AN: I know, I know, I haven't updated all of last month. It's not like I wanted to stop and I didn't break my promise of updating at least once a week. I've had a few problems these last few weeks. One, I was busy with homework. Two, I've got state testing coming up and the most important reason, I LOST MY FLASH DRIVE! It's been driving me insane because I had everything typed and ready to go then, I lost it! So, I'm really sorry about letting you down… Thanks for reading you guys, it means so much. Here's the latest chapter and I hope I find me flash drive soon because this is a retyped version…


Disclaimer: Me no own Naruto! (That was caveman talk for I don't own Naruto!)

Bold=Thoughts

Bold/Italics=Thoughts about Sasuke or an Inner


Recap:

When I had gained my breath, I finally spoke. "So, you're Madara; founder of the Uchiha clan?"

The said man narrowed his eyes and stared at me. "What do you know about the Uchiha and Madara?"

"Enough to know that you're no ordinary ninja."

Both the girl, Konan, and the man, Nagato, seemed to be surprised by my knowledge and bravery against the Uchiha in front of me.

"I guess I'll just have to get those words out of you!" Madara snarled before launching at me.


(Sakura's POV)

I gasped for air as Madara wrapped his hands tightly around my neck. All defiance and confidence faded from my eyes and in there place came terror and agony.

"Right after we got our inhaler too!" My inner wailed.

"You're not the one unable to breathe…" I managed to whimper out.

"Sakura! He can manipulate you with his sharingan. No matter how good of a genjustu user you are, you can't win here!"

My inner's advice was cut short as I heard the two words sealing my fate.

"Mangekyou Sharingn!"

My vision blurred and I appeared standing next to my inner. Perplexed, I reached out to touch her and to my surprise, she flinched.

"Sakura, what are you doing here? I don't remember letting you in…" My inner questioned.

"I haven't got a clue. Are we…?"

"In your mindscape my dear…" A low voice echoed around the walls of my head.

"Show yourself you bastard!" My inner yelled out into the darkness.

"Over confident much? Such foul language as well my dear…"

"My dear my ass! Why don't you face me like a man? Or do you not have any-"

"INNER!" I screamed at her.

"I was going to say guts but if you want to go there…"

"SHUT UP! HOW CAN YOU SAY SUCH CRUDE THINGS?" I was puffing for breathe as I lost my voice. Coughing, I attempted to clear my throat.

"Hmmm… Two of you yet split personalities. That's never happened before."

Madara turned back toward the darkness and ran until we lost sight of him. Rushing forward, I ran after him, my inner right behind. My head felt heavy and I collapsed on the ground.

"SAKURA! Are you okay?" My inner looked worriedly in Madara's direction. Glancing around one last time, she ran towards me.

"My lack of air is getting to me. I need to get back to the real world but I don't know how to break the sharingan."

My inner thought quietly for a moment before an idea popped into her mind.

"Remember when Lady Chiyo mentioned that you need two people to break a strong genjutsu?"

"Yes, but this is the strongest sharingan genjutsu known, Tsukiyomi…"

"It shouldn't be any different in theory though. Sure, it'll take longer to break but it's worth a shot."

I simply nodded my head in approval and concentrated hard. My attention was distracted when my inner's hand touched the back of my neck.

"What was that about?" I glared at her rubbing my neck. Kami, her hands were cold. Not to mention that's one of my ticklish spots.

"I'm helping you out! Come back over here, you should have known what I would do when I said two people."

Sighing, I sat back down and concentrated, trying to ignore the cold.

"Kai!"

When I opened my eyes, they were met with blazing red. There seemed to be shock in everyone's eyes, seeing as Madara didn't release his jutsu.

"You are the strangest girl I have ever met! You'll be staying here until your teammates come for you. I hope you don't mind us doing experiments on you because no one has resisted my mangekyou sharingan. You really don't have much a choice here my darling so sit tight and watch the show." Madara rambled on under his breathe before releasing his hold on my neck.

