Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. If did, Tsunade and Jiraya would have married and lived the rest of their lives together.
Chapter 10: Confrontation.
Itachi kept the face passive to hide the whirlwind of emotions that were exploding in the chest the moment he saw the two people he loved the most. He saw the hate burning through Sasuke's eyes and knew that the boy just did not activate the sharingan because Kakashi ordered him not to attack and somehow he was proud of the subordination and maturity his foolish younger brother was showing at that moment. He glanced briefly at Sakura's impassive face and suppressed the urge to yell at her so she would show all the emotions he loved to see on that face and those green eyes.
"Naruto." Sakura called to the blond boy next to her. She realized he was accumulating chakra in the hand and she remembered how this gesture preceded the Rasengan. She looked into his expressionless eyes and was sure that somehow Itachi had trapped him in a genjutsu without even looking into his eyes.
Sakura turned him by the shoulders so that he faced her and hit hard on his face. "Sakura-chan." Naruto screamed and ran a hand over his aching cheek. "Why was that?" He asked with a childish pout.
"Keep the eyes on his feet." It was the only thing she said and looked back at Kakashi waiting for a command. For the first time in a long time, Sakura was completely lost and not sure what to do. She wanted to freeze everyone around her in a genjutsu and run to hug Itachi, but she could not think straight so she decided to let the mission leader make the decision for her. After all, Itachi was the enemy and this statement hurt.
Kakashi looked at Sakura who was stiff and with clenched fists at the side of the body, then he looked at Sasuke who had a murderous aura emanating from every pore. Making the decision would cause less collateral damage. "Sasuke, Sakura, you're going to cover us. Take Chyo-sama and cover our rear." He commanded and pointed to the low trees that was a safe distance of a few meters. He almost sighed with relief as the two nodded and rushed to the trees, leaving the field where the eminent battle would take place. He looked at Naruto. "You cover me. You heard what Sakura said, right? Don't look into his eyes or hands."
Naruto nodded and returned for having fallen into a genjutsu in less than a minute of confrontation with the missing ninja.
Kakashi lifted the hitaiate that covered the eye with the sharingan and made the hand signals to the Raikiri. He put as much chakra as he could into the jutsu and ran toward Itachi, who deflected the blow with a loud leap, he was almost amazed at the damage that Kakashi's jutsu did to the ground. Naruto and one kage bunshin flew towards him with a Rasengan and this time Itachi was really amazed at the damage the boy caused. "Interesting technique." He muttered to himself and looked where Uzumaki had headed toward the trees, for a moment he allowed to look in the direction of Sasuke and Sakura. He regretted it as soon as he felt a painful tightness in the chest.
A thick mist swept over the clearing. "Certainly a good technique to hinder the use of genjutsu, but in front of my sharingan, techniques like that are useless. We could stop this game of hide, Kakashi-san"
Itachi launched the Katon Goukakyuu no jutsu toward Kakashi and completely dissipated the mist. Kakashi escaped the ball of fire by making a hole in the ground and emerged of the ground in front of Itachi punching him in the face, Itachi intercepted the blow and held Kakashi in front of him putting in a genjutsu. A few seconds later he realized that Kakashi was smarter than he looked. "No wonder my genjutsu isn't affecting you. You're a kage bunshin."
Sakura gasped when she saw Naruto's Rasengan destroy all the way until hit Itachi directly in the chest. Sasuke stood abruptly from the place where he was crouched behind the bush in the shock of seeing his brother killed by someone other than him.
They ran toward the clearing and were surprised at what they saw. "Who is he?" Sasuke was the first to break the silence.
"I knew there was something strange during the fight." Kakashi stated with a twinge of irritation in the voice.
"What kind of jutsu is this?" Sakura asked confused and tried to hide the relief she was feeling for not being Itachi who was there. Not that she believed him to die so easily, but just to see him again and not even have the chance to talk with him was painful. She did not even want to think what it would be like to see him die.
"This man is Yuura from my village. He served on the village council for four years." Chyo reported in a tone of disappointment.
"He was an Akatsuki spy." Sakura stated. She bent down before the man and placed the hands on his chest letting the diagnostic chakra go through his chakra paths. "I want to find out how this jutsu works, how someone can use a body as a substitution in this way..."
