Hiding her presence as best as she could, Sakura sneaked around the stone-carved tunnels, searching for the exit. The door to her cell hadn't even been locked, so leaving quietly hadn't been a problem. Now all she needed to do was put as much distance between herself and this place before anyone noticed that she had managed to escape.

The eerie tunnels were cold and damp, and the flaming torches aligned on the walls were so few that the lightning was always dim. A shiver ran down her spine as a slight breeze made the flames around her quiver before stilling again. This place reminded her way too much of Orochimaru's lair they had infiltrated to take down the ex-Sanin. But knowing how deranged her captor was, the interior design didn't really surprise her.

Peeking down a hall on her left to make sure the coast was clear, Sakura continued on with her exploration. There wasn't a single soul around. Or at least, a single soul for her to detect. She frowned inwardly at that thought. The one that had set Naruto up wasn't stupid, a coward maybe, but not an idiot. And yet, there wasn't a single guard patrolling the corridors, her jail cell hadn't been locked, and if she came across a panel saying 'Exit that way' she honestly wouldn't of had been surprised. To her, this situation just screamed 'Trap!'

As she turned down another corner, Sakura passed in front of an open archway leading into a wide room. Normally she would have just ignored the huge chamber in front of her, but what she saw in it made her pause. The ceiling was about three times higher than the rest of the hideout, and the cage in the middle of the room could easily have held an elephant. But that wasn't what had made her pause.

All the surfaces of the room; let it be the floor, the walls and even the ceiling, were covered in seals and markings. It was actually pretty impressive. Each seal was woven into one another, forming an intricate circle around the cage. Even if Sakura wasn't an expert in seals, she knew this contraption might actually be able to hold down Naruto and the Kyuubi.

As she entered the room fully, ready to smash the walls and cage into a mountain of rubble, Sakura felt herself being suddenly pulled to the side has a hand clamped down over her mouth. Not one to scream, she contemplated the idea of biting into the palm that was starting to bruise her lips while sending chakra into her elbow, ready to crush her assailant's lungs, when a voice stopped her.

"Sakura-san, please keep still."

And she froze.

Sakura didn't need to turn around to know whom the low baritone voice belonged to. And even if some hidden part of herself, namely her Inner, seemed thrilled by the company, it didn't mean that she was pleased with him restraining her in a cramped up corner.

*Of all the ANBU operatives, why did Shishou have to send him?*, Sakura thought grimly, only to have her Inner disagree.

Tapping lightly the back of his hand, asking him to let her go, she sent a small pulse of chakra through his body to make sure he wasn't an enemy in disguise. Once sure that it was the real Itachi, Sakura made sure to wipe any emotion from her features before turning to face the Uchiha.

He had pulled her into a narrow fault that ran into the stonewall, and the little moving space she had available kept her from putting too much space between them. She probably couldn't even cross her arms in front of her without ending up bumping into his chest. It was dark enough that they wouldn't be seen by anyone passing by and not paying attention, but it wasn't dark enough so that she couldn't make out the outlines of his face.

"Uchiha-san, what are you doing here?", she whispered as calmly as she could.

"I've been sent on a recon mission in enemy territory with the order to bring back any allies I was to meet."

Translation : This isn't an official mission and if they don't come back, Tsunade couldn't do anything for them.

"What about you, Sakura-san?"

She tried real hard not to roll her eyes at the stupid question, even if her previous question had been just as silly. He probably hadn't been too pleased with her calling him 'Uchiha-san' either, but now he was just trying to get under her skin, so she kept a stoic face as she answered nonetheless.

"I'm thinking about redecorating my room. Thought I could take a few pointers from whoever designed this place."

He raised a single eyebrow, clearly not impressed. Okay, she hadn't planned on the snarky remark, but the man was so damn infuriating sometimes.

"Listen, Uchiha, I have everything under control right now so if you could…"

Her words died out as a streak of blond caught her attention. She felt the color drain from her face as a very angry looking Naruto appeared inside the chamber holding the sealed cage. Stunned, Sakura could only watch dumbly as her idiotic teammate screamed her name at the top of his lungs. If they got out of this place alive, she swore she was going to throttle him.