I coughed and tried to collect enough air in my lungs to speak but to no avail. Madara chuckled at my lame attempts to talk. I continued to open and close my mouth to find the words I wanted to say. Racking my brain for a witty retort, I lost all train of thought at Madara's next comment.

"Send in Itachi, he'll be quite useful here." He ordered to Nagato and Konan before climbing back up the stairs.

Nagato started after him, probably on his way to get the other Uchiha. Konan looked at me and whispered something that I barely caught before following the other two up.

"You're in for one hell of a ride, pinky."

As I lay in the dark, still gasping for breath my dread finally got to my head. Konan's words weren't much a help either.

Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun, where are you two?"


(Sasuke's POV)

I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep since Sakura left. The dobe could easily tell I was stressed and I grew annoyed at every damn thing. One screw up and you'd face my wrath. It became known among the others that I was easily set off but only the dobe and the Hyuga girl knew my pain and agony. Thrashing out each night, waking up in cold sweat from nightmares, Sakura's safety was my only priority. I barely ate and only took as much as necessary to live. If Sakura were here, I'd be getting scolded about how I should care about my life. Hell, if saving Sakura meant giving up vengeance, maybe I would have changed my mind about Itachi but I would not be swayed. I would save her, kill Itachi and comeback for her.

We were taking a break near a creek to get some sleep. I stood guard watching for the Akatsuki scum to show their faces.

"Teme, you should get some sleep, dattebayo! You've been awake for the past three days."

"Hn, dobe you know why I'm up so just leave. I'll go at my own time."

"You'd better Sasuke; you can't save her with when you have no strength left."

I clenched my fists at my sides, waving him off. When Naruto called me by my first name, I knew he was serious. I knew he was right but I couldn't sleep. At least not when I didn't know where or how my Sakura was.

"Again with you're over protectiveness, Sasu-chan?"

"Go to hell! Don't call me Sasu-chan you imbecile!"

"You're so cruel, Sasu-chan…"

"QUIT CALLING ME SASU-CHAN!"

"Okey dokey artichokey!"

"I give up with you! I'm going to bed."

"You give me sweet dreams or a beau-"

"DON'T EVEN GO THERE! JUST LET ME SLEEP AND BE QUIET!"

Looking around again, I started back toward camp. Suigetsu was snoring loud enough to wake up the whole country while Jugo stayed the farthest away from everyone. Karin was still lying on her sleeping bag, staring at me with her red eyes.

'Tch, she's so desperate… It's pathetic."

I slowly made my way toward my sleeping bag and curled up inside. I felt rustling near my rear and I could take a guess what it was.

"Leave me alone, Karin. I want to sleep so go back to your old spot."

"But Sasuke-kun I-"

"Don't call me Sasuke-kun! I'm Uchiha-sama to you!"

"But Sasuke-kun I had-" Karin persisted.

"Just shut up and go to sleep."

Slowly, my eyes closed and I fell into sleep's spell, three days of no sleeping finally catching up with me. That was until I felt something crawl into my bag from behind. My eyes shot open sharingan blaring as I whipped around to face Karin's disgusting face.

"Out. Of. My. Bag. NOW!" My words came out in a haze of anger and lack of sleep.

Karin just gave me her innocent look, which looked like she had just gotten stabbed and got her face remodeled. It was just plain wrong. Sakura-hime could do so much better…

"Oh, so it's Sakura-hime now?"

"Not now, inner. I have a big problem to deal with…"

"You called me by my name! I'll leave you in peace now."

He held up his hand with his fingers separated down the middle. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he was giving me the live long and prosper sign. Tch, ironic to give it to yourself…

"Hn."

Glad my inner listened for once; I glared harder at the red haired hag next to me. The one thing that got my blood boiling was her next words.

"Sasuke-kun, I had a nightmare! Can you kiss me goodnight and comfort me? Just forget about that pink haired freak and stay with me."

Nightmare? Forget Sakura? I haven't gotten any sleep the past three days because of my nightmares with Sakura getting hurt. If she was just messing around to get me to cuddle with her and abandon Sakura, she was DEAD!

