TH: I"M SORRY! This is so late. *cringe*

But, um, on the brightside, this chapter has something new! It has been beta'd! Many thanks to MakalaMea!

On with the show!

SHADES

Chapter Eleven—Fury

Four Years Ago

When Itachi first tracked down the group that would eventually become Genshi, it was pathetically small—only eight people. But he was unconcerned by the lack of members. He knew others would come.

When he had heard that Tsunade had been offered the Godaime seat, and had refused, he hadn't heard who had delivered the offer. When he suspected that the story had been fabricated and that an assassination attempt had been made on her life, he had not suspected that his brother's Genin Team had been involved. So when he had arrived in the small town where his information had placed Tsunade most recently, and had received accounts of a group of people matching the descriptions of Team Seven traveling with a woman matching Tsunade's description, he had felt a moment of cold fear.

He had not anticipated this. It had never been a possibility, before. But things had changed, and what he had known was not to be, anymore. The path of the future had shifted and he couldn't predict what would happen.

At least they were still alive. At least the assassins that Itachi knew Danzo would—if he hadn't already—send hadn't gotten his little brother. And now that he was aware that Sasuke was out here, he would make sure that they didn't.

Jiraiya had been the first of them he encountered. The old Sage knew who he was, on sight, and welcomed him warmly. Jiraiya took him to Tsunade, who had debriefed him on what he knew, and who he had allowed to do so, having accepted her as the rightful Hokage.

Then, with a hidden smile, she had sent him to see his brother.

Team Seven had picked up a stray—the former Root agent called Sai. A peculiar young man, but skilled and strangely earnest, considering by who (and how) he had been taught. He was training with them, under the watchful eye of Hatake Kakashi.

Once upon a time, the best greeting Itachi could have expected from a Konoha ninja was a look of terror and a swift retreat. The worst would have been a snarl of hatred and an attempt on his life. So when Kakashi, noticing his presence right away, gave him a casual nod, as if to say "Oh, there you are. Thought you would show up soon", the comradely greeting warmed him.

And the warmth stayed, and grew, as Sasuke finally spotted him, and froze, eyes wide with surprise and happiness, and said, "Nii-san?"

Present

"Step back," Itachi said, and Sakura obeyed almost immediately, responding to the tone of his voice. She could guess what he would do, and although a part of her winced away from it, she knew Kakashi would have agreed to it.

They couldn't leave anything for Root to take back to Danzo, and they couldn't carry the body with them. The usual treatment of those killed on the battlefield was cremation. It made sense.

It just hurt, in Sakura's heart, to admit that Kakashi was really dead and that they had to burn his body. But that didn't mean she protested when she and Itachi backed away from the bloody corpse and Itachi closed his eyes, opened the right one, and said "Amaterasu" and the body burst into black flames.

She stood staring at the blaze while Itachi silently turned to face toward Konoha. The Root agents they could hear coming were close. They had mere seconds before they would be upon them.

The first two Root that entered the clearing immediately became enrobed in the eternal flames of Amaterasu, and fell to the ground. Standing frozen, Sakura watched one hand—wreathed in dark flame—scrabble briefly at the grass before stilling. Itachi was moving before they'd even hit the dirt.

It was a slaughter. There was no other word for the complete and utter devastation Itachi visited upon the Root ninja who had come after Kakashi. They were systematically eliminated, each falling to Itachi's superior skill.

The battle took place in near silence. The Root agents had been trained not to engage in the usual taunting and shouting that took place during combat, and Itachi had always been above such things anyway. The only sounds were those made by weapons clashing, the casting of jutsu, and mortally wounded men crying out.

Sakura tried to get herself to move, to join the fight, but she remained frozen in place, watching in morbid fascination. None of the Root ninja were trying to engage her in combat—it didn't even seem as if they noticed her presence. Itachi constituted such a threat to them that all else had been shunted to the background.

The Uchiha was fighting with an intensity that took Sakura's breath away. He blazed with it, like a small sun—no, like a star, because he burned cold instead of hot, as if he had completely withdrawn into himself, contracting and condensing into a frigid pinprick of determined fury.

A Root shinobi went down gurgling, his throat slit by Itachi from behind. The kunai, still wet with the shinobi's blood, was sent flashing out to lodge in the eye of another Root agent. Sakura noticed, as the Root crumpled lifeless to the ground, that it was the left eye. She wondered if that had been deliberate.

