Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did, I wouldn't have to make this stuff up... it'd already be apart of the show!

"Five days. Five fuckin days and not one sign of him." Sasuke growled to himself. He looked out of the window with a piercing glare that seemed to see everything. Despite the Sharingan being inactive, those eyes saw everything and their owner was still just as dangerous.

"C'mon Sasuke, calm down." Sakura said as she sat on the edge of the bed. Kakashi and Neji went into the village about an hour ago to gather information at a local tavern. Being nineteen and underage, Sakura and Sasuke were left behind because, according to Kakashi-sensei, it would be "immoral of him to allow a minor to consume alcohol in his presence." Total bull! Since when did Kakashi care about morals? He shamelessly read smut everywhere he went for crying out loud! Either way, the both of them knew that it was just an excuse for him to keep Sasuke in the inn. Since the two would be alone together for about two more hours, Sakura pushed whatever uncomfortable feelings she was feeling towards Sasuke out of her mind and tried to remember the old Sasuke-not the imitation alley Sasuke.

"Calm down? We've only got two days left and no one's even mentioned him, much less the Akatsuki! I came here to kill him and that's what I'm gonna do."

"Sasuke the mission isn't over yet, you never know what'll happen." She soothed.

"Itachi being so near must be making him delusional. Does he honestly think that he's just going to pop up from nowhere and be like 'Hey Sasuke I'm over here!'? Yeah right!" She decided to keep this thought to herself.

"Today's Monday. We're leaving Wednesday whether we have information or not. …. We're here now and this is my chance for vengeance. I'll be back." Sasuke said turning from the window and walking towards the door.

"Sasuke no! We're supposed to stay here and gather information as we can in the inn."

"Yeah and we're doing a great job at it just sitting here in the room." He responded sarcastically.

"Sasuke we're NOT leaving this inn! It's against orders."

"We?" he interrupted, eyebrows raised.

"Do you really think I'm going to let you go anywhere alone with the possibility that Itachi might be around?" Sakura asked in a deadpan tone. She knew that Sasuke's inevitable battle with Itachi would be one he'd have to fight himself, but the two both had the infamous Uchiha temper, and she feared that an unsupervised battle in this town would cause innocent bystanders their lives.

Sasuke scoffed let out a smug laugh. Not out of spite, but out of amusement from her paranoia. "Fine then, c'mon."

"Huh? Sasuke do you listen to anything I say!? At all?! Ever?!"

"Relax. We're not leaving the inn. We're just going downstairs to the diner and seeing what we can pick up from there." He opened the door and stepped out.

Sakura groaned in defeat then got off the bed and followed Sasuke downstairs.

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The two sat at a small table in the corner of the diner. Sakura tried her best to make small talk, but all she'd get as a response were uninterested grunts. Eventually, she sighed and gave up in defeat. That's the way things always were between her and Sasuke. One minute they'd be friends and would talk, kind of like back in the room, and occasionally laughing and joking around, but the next minute, he'd be all quiet and withdrawn, like now. Over the years, she'd learned it was best to just leave him alone and let him sort out whatever he was thinking about, or to wait for him to warm up again; whichever came first.

For awhile, the two were quiet, only the sipping of their tea offering any noise. Sakura looked around the diner, then her eyes rested on one table. There were two mysterious guys in long, dark, hooded cloaks sitting there. They almost seemed to be Akatsuki members, but their cloaks were without pattern. However, this wasn't what concerned Sakura. Both guys were staring in their direction. One seemed to be looking at Sakura and the other at Sasuke.

Sakura sat quietly for a few minutes more and occasionally glanced secretly at the two guys who were still staring that way. She decided to see if it really was them the two were staring at so she 'accidentally' dropped her napkin and when she reached down to pick, she used the metal pole supporting the table behind them up as a mirror and secretly looked towards it as she bent down.

Her suspicions were confirmed, when she saw the man who'd she'd thought been staring at her, trail her movements with his eyes. She sat up as if nothing had happened and once again brought her tea cup to her mouth. Only this time, she didn't drink out of it, but used it as a cover for her mouth.

"Sasuke," she said lowly trying to move her mouth as little as possible. "I think someone's watching us."

He didn't turn around to face the direction she was sitting, nor did he lose his cool. He simply replied, "I know. I can feel it."

She looked at him, her eyes secretly asking what they should do.

"Come on. Let's go." He said responding to her non-vocal question.

