Yo! Yes I know it's been bloody forever but really I couldn't think up anything to write for this and I didn't want to write more frankly but now I'm forcing myself so here it is! ENJOY!
Disclaimer: I do not own it no matter what you may think!
Itachi: I think they have realized that by now.
Kyo: (glare) yes well you can never say it enough.
Hidan: Yeah wouldn't want to freaking get sued by a bunch of pig-
Kyo: ( covers Hidan's mouth with hand) Ehheeh Don't mind him I love the police.
Itachi: (rolls eyes) Right...
Kyo: ANYWAY! Lets move on before I get arrested!
Chapter eleven: Time
Hinata's lavender eyes opened and she awoke after the strangest dream, of course only seconds later realizing it had not been a dream as she felt several chakra signatures and least a few familiar though some strangely altered. She sat up quickly and took innovatory of the room finding most of the members of said room asleep.
Sasuke Uchiha sat in the corner of the room asleep against the wall in his chair, while a blue skinned child lay against his leg drooling and snoring while a silver haired boy sat sleeping against his other leg. In the second bed, she was in the first, A blond haired child of three and a red haired child of six, or older, slept side by side. Then leaning against the wall next to the door was Sakura awake and aware of her. Of course there was the black haired, black eyed boy at her side leaning next to her.
" Sa..Sakura what is going on?" Hinata asked looking around the room again and keeping her voice low. It was morning but everyone, almost everyone, was asleep. She was worried Sakura had knocked her out and she didn't know why or why Sasuke Uchiha was here. Wait those children looked oddly familiar.
" We need your help Hina-chan." Sakura said but those once friendly eyes were dead serious and lacked any warmth. Sakura was serious and she meant business it seemed.
" What can I..I do Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked in return trying to place where she saw the children, then it hit her, and she gasped covering her mouth with her hand she looked back to Sakura who wore a grim expression.
" I have been a spy for Akatsuki for a long time. I am not asking anything of you that will get you killed Hina-chan. I am simply asking you to help reverse what your 'freeze' thing did to them by turning them into children." Hinata looked utterly confused.
" You have been a spy for Akatsuki? But-t Naruto-kun.." She trailed off at seeing Sakura wince ever so slightly.
" He is in no danger. Akatsuki is not a threat to Konoha unless provoked. None of the Akatsuki here would harm the village though I can never go back now anyway none of us can, but you. I simply ask you to help us here and it will be the last time you will most likely see me." Hinata frowned but nodded not knowing what to really think so she thought back to what she put in the liquid she had meant to freeze enemies with.
What was in it that would actually revert a person into child form? She had no clue she would have to think long and hard and do experiments, but she got from Sakura's face and those serious eyes that time was of the essence here.
" I may be able to come up with something Sakura-chan, b...but I can not be sure. The liquid was supposed to be on a time release they should eventually return to their original forms in time." Hinata said. Itachi grunted out something at her side and Sakura looked down at him with a frown.
" We do not have that sort of time." Sakura said harshly making Hinata flinch.
" I don't un..understand Sakura-chan why don't you have any time?" Hinata asked nervously and slightly concerned she hadn't meant to cause problems certainly for Sakura.
" They're minds may not make the return back to their original forms. They are already acting more like children now. They're minds are taking the given roles of their forms currently. I am fearful that if they stay in this form much longer they may not come back completely sane." Hinata wanted to ask if they ever were sane to start but didn't think it wise.
If Sakura was on Akatsuki's side Hinata didn't know why, but she trusted Sakura even if she had seemingly betrayed her and the village. Sakura was never one to do things unnecessarily and never with out reason thus she had to have good reason for being so intent on Akatsuki even so much as to leave her village behind for them. Perhaps she loved one of them.
" I can work on a antidote but I can not guarantee anything Sakura-chan I'm sorry." Hinata said looking to Itachi at her side. He punched a first into the wall and buried his face in her side.