Five tried, as a group, to overwhelm Itachi, but the Uchiha just glanced at them from the corner of his own, new, left eye. Sakura saw his lips move, but was not close enough to hear him say "Tsukuyomi."

The five Root jerked, then simultaneously pulled out kunai and stabbed themselves through the heart. They toppled over in unison. Their black clothes hid the red stains Sakura knew were spreading across their chests.

A Katon reduced another Root to ashes, and a Suiton smashed one into a tree, stunning him until Itachi finished the job with a shuriken. Another Root sent a bolt of lightning toward Itachi, but the Uchiha twisted lithely, and the Raiton merely singed his sleeve. The Root kunoichi died seconds later, with half a tree-limb through her torso.

Finally, the tide of Root agents stopped, and Itachi stood in the clearing, surrounded by scattered bodies and patches of black flame. Except for his singed sleeve, he was untouched, and his breathing was slow and deep.

Sakura had been intimidated by him before, but now? Now she was terrified of him. The level of skill he had shown in that moment had far exceeded anything she had ever seen from him before. This was the true power of Uchiha Itachi. This was the strength of the prodigy who had killed Madara at the age of eleven.

A branch, half cut-away by a line of kunai embedded in it, broke away from its tree and crashed to the ground, snapping Sakura out of her frozen trance. She realized that Naruto and Sasuke, and Gaara and his siblings, were probably still waiting for them at the rendezvous point. And she and Itachi were still in enemy territory. She swallowed thickly.

"I-Itachi…" she managed to choke out. His head turned and she was pinned in place by his blazing eyes, still crimson-and-black with the Sharingan. And Sakura sucked in a gasp, because there was blood running out of the right one.

It took her a moment to realize that the glitter on the other side of his face was from normal tears, tracing tracks down his cheek from his new left eye.

Standing there, staring into his eyes and seeing the fury and grief in them, and the blood and tears silently and steadily trickling down his face, it suddenly hit Sakura that Itachi—with the death of Kakashi—had just lost a friend.

She didn't think the untouchable Uchiha Itachi had many friends.

The glimpse was brief, and the eyes quickly became shuttered. Then Itachi blinked and the Sharingan in them deactivated. Sakura took a step toward him.

"We need to go," he said, and if Sakura hadn't been witness to the rage with which he had fought, and the pain in his eyes after, she might have believed the cold, calm tone. She opened her mouth, but what came out was just:

"Yes."

But she couldn't help but watch him worriedly as they rushed away from the battlefield. Just as she also couldn't help but look briefly back at the little flickers of black flame that were all that was left of Kakashi's pyre.

Gaara and Kankurou jerked into ready stances as she and Itachi dropped from the trees, and relaxed gradually, recognizing them slowly beneath the blood on them. Behind the brothers were Naruto and Sasuke, with Temari crouched by Naruto, looking at the magatama that had been returned to the Jinchuuriki's arms. She glanced around at their arrival.

"We need to get further away," Itachi said without preamble. Gaara's eyes flickered over his bloody face, and Sakura's blood-covered hands and clothes, and flicked to the empty space beside them, but he didn't ask questions. He merely nodded. Kankurou and Temari, taking their cues from him, silently nodded. It was Sasuke who said:

"Where is Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakura flinched.

"He isn't coming," Itachi replied in a voice completely devoid of any emotion whatsoever. Sakura flinched again. Innocuous-seeming words, but one could hear in them a bleaker meaning. He isn't coming, he's never coming, he's gone. Sasuke looked briefly stricken, as if he hadn't believed the Copy Ninja could ever die.

Sakura hadn't really, either. Until it had happened.

The blank shock on Sasuke's face morphed into anger, and his nostrils flared slightly as he took in a sharp breath, eyes narrowing. Itachi cut over whatever he was going to say: "We don't have time to mourn him now. We need to get further away. Danzo will be looking for us."

Shutting his mouth and twisting his lips into a frown, Sasuke nonetheless got to his feet obediently, stooped for a second to grab the magatama once more, and stepped in closer to the others. Gaara glanced around at them all and said, "I will take rear-guard."

"No," Itachi said, his voice, this time, taking on a bit of an edge. "I will take rear-guard."