"Sakura, you're rambling." Sasuke pulled her out of the thoughts.
"Oh, sorry." She resumed the seriousness. "He's been dead for more than 24 hours and the cause of death was suffocation."
"We have to report this to the Suna and move on." Kakashi feared that they had lost precious time with this useless struggle. Akatsuki had planned to distract them, that meant they needed time. He sent one of the dogs to Suna and set off for the trail Pakkun had discovered.
When the night came, Kakashi saw how the use of Rasengan took a big price on Naruto. "Let's stop and rest here." He climbed down from the tree and put the backpack on the ground taking things off to set up camp.
"Wise decision." Chyo praised.
Naruto walked and faced Kakashi willing to start a discussion. "You said yourself that we're out of time."
Kakashi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Rest now will allow us to reach our goal, Naruto. This fight against Itachi has taken our energy."
"You fought. Sakura and I are fine." Sasuke entered the conversation. He understood that Chyo was tired of the walk because of the age, Naruto and Kakashi were tired of using too much chakra against the supposed Itachi, but he and Sakura could go ahead and save time.
Sakura stood by Sasuke's side. "He is right, Kakashi-senpai. We can move on if you allow."
Kakashi narrowed the eyes at them. "And what would you do if find the real Itachi?" He stared at them for any reaction and was annoyed when they remained with the same Stoic facade. Sometimes he wished they were the same twelve-year-old brats who could not control their emotions. At least he still had Naruto.
"We'll rescue the Kazekage. We'll flee from any unnecessary fighting." Sakura promised, and as soon as Kakashi nodded in agreement she and Sasuke left without looking back, before the old sensei changed his mind.
Sasuke and Sakura ran as fast as they could toward the place where Pakkun had tracked Gaara. They reached the front of a gigantic cave before dawn and a few minutes later Gai's team reached them.
"Where's Kakashi?" Gai asked with a little concern.
"We had a small setback, but nothing serious happened. We'll have to start without him." Sakura reassured and explained to Gai and the others how she had discovered the barrier and that they needed to disable the seal that prevented them from entering the cave.
Gai handed communicators to each member of his team and one to Sasuke. Neji used the byakugan and easily located the tags that contained the seal. Using the communicators, Gai, Lee, Neji, Tenten and Sasuke removed the seals at the same time, and Sakura ran toward the wall of the cave, knocking them down with a single punch.
Sasuke looked at Sakura and informed her that he had received notice from others on the communicator and they would have been busy with difficult opponents for some time, that moment Sasuke and Sakura knew they could find all Akatsuki members united in that place, the Gai team would take some time to get back, so they were literally alone.
"No unnecessary fighting." Sasuke whispered and she nodded. They entered on the cave and braced themselves for anything that was waiting for them. Before them was a large statue with several eyes and two outstretched hands, on each finger was a member of the much-feared Akatsuki organization. Sakura realized that they were using chakra to extract Gaara's Bijuu that was writhing in agony wrapped in a cloud of blue chakra. She felt a knot in the stomach and blind anger boiling inside her.
"I thought you guys had late them." One of the holograms said towards what looked like Itachi and Sakura once again felt her heart tighten, seeing that he was involved in all this.
"They're not really here." Sasuke whispered to her, realizing for the first time that the people who were in the fingers of the statue, were holograms.
"Look again, Sasuke." Sakura noticed that two of the members were actually present, only the others were holograms. She was surprised by this technique, and wondered what kind of object or jutsu would make possible use of chakra through a hologram.
"Apparently there was not enough delay." A voice echoed in the dark cave and drew Sakura from her thoughts. "Deidara, you prevent others from entering, we need to end with the Jinchuuriki."
"His name is GAARA." Sakura screamed angrily and punched the ground causing the cave to tremble and the holograms disappeared, causing the extraction to cease all of a sudden. Sasuke raced toward Gaara's body that fell quickly. He managed to catch him before of him hit the ground and jumped back to Sakura's side with Gaara unconscious in his arms.
Sakura took advantage of the fact that the two Akatsuki members who were physically present were trapped under the debris that fell from the roof of the cave and examined Gaara, she breathed in relief when she saw that he was still alive and that Shukaku was still present in him. She summoned Katsuyu to heal him as she prepared for battle that she knew would start at any moment.