" I fear it will take my mind Sakura. I can feel this battle I am losing." Itachi said against her side it was muffled and she was sure Hinata couldn't hear him but she did and she laid a hand on his head. She wouldn't allow them to be lost to this. She would get them back one way or another.
" I would need to gather some herbs and then start. I will need space and time and I know it is...important to rush but I can not go faster in risk of mistak..es." Hinata said carefully. She didn't want to upset anyone she was simply telling the truth. Sakura nodded and Hinata saw Itachi's first grip onto Sakura's shirt and squeeze until his knuckles were white.
" I saw a Herb shop in town while we were out looking for the Hyuuga." Sasuke spoke up suddenly awake obviously had been for a while and had oped to listening in to actually allowing them to see he was awake before hand. Sakura glanced at Sasuke and nodded.
" Hina-chan and I will go to the shop stay here with the kids." Sakura said and Hinata stood to follow as Sakura turned. Sakura was glad this was at least calm and she hadn't had to hurt Hinata. She loved the girl as her own sister and yet she couldn't risk the Akatsuki's lives, not any of them. It had been her fault in away and she would help fix this. They were one step closer.
Itachi held on to her shirt not letting go as she turned to leave to the herb shop with Hinata. Sakura touched his head.
" Itachi is coming along Sasuke. Make sure you watch them well and feed them. I don't want to come back to Deidara crying again." Sasuke scoffed and Hinata, Sakura, and Itachi walked out. Itachi held onto her shirt like a lost child and Sakura knew what he had said was true. The time was short they were losing the battle and if they didn't hurry Sakura wasn't sure that if they were changed back that their minds would be as well. After all whats done is done and sometimes whats done is permanent.
XXxxXXxxXX
The herb shop held many things and Between Sakura and Hinata searching for certain things they took a long while at least two hours and then another hour to make sure they had gotten what they needed with no guarantee these would help in any way Hinata had said. Sakura was truly afraid for the Akatsuki. Itachi scrunched up his nose at the scent of the place, it was giving him a headache that he personally didn't care for.
" Sakura can we leave?" Itachi asked tugging on her shirt as she was in conversation with the Purple haired Hyuuga. Sakura paused mid-sentence and touched a hand to his head. Which she was doing a lot lately, perhaps to reassure him with touch or simply because she could, he didn't know. It was getting harder and harder for his mind to focus on things like normally, he wanted to act childishly and it was like a urge, and itch, he couldn't quite scratch in the back of his mind the need to' play', something even as a kid he had never wanted nor needed to do. It frankly scared him that he was losing himself to this stupid thing.
" Just a moment we need to see if this is the right herb then we will pay and leave." She said in a soft voice he was growing too use to, as it comforted some part of him. He wonder if she was speaking so gently to him on purpose or if it was a motherly instinct for a woman with children in her care to act differently on a subconscious level.
He nodded and remained silent until the two woman came to a conclusion and then paid and they made their way back to the Inn.
" Have their minds been altered drastically?" Hinata asked as they walked into the Inn. They now needed another room to conduct the research in a big enough place just for the study no mistakes could be made here. They were no longer talking about the enemy obviously, now they spoke of five different lives at risk.
Sakura nodded.
" I have known these men for a while now, they have been increasingly acting different. More childish, less like themselves. I am afraid that not only their minds will be changed in a childish way, but also in a way that will make them lose memory or even themselves." Hinata nodded. Yes she was wary of that outcome as well.
The man at the desk allowed them another room which Sakura paid for and Hinata followed Sakura and Itachi up the stairs to the room holding the other members of Akatsuki and Sasuke Uchiha. After Hinata retrieved her stuff she and Sakura would retire to the new room and begin immediately.
They walked into the room to find, for Hinata, a shocking sight, to Sakura she sighed. Sasuke sat bound to the chair he looked more then annoyed at the Akatsuki children, the ones who knew how, were playing cards, while Deidara played with his own hair as he sat on Kisame's lap. The Akatsuki kids looked up as they entered.
" Really Sasuke?" She asked looking at the gagged and bound male. He glared Sharingan eyes at her in his anger.