This time, she didn't object to the fact that he wanted to leave the inn. She just calmly finished the rest of her tea in one long, quick sip then got up and casually followed Sasuke out of the inn.

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"Are they still following us?" Sakura asked.

The men from the inn conveniently left once Sakura and Sasuke did, and somehow had to go everywhere Sakura and Sasuke went. They were standing in front of a shop window. Sasuke was turned slightly facing the opposite direction of their followers as Sakura looked inside of the glass window pretending to be an ordinary window shopper. She was facing the window, so she couldn't see as much as she wanted to out the corner of her eye.

Sasuke's position however allowed him to see further past Sakura than by looking at the reflection in the window.

"Yeah." He said. "Let's keep walking." They left the window and continued their 'stroll' through the village.

"Do you think we should try to find the others?" Sakura asked referring to Neji and Kakashi. Sasuke didn't answer, but instead kept walking as if he hadn't heard her. She didn't ask again because she knew he had. Obviously he had a plan and was leading her and their pursuers somewhere, but to where, she didn't know.

They walked for what seemed like hours, until Sasuke grabbed Sakura's hand and made a sharp turn off the busy road and into an adult book store, stirring up a chorus of vulgarities from the people they cut off. Sakura was about to flip at Sasuke for bringing her into that kind of store of all places, but when he finally stopped the two of them in one of the aisles on the far side of the store-her anger shifted.

Behind them, facing the parallel shelf, was Neji and Kakashi.

"What the hell are you two doing here?!" Sakura asked in an irate whisper, but not turning around to face them.

"Ask him." Neji responded dully as he nodded his head slightly towards Kakashi.

"Well, we were on our way back to the inn when I saw the two of you way down the road. I figured you were on your way down here, so we just decided to wait for you in here." Kakashi delivered the excuse like it was second nature, which it actually was to him.

"Yeah, right." The three hissed simultaneously. Sakura continued to quietly rant on about how irresponsible Kakashi was being until Neji stopped her.

"Be quiet." He said.

"Huh?" she asked, caught off guard.

"I said hush. …… Do you all sense it?" he asked ominously.

The three were quiet. Sasuke grunted in what seemed to be mild shock and Kakashi let out a curious "Hmmm." Sakura remained quiet for a little longer, and then she too finally sensed it.

Outside, where the street was just packed with people now seemed almost completely empty. The only ones out there seemed to have high chakra levels, that of a jonin's caliber. Sakura gasped. How had they not noticed it, and how long had it been like that. Something wasn't right.

"Let's go." Neji commanded, and without any objection from him giving orders, even from their leader Kakashi, the three cautiously followed him out the aisle to the front of the store.

"Where's the storekeeper?" Sakura asked peeking from around Kakashi towards the empty counter.

"I'm not sure." Neji responded equally curious.

"So… are we going to stay in here or go outside?" Sakura asked concerned.

"Good question," answered Sasuke. The three awaited for Kakashi sensei's answer.

"Follow me," Kakashi told them as he walked out of the book store. The three followed, and all four minds knew that inevitable danger was coming fast. They continued walking down the road towards the way of the inn.

"Something's not right." Kakashi said as he quickened their pace.

"Sasuke," she whispered. "It's the men who followed us from the inn!"

"Someone was following you?" Neji asked her.

"Yeah." Sasuke answered. "Those guys over there." He gave a very slight nod in the direction of the cloaked men who were once again trailing them.

"Impossible. Those two followed Kakashi and me from the tavern." Neji said in confusion.

"No," Sakura told Neji. "That was them. I'm certain!"

"And we're certain that they were the ones stalking us in the tavern. Which can only mean one thing…" he told them coolly.

"What's that?" Sakura asked, her eyes now wide with concern.

"We're about to be ambushed." He said to her, and as if on cue, one of the men that was walking past Kakashi pulled out a kunai knife and swung at him.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Neji all jumped back, and readied their own weapons because now, everyone on the street had pulled out a weapon and was beginning to try to attack them.

The street was filled with shuriken, kunai, and dying bodies flying everywhere.

Neji was engaging in a battle with three of the Mountain ninja. He was using taijutsu as well as weapons as he held them off. With a bear claw strike, he rammed his hand into the nose of one opponent, shoving his nose into his brain and killing him instantly. But his death was only to be replaced by four more ninja armed and ready.

"Enough of this!" Sasuke growled, obviously faced with the same annoying problem as Neji. "Sharingan!" He didn't care about discretion anymore. It was obvious that they were already found out. The streets were filled with the pained cries of those who'd fallen victim to Sasuke's rage.