"What happened with not starting a fight?" Sasuke asked half amused.
"They were killing him." She lifted herself off the floor after making sure Gaara was well taken care of. "I get the puppet guy that attacked Kankuro." She stated as she saw two bodies emerging from the rubble.
"Do you think you can handle me, little girl?" Sasori's husky voice echoed through the cave sending shivers down their spine.
"I'm going to stop the boy, I'll be fast Sasori no danna and come back to finish this." Deidara walked toward them and mumbled something about the leader being very upset now.
Sasuke looked at her with concern. "I'll take this guy out, keep the fight away from the Kazekage, Sakura, we don't know when the reinforcement will come." He left the cave looking over his shoulder to make sure the angry blond was following.
Sakura ordered Katsuyu to keep Gaara safe and heal him as much as he could. She walked toward the strange man in front of her and wished the team seven or the Gai team to catch up with them.
"I'm going to turn you into one of my puppets." Sasori said as he took off the black cape that covered him, revealing a puppet body that looked like a scorpion.
Sakura swallowed hard, she read about Akatsuki in the bingo book, but she knew nothing about this man she would face now. He was a marionette specialist, but apparently his actual body was a puppet which meant he would not use chakra threads like Kankuro. She threw a kunai and saw how his scorpion-like tail blasted the kunai by sending it to the wall of the cave. 'So this body serves as an attack and defense.' She thought he was too clever of him to do away with the weakness that a marionette user usually had with direct attack. She took an antidote from the bag which was attached to the waist and sank into the back of the thigh without him noticing. Then she ran toward him as she strayed from the rush of senbons he threw through the mouth.
Every time she tried to approach, the tail would defend him and was getting tired, after the fourth attempt Sakura became irritated and grabbed the tip of the tail with the hands, causing Sasori to laugh for the first time. "You shouldn't have done it, little girl."
She understood that he said it because of the poison that was dripping from the tip of the tail. "And you shouldn't underestimate me." She tugged at the tail, pulling it out of the body. Taking advantage of the opponent's surprise, she jumped up and down with inhuman speed, delivering a powerful punch in the middle of the puppet's body, utterly destroying, sending pieces of wood and debris from the cave everywhere.
Sakura watched as the real Sasori came out from inside the body of the marionette she destroyed. "I underestimated you, but don't worry, I don't make the same mistake twice."
Sakura noticed how his voice had changed and felt the eyes widen when she saw him take off his cloak and reveal the face of a boy who should not be two years older than her. "You're so young."
Sasori smiled at her and inclined the head in a gesture that looked almost childlike. "Thank you for the compliment. I'm going to like you as one of my puppets, little kunoichi."
Sakura tried to stay focused even with all the explosive noises she could hear coming from outside, and tried to keep her mind on the battle despite being worried about Sasuke in front of that bomb man.
Sasuke was doing the best in the fight against Deidara, he fought against clay dolls who made good hits and exploded everything around him. He was almost certain he'd lost the left ear hearing and prayed that Sakura could heal him. Deidara kept babbling about how he wanted to kill Itachi, but he would be content to stay with his little brother.
He looked incredulous when Deidara created a giant bird and flew high enough that Sasuke had to activate the sharingan to see him. "Damn it." Sasuke grunted and ran as fast as his feet could, to escape the rain of explosive mini-birds that fell from the sky. When all the dust from the explosions went down. Sasuke moaned in pain realizing that he had been hit in the ribs. He needed to get closer to Deidara at any cost, the man was good at distance fighting, but if Sasuke could get close, a sword stroke or a well-placed chidori would end this insane fight.
Sasuke made a substitution and was pleased when he saw Deidara's bird fly toward the ground. When Deidara was distracted enough with the clone, Sasuke attacked by placing a chidori directly into the heart but swallowed when he saw the man before him transform into a clay doll and before he could blink. "Katun." Deidara's voice shouted in triumph.
Sasuke's body flew through the forest and he closed the eyes preparing the body for impact, but never came. He felt someone's arms catch him before he collided with any surface.
"You're late!" He grunted and bit the lip trying to keep the pain under control.
"You see... There was a cat in the way..." Listening to Kakashi's monotone voice almost made him laugh, but that would open the wound in the ribs and it would not be a good thing.
"You never die, un." Deidara's angry voice shouted close to them.