" Well, anyway guys I want you to be nicer to Sasuke he going to take you to get something to eat and watch you. I would like it if you behaved. Hinata and I will be working together a few rooms down if you need me." Sakura said as she untied Sasuke and un-gagged him. He glared and cursed at the children as they ignored him and ran to Sakura. Sasori hugged her waist as Deidara squealed wanting picked up. She bent and picked Deidara up while placing a hand on Sasori's cheek and smiling at him. He blushed in delight.
Hinata watched this process curiously as the little Uchiha Itachi glared at the two children. Seemingly protective of Sakura. Perhaps from a childish jealousy of having the affection of the female directed away from him, or perhaps a males jealousy to the other two men with the affection she shows to them. It was hard to tell what Uchiha Itachi though she didn't know these men, children, as well as Sakura obviously did, and besides that their thinking depended on how far their minds were already gone.
" Sakuwa-chan, Yeah!" Deidara rubbed his cheek against Sakura's. She smiled and kissed his cheek softly. She looked to Hidan and Kisame.
" I don't care if your mean to Sasuke, but don't tie him up anymore, and don't leave his side. Don't make me come looking for you. Just let Sasuke take you to eat and when you come back Sasuke will play with you again then I want you to go to bed." Sakura said in a commanding way directed for children more then adults. All the Akatsuki children nodded except Hidan and Itachi. Hidan huffed no doubt the main cause of Sasuke's mishaps with the chair and rope. Itachi stayed next to Hinata in the door way unhappy with Sasori and Deidara's hold on her.
" No Sakuwa-chan! Don't weave!Yeah!" Sakura smiled again more gently this time. She kissed the blonds forehead.
" Now Deidara you know if I stay then you guys could be stuck like this. I'm going to get you all back to the way you were. I promised, but you guys have to let me go and do that work." Deidara pouted and Sasori squeezed her tighter, obviously no longer caring what anyone thought as long as he could hang on the girl.
" Awight. Yeah." Deidara said with a sad frown. She ruffled his hair and set him down while kneeling and hugging Sasori to her chest telling him to watch him well. Sasuke was left with no other choice but to do as she said.
" I'm coming with you." Itachi said surprising Hinata at his sudden declaration. Sakura frowned at the young Uchiha.
" I rather you stay here and get something to eat, you've been with me all day Itachi and you complained of a headache earlier." He frowned at her more so then usual. Hinata could some how sense the Uchiha's distress.
" I th..ink he should come with us. I w..would at least need one of them to let me study them, b...blood samples the such to s..see how he reacts to different things Sakura-chan." Hinata said poking her fingers together at the sudden attention of the entire room. Then she paled at the look on Sakura's face.
" Absolutely not." Sakura said surprising just about everyone in the room but more so Itachi himself.
" But..t why?" Hinata asked confused, wondering if she was the cause the the pink haired woman's anger or if it was the suggestion.
" I would be needed, you will never be able to change us back if you do not have someone to test this on before hand. You could end up making us all worse." Itachi said wondering as well why she refused.
Sakura crossed her arms under her bold chest and stared down at the Uchiha with hardened and serious jade eyes.
" No. Stay here." Sakura said and Itachi stiffened.
" I won't." He said back onyx eyes glaring up at her in forward determination.
They stared at each other like that almost sending words through their eyes at Itachi's determination to help and Sakura's determination for him not to.
" Sakura just let him go. Your going to need him, and if not him one of them, you have to make sure it works after all the sooner the better unless you were just exaggerating about how serious it was." Sasuke said crossing his own arms under his chest not to copy her, but just to make his point stand out more. He was not a child he had a say in these things too he wasn't going to be treated like a child being told what to do.
He almost backed down when her eyes met his, those jade eyes so angry, he almost flinched but he caught himself.
" He will stay here and that is final." Sakura said and started to walk to the door, she grabbed Hinata's arm on the way and pulled the girl to the door. The girl wisely did not say a word.