My chakra flared and my eyes cast her into a harsh genjutsu. If she wanted to fool around with me, she had another thing coming!

Karin's screams filled my ears. The sight I was showing her was too much. It was all about my clan's death. Shown before her eyes as they were through mine when I was seven.

"You think you had a nightmare? I've been living a nightmare for the past ten years of my life!"

The rest of the camp woke, startled by all the noise. Suigetsu ran to Karin's side while the dobe held me back. He looked disappointed in me but I didn't give a damn. I'd kill Karin if I had to!

"Sasuke, calm down! Do you think Sakura would want you to be doing this?"

Realizing my mistake, I closed my eyes and my orbs changed back to black. I just glared at the blob of red in front of me. Pulling free of the dobe's grasp, I stared coldly at the ground.

"What's your problem, you teme? She's your teammate, learn to grow up!"

"Not after what she said. Not when she told me to abandon Sakura. She called her a freak and I will not tolerate that!"

The dobe whipped around at Karin after the words left my mouth. His eyes were intense but the Hyuga held him in place, calming him down a bit.

"You, why can't you take a hint? Sasuke doesn't want you and were set on saving Sakura-chan. Get that through your thick skull or leave us alone!"

Suigetsu looked up at us, eyes cold and full of anger, hate, the things I always felt myself.

"Don't yell at her! Sure she can be stupid at times, but she's our friend!"

He turned toward me and spat at my feet. I was about to kick him before I thought better of myself. True, they were my friends but Karin had some serious issues.

"All she wants is your acknowledgement. I don't see why you keep hurting her more and more…"

I saw the look Suigetsu gave her and I knew what was wrong. He stared at her in the same way the dobe looked at the Hyuga, in the same way I looked at Sakura-hime. It was the look of affection and love.

"Suigetsu, don't push her onto me." Suigetsu was ready to interrupt but I stopped him. "I know the way you feel and I don't want to take something that you obviously want more. Sakura-hime, I hurt her like I hurt Karin but I know I can help heal her. Karin doesn't need my help to heal; she needs someone who can love her back…"

Suigetsu's eyes widened and he looked at Karin who stared at him with a shocked face. I gave him my infamous smirk before he started blushing like crazy. Karin looked at him confusedly before looking back at me.

"Karin, I'm sorry but I can't love you. Not when my heart belongs to someone else but I know a certain someone who can."

Jugo nudged Suigetsu in the side and gave him a soft smile. Karin stood up and raced off toward the river.

"Hey, Suigetsu. You should follow her…" I told him gently.

"Thanks, I didn't think I could ever tell her."

"Good luck."

Suigetsu ran off after Karin and we all watched in silence. That was until the dobe interrupted.

"So, it's Sakura-hime now? I didn't know someone could change the stoic Sasuke Uchiha so much that he spins out of character."

Everyone around me started snickering. How I hated being made fun of!

"Dobe…." I started. Suddenly, I felt my instincts kick in and I started packing my things.

"Teme, what are you doing?"

"Tell everyone to get there stuff, Sakura's in danger. The rest of our group started packing up while I talked with the dobe quietly. Karin and Suigetsu would be informed as soon as they came back.

"How do you know she's in danger?"

"I can just feel it. Something bad is about to happen to her I just know it!"

Sakura-hime, be safe. Sasuke is on his way to get you!

"Wow, you spoke in third person! You are so whip-"

"INNER!"


AN: Well, was it good? I would update more but I haven't gotten many reviews or story alerts… If you really like this story, leave a review or at least put me on alert! You guys are my inspiration so thank you for reading! I'm also surprised that I got over 200 hits last month and I didn't update so thank you so much!

I'll be naming people for reviews and such so leave one to be mentioned.

Oh, and congratulations 'sakuralover1215' on winning my sonfic challenge! You're the reason I try to update once a week so hats off to you! Thank you, Weasleyweasel and Notsonormalnerd for adding my stories to your favorites list and Ur worst nightmare452 for reviewing! (Weasleyweasel did both so double thanks!) Until next time!

- 4321rayray signing off!