Gaara was quiet a moment, looking at Itachi thoughtfully, before giving one curt nod. Sakura bit the inside of her cheek to keep from protesting. The older Uchiha was clearly still furious of Kakashi's death, and was even more clearly positioning himself so that any Root who managed to catch up with them would have to pass through him first.

Itachi wanted more blood. Root had not paid enough for taking Hatake Kakashi's life.

Sakura didn't protest because, really, a part of her felt the same.

The part that did want to protest was the part that was worried about Itachi's own wellbeing. He seemed to be almost balanced on the knife-edge of sanity. If this was what happened when Uchiha Itachi lost his temper, she was glad that he was usually so calm and reserved.

As if he were aware of her thoughts, Itachi's gaze—still grey and cool without the Sharingan active—locked onto her. She met it, briefly, saw the echo of the raw grief, pain, and anger she had seen before, and quickly glanced away.

"Alright," Itachi said, coolly. "Let's go."

And they went.

It wasn't so unlikely that Danzo wouldn't send out scouting parties, especially after he had—evidently—encountered and fought Kakashi himself. Danzo would know that the rest of the Copy Ninja's team would be nearby. Would know, now, that the Konoha exiles were allied with Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou. Team Amatsubame's usefulness in Konoha had ended.

They hadn't even completed their whole mission—only the first half of it, the delivery of those scrolls to potential allies. Hopefully, those people would be able to organize themselves and form a base of support for Genshi in Konoha on their own.

The Copy Ninja down, the mission aborted… With a very sick thud of her heart, Sakura remembered their wry joking, how Team Seven's missions always seem to take a turn for the worse. It was dismally true. And now… :Are we even Team Seven anymore? Can we exist without our leader?:

She didn't want to know the answer. She didn't want… anything. All she wanted was to curl up in some dark hole and pretend the world didn't exist. :So this is what war is like.:

The emotions welling in her choked off her breath for a second, until she shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind. Willfully, she focused fiercely on the motions of running and jumping and listening for pursuit, and let that force out all other thoughts. It helped, a little. It got her all the way to the border of Taki, where they finally stopped, sensing no enemies on their trail. Taki was under Konoha-Akatsuki control, but the country was small enough, and had few enough ninja, that the occupational force stationed there wouldn't have the numbers to send out patrols this far from Taki's Hidden Village. Their presence should go unnoticed, at least for a while.

Gaara and Temari, spearheading their group, stopped first, followed by Sasuke (bearing the magatama) and Naruto. Sakura landed after them. They took a moment to catch their breath.

"We'll stop here," Gaara said, "and regroup."

"Where's my brother?" Sasuke asked.

"He was right behind me," Sakura said, turning around to look. Itachi appeared a moment later, his face and his posture still strictly composed. He landed, poised and upright.

It took everybody by surprise when, only a fraction of a second later, he collapsed. Sakura was close enough and fast enough to catch him awkwardly before he hit the ground.

"Nii-san!" Sasuke said, having shot to his feet. He'd dropped the magatama, and Naruto was crawling toward it, crooning. Sakura fumbled the insensate body around so her arms looped under Itachi's from behind, his head leaned back on her shoulder, and placed a chakra-gloved hand on his forehead.

"He's okay," she said quickly, "just a bit of chakra exhaustion."

Sasuke watched, not looking particularly reassured, as she gently laid Itachi down on the grass, and did what she could to make him comfortable. She sighed as she took her hands away from him. She was, herself, running at about thirty percent, having used quite a bit of chakra earlier with Kakashi and Itachi, and running with chakra-powered speed for the better part of the day.

She looked up to find Sasuke staring at her with a serious expression. Her gut clenched, dreading what he was about to say…

"Sakura," Sasuke spoke slowly and deliberately. "You and my brother went to aid Kakashi-sensei. You came back without him and with my brother drained to the point of collapse. What happened?"

The question was like a physical blow, one that jolted something loose in her, because quite abruptly, and slightly to her own surprise, Sakura threw herself at Sasuke and burst into tears. To his credit, Sasuke caught her and let her sob into his chest.

When she could manage words, she choked out between sobs: "Kakashi-sensei's dead!"

She could feel Sasuke's muscles tense. In a softer tone, he asked again: "What happened?"

Sakura took a couple wavering breaths before she replied. "W-when we got to him, he was already… dying. I… I couldn't do anything!"