" Sakura!" Itachi yelled running after her to the door. She slammed the door in his face. Itachi fell back onto his rear at the shock of the door suddenly slamming a breath away from his person, while on Sakura's side Hinata choked.
Sakura let Hinata go and the girl followed with a wary look at the closed door. She looked to Sakura's back her hair was even swaying angrily, that is until her steps faltered and she paused in the hall way feet from the door to the new room. Hinata almost ran into her.
" Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked curiously. Sakura turned and looked back at the door she had slammed with concern.
" Why did you react...in such a wa...way. Are you so.. against them returning to norm..mal?" Hinata stuttered out nervously unsure she wanted to ask the question and have her get angry again. Sakura ran a hand over her eyes. More tired then Hinata had ever seen her. Actually Sakura had never shown the Akatsuki how tired and exhausted she really was, Sakura never allowed them to see it.
" I did what I had to. I won't allow Itachi to be a experimentation. Who knows what we could do to him if we make a mistake or even if we don't. We could make him even younger, we could make him sick, or even kill him and I won't risk him. If I had not been so cruel Itachi would not have listened to me." Sakura said looking back at the stilled closed door. Her heart hurt. Hinata could see it in her eyes.
He had just started to trust her, open up more, and she had treated him like a small child, treated him cruelly for his own safety which he would not have known. She hated it. She felt sick to her stomach at having to do it. She had no choice though.
" If you are worried I can go in and set things up Sakura-chan." Hinata said certain now that her anger was not directed at her thus she could stop being so nervous around the girl she had known for a very long time.
Hinata watched the pain flash across Sakura's face before she turned toward the new room and started walking again unlocking the door she walked in. She wouldn't go back not because she didn't want to, but because if she did Itachi would still insist and then hurting him would have been for nothing.
" No. Now lets get started." Sakura said facing Hinata with a nod. The Hyuuga frowned in concern as she watched the girls hand tremble but she nodded. If she didn't want to go back, Hinata sure the heck wasn't going to force her.
XxxxXX
Meanwhile:
Itachi sat on the floor in front of the door in shock then anger, then a sudden sharp pain entered his chest and forced tears into his eyes. What the hell kind of reaction is this? He had never felt this sort of pain before in his chest as if Sakura had just betrayed him. He tried to tell himself this pain was irrational but his body kept feeling the pain and the hurt, his feelings were hurt. His eyes were pricked with tears he held in with only a iron will power, though they still swam in those onyx eyes.
Sasuke frowned at his brother just as shocked at Sakura's strictness when dealing with his brother. He watched like all the other Akatsuki as Itachi sat there just as he fell looking at the door. His face hidden from them but Sasuke had to wonder what his brother was thinking about that.
" Sakura is a bit stressed trying to help you all out, I wouldn't take her anger to heart." Sasuke said unsure why he was trying to make Itachi feel better of all things, maybe he as well was losing his mind. Though even he could tell these Akatsuki were acting more and more like children, he was after all the one who watched them the most. Itachi's back stiffened before he stood in a rush and walked to the window and sat at staring out the window.
Sasuke couldn't believe it. Itachi was upset over how Sakura had acted. He was, could he say, hurt at having a door slammed in his face. Good god Sakura needed to get that Hyuuga to make a cure and fast! This was insane.
" I do not need your sympathy leave me alone little brother." Itachi said in a cold tone he knew all to well, though did his voice tremble at the end? Sasuke didn't know for sure but he wasn't about to do anything else to Itachi. He seriously wasn't going to tell him he was the oldest now and Itachi was the youngest brother, because it was only currently right and Sasuke wasn't going to push him.
" Well then lets go out and get something to eat then." Sasuke said trying to change the entire atmosphere of the room which was awkwardly silent and a little unsure.
" Does Sakuwa-chan not wike Itawhi any mowe? Yeah." Deidara asked Sasori in a not so quiet voice. Itachi's back stiffened and Sasuke frowned at his brother's back.
" I'm sure she's just trying to protect him." Sasuke said quickly to change the darn subject again. Darn that blond haired child.