"Hmph." Neji smirked after seeing Sasuke release his Sharingan. "I guess it's no holds barred now, huh? Very well." He slit one of the men's throat causing their body to fall lifelessly to the ground then called out, "Byakugan!" Using the Byakugan, he sent all five of his enemies flying through the air. After witnessing this, the next bunch of enemies seemed to hesitate before they approached him. But they figured there was strength in numbers and all eight of them charged to wards Neji together, thinking they'd be able to take him. Big mistake! Neji instantly sent all eight bodies flying atop the store buildings by using his Eight Divination Signs; 128 Palms.

Kakashi, however didn't release his Sharingan, but instead simply used weapons and taijutsu, which for him was just enough to defeat the opponents that dared to come his way.

Unlike Kakashi though, Sakura had her hands full. She was using mainly taijustu, and brought her opponents down with a powerful kick or deadly strike from her hands. She saw Kakashi standing about a few yards behind her. She fought her way through the enemies separating them.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she called as she leapt in the air bringing down two shinobi with a spinning kick. She landed beside Kakashi.

"Nice work," he said eyeing the corpses that fell from the air with Sakura.

"Thanks." She smirked. "Kakashi-sensei, what happened to the two cloaked men. It's like they just disappeared!"

Kakashi looked around. "Good question. Neji! Sasuke! Keep an eye out for…" his warning was cut short when out of nowhere, one of the cloaked men appeared behind him and seemingly knocked him unconscious. Sakura gasped as her former sensei fell slowly to the ground.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she screamed out.

"Sakura! Look out!" Neji called.

Sakura looked up just in time to see the cloaked man who'd brought Kakashi down jump in front of her and hurl a shuriken at her. However, it was too late for Sakura to react, but luckily Neji was thinking ahead, and he sent a kunai flying past Sakura and into the enemies shuriken, which cancelled it out and both weapons fell to the ground.

"Sakura, get down!" Neji ordered, and she immediately obeyed and dropped to the ground, just in time to avoid being hit by the fuuma shuriken Sasuke'd thrown at the man. It sliced right through his stomach, however instead of blood and guts spilling out, rocks and dirt did.

Sakura jumped from her crouched position and immediately move from that spot. "It was a clone!" she yelled.

"A weird method as well; rock clones." Neji thought aloud.

"You guys behind you!!" Sakura screamed at her teammates. The two turned around to see the second cloaked figure poised to strike. Sasuke immediately threw a kunai at his throat, but once again, it was a substitution. Then, the first cloaked man appeared behind Sasuke and in the same method used on Kakashi, he knocked Sasuke unconscious.

"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed.

"Pay attention!" Neji growled as he ran to Sakura, picked her up and carried her away from the spot she was standing in, just in time for her to escape a stab with a kunai from the first cloaked man. Obviously, Neji moving his target angered him, because he went after the two. Neji gently, yet hurriedly put Sakura down on the ground and prepared to fight the cloaked man. He charged at Neji who countered his attacks with ease.

"Not bad." The cloaked man said, "But let's see if you can take us both on!" his counterpart appeared behind Neji, and the both of them charged at him. Neji knew that by simply using his Heavenly Spin attack, he could repel them both at the same time. He was prepared to execute it when he remembered something. Sakura was right beside him. If he used the Heavenly Spin, then she'd be blown away like the two men.

"Sakura, move!" he ordered her. She looked at him with confusion first, but then quickly got up and started to run away. But it was too late. The cloaked figures were already on Neji, and although he managed to not only stop the attack from the one in front of him but render his right arm useless by hitting the chakra point above his elbow while also possibly shattering the bone, he was knocked unconscious by the one from behind. Just like his other comrades.

"Neji!" Sakura screamed.

"You know you do a lot of that screaming shit." The first cloaked man said in an annoyed tone as he headed straight for Sakura. She picked up one of the abandoned kunai on the ground and raised it up in defense. There was blood dripping from within the right sleeve of his cloak, so the injury Neji caused must've been a lot worse than originally thought.

"Perfect!" she thought to herself. "I know where to strike."

"I don't think you should be worried about me." The man said to Sakura. But before she could figure out what he meant, she felt a sharp intense pain on the back of her neck. Her vision got blurry and soon everything faded to dark. The last thing she saw was the cloaked man in front of her staring down upon her and smiling as the warm blood from his arm dripped rhythmically on her cheek.

See ya soon! xoxoxoxoxo