She inhaled and braced herself against new tears, then exhaled a little unsteadily. "Kakashi knew he was dying. He told me to give his eye to Itachi—" here everyone's gaze went to the still-unconscious Uchiha "—and then he d-died."

"My brother has the Eternal Mangekyo?" Sasuke said, looking back at Itachi's bloodied face—the older Uchiha had perfunctorily wiped his face against his sleeve but streaks of blood and tears still showed.

"Yes," Sakura replied, shivering slightly as she remembered the utter devastation he had visited upon the Root agents. "Itachi was furious. He destroyed the Root that came after Kakashi. It exhausted him, though."

"He only collapsed after the greatest danger had passed," Gaara said. There wasn't any particular inflection in his voice, but it seemed he approved of Itachi's discipline. He turned his gaze to Sakura and said solemnly and with apparent sincerity: "I am sorry. The loss of the Copy Ninja is a loss to all shinobi. He was truly formidable."

"Who killed him?" Sasuke asked, voice hardening.

"Danzo," Sakura shivered. "He said he fought Danzo. Sasuke, he also said that Danzo has the Sharingan."

She was close enough to hear the creak of Sasuke's teeth as he clenched them. He gritted out: "Then Danzo has much to answer for."

They didn't dwell much on their sorrow, though it remained a constant companion to them. They put their remaining energy into other tasks for the time being, as they had been trained to do as ninja, and as their exile had drilled into them. Sakura brought out her med-kit and saw to any injuries in the group, and washed away the blood and tears that had dried on Itachi's face.

"We should start to think about what to do about the magatama and Naruto," she mentioned. The others considerately didn't acknowledge the lifeless tone of her voice.

"It won't harm him, being under its influence," Gaara said, glancing toward where the other Jinchuuriki was cradling the magatama. "But the longer the stone exists, the longer the danger that it falls into the wrong hands exists."

"We should destroy it as soon as possible," Sasuke said flatly.

"How did you destroy the Ichibi magatama?" Sakura asked the Sand siblings. There was a pause, then:

"'Destroy' is perhaps not the right word," Kankurou said slowly.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked darkly, at the same time Temari snapped.

"It's close enough. We broke its power." She looked at Sasuke and Sakura. "We threw every high-level jutsu we could at it, but in the end all we managed to do was put a crack in it. Fortunately, that was enough. To be sure, though, we tossed it into the ocean afterward. It isn't likely to be found."

Sakura was nodding in understanding, but Sasuke was scowling. He obviously didn't like that they had exaggerated their success in eliminating the danger of the Ichibi's stone. Before he could say anything scathing, she spoke: "Then we'll probably have to wait until we are all back at a level at which we can perform strong jutsu."

Then she blinked, "Oh, unless…"

Temari spread her arms. "We're pretty useless right now, too. Gaara might be the only one with enough power to even scratch the thing at this point."

Gaara shifted where he was leaning against a tree. "I will do it."

"Are—" Sakura started, concerned.

"Yes," Gaara interrupted; there was a hard gleam in his turquoise eyes. Sakura glanced at Temari, who gave a minute smile.

"If he says he has enough chakra to destroy the stone, then he does," she said. "He isn't lying, and he isn't overestimating himself or underestimating the stone."

"It would be wiser to wait," Gaara said, acting as if he hadn't noticed this side exchange. "The magatama contains a lot of power; when it is broken, some of this power is released chaotically into its surroundings."

"It's going to explode?" Sakura asked, eyebrows shooting up.

"Not so much in the way that tags explode," Kankurou put in, sounding bored with the whole conversation. "It's pure chakra, and it doesn't do much except ruffle your hair and broadcast your position to anyone within the blast range."

"What is the blast range?" Sasuke wanted to know. He didn't sound particularly pleased with the situation.

Kankurou shrugged. "I'd guess that it's probably different for each stone. How it cracks, and that sort of thing."

"You did say a chaotic release," Sakura murmured. "Which means we can't predict how severe the explosion will be…"

"At the very least it will attract the attention of any nearby ninja," Temari said. "Considering we're still in enemy territory, and we have injured…"

"We'll wait," Gaara said, firmly. "A few hours. By then it will be time to move on anyway. We can carry Uchiha-san, if he is not awake."

There were no protests.