" Lets go then." Sasuke said looking to Hidan and Kisame. Sasori took a hold of Deidara's hand and they all looked to Itachi then Sasuke. Who sighed. He couldn't leave him here, and Sakura would kill him if he did. God why did he follow her? He so should have just walked away.
" Itachi." Sasuke said. The youngest ( now) Uchiha stiffened even more.
" I can't leave you here by yourself Itachi you'll have to come as well." Itachi remained silent until Sasuke said it again.
" Sakura is right down the hall I will be fine." he said and Sasuke frowned even more. He nodded and they all left but not before he walked down the hall and knocked on the door Sakura said they had rented. Sakura answered.
" Itachi is staying in the room, he refused to come with us." Sakura sighed and rubbed a hand over her face then nodded.
" Alright." Sasuke nodded and he left with the four children. Sakura looked back at Hinata who smiled hesitantly reassuring perhaps and Sakura closed the door as she walked out into the hall and down to the room they had first rented. Itachi was sitting at the window. His back tense. He was glaring at the village outside with tears in those onyx eyes. Sakura's heart sank further.
" Leave me alone." Itachi said with a little tremble in his voice, Sakura caught all to well. She sighed and walked over and sat at his side he turned his face away though she had already seen those tears swimming in his eyes, obviously a reaction he had not wanted nor could obviously help, though he had not let them fall at least.
" Itachi I didn't mean to upset you but I don't want you to get hurt. The tests we can run but I won't let you be apart of an experiment that could kill you." Itachi stiffened further.
" Itachi.." She reached out and touched the top of his head. In the window she saw his reflection as a tear dropped from his eye, his eyes widened as if he had never in his life cried before, or perhaps because he did not want them to fall. She pulled his arm and he struggled obvious not wanting her to see his 'weakness' but she pulled hard and he fell onto her lap she pressed his face into her chest and it hid his tears.
He was still for a while then slowly relaxed and buried his hands into her shirt tightening his hands he pulled and pushed his head further against her chest. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and put her chin on top of his head.
" I'm sorry." She said he his hands shook. He mumbled something into her chest she could quiet hear.
" I'm sorry what did you say?" She asked softly in the silence of the room.
" I love you." He said again this time moving back to look up into her eyes with hard onyx. Her jade eyes flew open wider then they ever had went. She choked out something incoherent as a fiery blush raced across her face.
" Wha.." Sakura began confused but Itachi glared at her and she shut her mouth, with tears still in his eyes he glared at her after a confession she wasn't sure she should take seriously or not. In this state a state where it could be him thinking or that form making him think more like a child, she couldn't take that confession to heart. He could very well only feel the love for her of a child to a mother, or sibling, or what not. She couldn't take it seriously so why did her heart race?
" Itachi." She said. He narrowed his eyes further.
" Forget it." he turned his head away and she sighed and put a hand on his head. A thing he had grown to like. Her touch.
" Itachi tell me it after we get you all back to your real forms. I won't say you don't know what your talking about, or that this form could be affecting your mind as well as emotions like this..." She brushed the tears from his eyes and he blushed faintly.
" or that." She said rubbing a thumb over his warmed cheek. He scowled at her.
" Sakura I know.." She cut him off.
" Itachi I don't want you to tell me this now, then when your back to your body change your mind. If you remember correctly we have never got along before this, and now you love me? It's a bit hard to believe and further I just don't want you to get hurt or me to. I love you Itachi and I don't want you to only feel this now but changed your mind as soon as you are yourself again. I can't except that confession until your back to your own body." he scowled further but he nodded.
" You can come help us with a few tests but I don't want you to drink or eat anything in that room, and I know you know, but I as I said, don't want anything worse to happen. Understand?" He nodded ever so hesitantly.
" Alright." She stood lifting him to his feet at the same time. She wiped his tears and his face and then he took her hand and they went to the other room a few doors down. Hinata hid a soft smile as Sakura came in with the Uchiha. She sat him at the window and then she got back to work.
Itachi watched her.