Naruto approached when Kakashi put Sasuke to rest against a tree. "Leave the rest with us, Teme." Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder as if he could bring some comfort to the pain he knew the friend was feeling from all the visible wounds on Sasuke's body.
Sakura tried to maintain the same neutral facade she always wore during all the battles on ANBU missions, but inside she shuddered to see Sasori open a parchment and release hundred puppets at the same time. She was working on a strategy of how to fight against hundred puppets completely armed from head to toe with nothing but fists and chakra. "I'm so screwed up." She whispered to herself and cursed Kakashi for making her change the armor ANBU for normal clothes. Sasori laughed and she understood that he probably overheard her murmur, and she wondered what kind of skills the guy had hidden under the cape.
Sasori sent ten puppets toward her and Sakura tried to ignore the pain of the cuts on the arms and legs and knocked over all the puppets with precise blows. Before she could recover he sent another ten and the only thing she could think of was that she did not want to die in that damn cave.
Sasori inclined the head and gave her a completely unfeeling look and for a second she thought he was not human. "You can always give up, little girl."
"Go to hell." She grunted and threw one of the puppets over him, but he easily deflected it and she could swear she saw a smile adorn his lips.
"Sasori." Chyo's voice interrupted the fight and Sakura looked directly at Sasori, she would not allow herself to take the eyes off the opponent even if the reinforcement had arrived.
"Chyo-baa." Sasori replied. "You came to join this kunoichi, to die?" He mocked and without pausing he sent several puppets to the own grandmother.
Sakura jumped in front of the old woman creating a barrier jutsu she'd learned from Yamato, shielding the two, causing the puppets to collide with the invisible wall and break into several pieces.
Sasori waited for the barrier to fall and cast a cloud of poison toward the two kunoichis. Sakura gasped when she saw Chyo fall to the ground unconscious. She searched for the other syringes with antidote that she had prepared before leaving Suna and screamed in anger when she remembered that she left everything in the backpack she had left behind with Naruto, and the only antidote she carried with her was already used. She felt the eyes flood with tears of frustration. "You killed your only family." She knelt down in front the old woman and tried to extract the poison from the lungs.
Sasori was livid that she was not at affected by the different poisons. "No one survives my cloud of poison." Sasori said nonchalantly as if the life of Chyo did not matter and Sakura thought he did not really care. "The next is you."
Sakura watched with obvious horror stamping her face as he took off the cape and revealed a puppet body. She used the speed to place Chyo next to Gaara who was near the exit of the cave and ran towards Sasori who ran towards her with two rotating blades on each side of the body.
She dodged the attack at the last second and felt belatedly, when a hook went straight into her belly, just below the ribs. She gasped in pain and saw Sasori standing on a rock above her with a triumphant look.
Sakura looked at him with obvious hatred in her features and pulled the hook that was stuck on the belly, pulling the rope that held the hook until Sasori flew toward her with high speed and with a punch she watched how he smashed into several pieces. She saw a purple cylinder come out from inside the puppet's chest and reached for the object that had veins around it, being a medic-nin she knew exactly what was inside that cylinder. Taking a kunai, Sakura stabbed the heart of that abomination and ended the fight. She lay on her back on the floor of the now-destroyed cave and heal the hole that had been made in her belly, allowed herself to regain the breath for at least one minute before running to save the lives of the other cave occupants.
Sakura ran towards the place where she was feeling the chakra of the teammates. She thanked him when Naruto and Kakashi helped her with the bodies of Gaara and Chyo. Sakura ran toward the backpack that was lying on the floor next to Sasuke who was leaning against a tree with eyes closed and holding firmly to the side of the body, and she made a small mental note to finish with Chyo soon to help him.
She lifted the old woman's sleeve to apply the antidote and realized that her right arm was made of marionette pieces. 'It must be family stuff.' She ignored it and applied the antidote on the other arm, rushing to draw off as much as she could from the poison in her lung. After twenty minutes of useless effort she felt a hand on her shoulder, but refused to stop.
"Sakura, that's enough. She's gone." She heard Neji's voice and felt the hand tighten a little more on the shoulder.
