no idea what he was doing. All he knew was that she was going to leave, and he didn't want her to.
She spun around.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't go. Not yet." She jerked her hand free.
"Naruto was in this area, I have to find him before he leaves!" Sasuke stared at her, breathing heavily from the extra effort put forth to get him off the ground.
He couldn't stop her. He knew he couldn't. He had promised her, and he couldn't seem to bring himself to break the promise.
She stared at him for one more immeasurable moment, and then nodded to herself, taking off back in the direction she had come.
Sasuke stayed rooted to the spot before he felt a flare of chakra, Suigetsu's, from behind him. He tore his eyes away from where she had disappeared, and left in the opposite direction.
Sakura propelled herself through the forest, determined to make it out of the forest. To get to where she suspected her teammates must be, she had to cross the battlefield. She didn't want to see all that blood, or even Itachi's body.
She suddenly remembered the demands given to her by the fallen Uchiha. She had to get back to Konoha and report to the Hokage about Itachi's partnership with Jiraiya and the location of the Akatsuki base. She nodded to herself and kept running.
The battlefield came into view.
Sakura couldn't help but slow as she crossed over the now treacherous ground. She was carefully avoiding a severed snake's head when she felt it.
She had felt this particular sensation many times before in her past shifts at the hospital. It felt like a slight pulsating feeling, like when you prick you finger and can feel your heartbeat in the tip. It was the last, tiny bits of chakra leaving a body that was as good as dead, but not quite. Normally, no one would be able to feel that particular sensation, even a highly trained shinobi. But she was more than that. She was a highly trained medical shinobi. She could detect the slightest changes in chakra. And that feeling, displaying the last few moments of life, is exactly what she felt coming from the broken body crumpled on the ground.
Haruno Sakura stood in the center of the bloody battlefield, and found herself face with a choice.
There was so much about the older Uchiha and the motivations behind his actions that posed a severe mystery to her. A mystery she felt had everything to do with her life as well as those around her. Especially her stoic former teammate she had just left behind.
Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi were all racing back towards Konoha ahead of her, and Itachi's life, as well as many valuable answers, was racing away from him behind her.
Without fully understanding why she made the choice she made, she turned around, and sped over to the body.
She pressed her fingers to his bloodied neck, searching for any type of pulse. His skin was cold, but she did find a faint flutter. It was barely there, almost gone, but it was enough.
She knew she had barely any chakra left, and that this would probably exhaust her, but she summoned the glowing green energy to her hands, and followed through with her choice.
A/N: Kinda blah, I know. But next chapter will be better . Again this one was just like, a linking chapter. Until next time!
-HeartOfEmerald