Was this feeling of love something he felt just because of this form affecting his mind? Was she right in that? They had fought a lot before this change in body happened, but did that necessarily mean his feelings were fake? Not his feelings but a reaction to her in this child form? He watched her work loving the way she treated him so kindly, and the way she moved so confident in what she did.
He had always respected her, but he and she had never gotten along perhaps because of their different opinions, but she had always known him better then he thought anyone would even with out one word spoken about himself, she knew. As if she could read his eyes, as if she could read his mind.
He frowned. So over all did he love her? Or was it simply a feeling like that hurt he had felt earlier when she had told him no? He had teared up, a reaction he had not wanted to allow, was this feeling of love the same? What even caused him to tell her those feelings? He certainly had no intention of telling her how he felt, but the words slipped out in the moment. God he just wanted back in his own form, to know for sure what he felt, with all this uncertainty he wasn't even sure he even knew who he was anymore.
XxxxXX
Konoha: Hospital:
The silver haired man's eyes slid open. He felt as if he was hit in the forehead with a tree. He blink a few times with the intensity of the light streaming in through the opened window at his side. He frowned where was he? The Hospital? What happened?
Then he remembered he shot up in bed just as a nurse walked in. She gasped and high tailed it out returning shortly after he heard her yelling about ' He's awake!' Kakashi waited until the Hokage walked in her amber eyes dark and more then serious.
" Hatake what happened?" Kakashi frowned deeper with the sudden headache.
" Sakura is apart of the Akatsuki here as a spy, Sasuke is helping whether he just began or has been I can't be sure. The children Sakura brought back from her 'mission' are the Akatsuki themselves. Some how changed into children. Sasuke caught me off guard." he said quickly. Tsunade's fists tightened and she grind-ed her teeth together in frustrated rage.
" Shizune!" She yelled the woman rushed in.
" Hokage-sama?" She asked looking to Kakashi quickly.
" Neji, Naruto, Shikamaru, get them in my office now!" Shizune rushed off. Kakashi sighed.
" Sakura has to have a good reason." The nurse said quickly. Tsunade glared at the woman who cowered.
" It doesn't matter she betrayed the village." Kakashi said worried. He didn't want to believe Sakura would betrayed her village, she had to have good reason, but according to law no reason unless ordered to was a good enough reason to betray your village.
Tsunade walked out of the room leaving Kakashi to sit and stare at the window wondering what the heck Sakura's reasons where, why Sasuke followed, and how the Akatsuki got transformed into children.
XXXXX
Tsunade opened her office door it slammed into the wall and sent a crack racing up the wall across the ceiling and sent white plaster down on the three men in the room. Neji stood straighter, Shikamaru frowned, and Naruto winced.
" Mission." Tsunade said as she sat at her desk slamming her hands down on the surface. The three tensed.
" Find Sakura and Sasuke and bring them back here. They are both to be captured alive if possible. If they threaten you use any force you see necessary. Capture the five children with them, they are Akatsuki." Naruto looked puzzled and as did Neji and Shikamaru but before Naruto could even open his mouth to ask anything or say anything, Neji and Shikamaru wisely took his arms and disappeared with him.
Tsunade looked out the window at the village.
" What the hell were you thinking?" She asked no one, and got no answer.
XXXxxxXXX
End chapter:
OMG yes! Another chapter for this which has been forever since I wrote in it I know my bad! But I hoped you enjoyed the chapter and before you say anything about Itachi being OOC or Sasuke first, Sasuke is a pansy and will listen to Sakura or be pummeled, and Itachi as well as the other Akatsuki are being affected mentally. I'm thus showing you how much it's slowly taking affect. If you have a problem then oh well!
Hope you other wise enjoyed the update because their might not be one for another long while lol, in the meantime while you wait for another update go read 'Revival' my newest fic I decided to redo/rewrite from' A Haruno's choice and an Uchiha's revival.' Ne? I haven't got many people reading it but I want them too! So please go read the darn fic! Anyway tell me what ya think about this chapter!
P.S Be glad the update is so long.
~~Kyo~~