"No." She shook the head in denial. "Damn it." She held back the tears of anger that wanted to escape. She rose from the place and walked to a large tree, with a scream of rage she punched the tree until there was nothing left but splinters. When finished she saw that everyone was looking at her. "Isn't fair!" She whispered more to herself. Ignoring the looks of the companions, she walked over to Sasuke and healed the deep cut he had and the three broken ribs.
"How is Gaara?" Naruto asked after several minutes of silence.
"Alive." It was the only answer she could give. All the stress of the fight, watching Sasori kill his own grandmother without resentment and discover that Itachi spent the last years surrounded by people who were apparently psychotic and heartless, got the best of her.
After they returned the Kazekage to the village of Suna and buried Chyo, they went back home. The trip took more than a day without rest and Sakura wanted nothing more than to get home. She was dressed in the ANBU uniform since her previous clothing was destroyed, courtesy of Sasori. After reporting the entire mission to Tsunade, Naruto insisted that they meet at Ichikaru to make up for lost time, but she would only do so after a shower. Kakashi told Sasuke to accompany her home and she was happy to see that they were still super protective even if she did not need protection.
She opened the door to the apartment and let Sasuke in, closing the door behind them.
"Nice place." Sasuke muttered and sat down on the couch in the small room.
"Mommy was tired of be scared by Sai every time he showed up at the kitchen window, before she had a heart attack, I moved." Sakura explained as she took off the gray vest getting in just one black tank top and threw it on the couch, sitting next to Sasuke before creating the energy needed for a shower.
"Sai?" Sasuke asked and Sakura ignored the nostalgia she felt when she remembered another Uchiha who always used few words when she was curious about something.
"My partner in ANBU." She looked at him and smiled for the first time since they had finished that mission. "He reminds me of you."
Sasuke raised one eyebrow and Sakura waited for some smart response, but froze as he reached for the necklace around her neck.
Sakura felt the world stop for one second as Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he looked at her as if she had two heads. "That necklace..."
"Sasuke..." She whispered and felt his hands tighten her shoulders tightly, she held the moan of pain that wanted to escape.
"Tell me it's not of him" Sasuke grunted and she saw that he was trying the best to remain calm.
"He's not what you think." She spoke before she could think of anything better and regretted it when she felt his fingers sink further.
"How can you?" She knew how he was feeling. She knew he was feeling betrayed and she did not know what to say. "Why?" He dropped her shoulders and got up from the couch, standing in the middle of the dark room. "How?... He came to see you? Since when do you know each other?" He ran a hand through his hair in obvious frustration. "Answer Sakura!"
She jumped when she heard his scream. "I've known him since we were kids. I've met him before I met you or Naruto." She said in a low voice trying to think what to say next.
"He never told me about you." Sasuke said with less anger this time.
"Sasuke, don't..." She whispered looking into his eyes.
"That day at the hospital. You defended him." Sasuke looked at her and sent the chill down the back of the neck. "How can you trust him after what he has done."
Sakura was not a person with a temperament calm, she felt all guilt disappear the moment he insinuated that Itachi was not trustworthy. She stood abruptly in front of him. "How can you not trust him?"
"He killed my family, my clan..." He said through gritted teeth.
She put the hand on his shoulder and breathed in relief that he had not left. "Kakashi taught us to always look underneath of the under part. You knew Itachi very well, Sasuke. Do you believe he would do what he did only to prove himself?"
He was silent for a few seconds. "He... Maybe I didn't know him as well like you." He responded with obvious irritation.
"Come on, Sasuke, there's something else in all this, don't you ever think about it?" She insisted.
He sighed and pressed the tip of his nose in obvious frustration. "I don't know what to think, Sakura."
Sakura felt a shiver run down of the spine and realized she needed to get Sasuke out of the apartment. "I'll tell you all that I discovered, but first I need a shower." She took the hand from his shoulder and took a step back.
He nodded and Sakura saw how stunned he was. "If you're not at Ichikaru in half an hour, I'll back." He left and closed the door behind him.
"Tobi thought he would not leave." Sakura turned to the balcony where a masked man was and was glad Sasuke was too stunned to notice the presence of another person in the room. Sakura stared at the hole in the intruder's mask. "Tobi, came to get what the beautiful kunoichi took. You know... It's a ugly thing to take something that doesn't belong to you, pretty girl." These were the last words Sakura heard before being swallowed by the darkness.