Itachi killed the Leader? So for the past few years, Itachi had been working under someone he was actually stronger than? Sakura doubted that Itachi was unaware of his superior strength, and yet he accepted the position of inferiority anyways.
"For several years, you have worked as the subordinate of someone that you knew you were stronger than. Why live a life of servitude when you can be the served? In fact, you just accepted servitude again when you choose me to supersede you. Why would you turn down all of the power and glory you could have for yourself, instead handing it over to another person?" Sakura inquired curiously, then finished, "Why would you kill someone you choose to serve? Then only to replace them with someone else to wait on…"
Itachi shrugged, "I didn't want the position. If I didn't take over, I knew that someone else would, so I did take over temporarily, only to appoint someone else to quickly take my place. I handed the job to someone I knew had no selfish desires to get in the way, and could change the whole meaning of this organization that had no cause to begin with."
Sakura just gaped at him and a blush tinted her cheeks. Itachi thought that she was selfless? The idea of considering herself unselfish made her laugh. Daily, she would end up reprimanding herself for being so selfish. She was selfish when it came to anything—Sasuke, how she treated Naruto, disregarding Ino as a friend because of a crush, and anything else she could think of.
"You don't think I'm selfish? But I'm the childish girl who continually hid behind her teammates during battle, caring more about perfecting her hair rather than her fighting skills. Every day I am constantly reminded that not only am I annoying, but selfish as well. Except, I'm the one telling myself that I'm selfish, rather than hearing the words repeated out of everyone else's mouths. I am the one that is always messing up, and in the end, it's everyone else that pays for those mistakes. Everyone I care about suffers because of my selfish mistakes," Sakura explained.
"Really? You're that terribly greedy? I had no idea. Well then, name one selfish desire you had when I first announced that I wanted you to take over as Leader of the Akatsuki," Itachi ordered calmly as he feigned shock. Itachi may have not been one for expressing true emotions, but Sakura didn't even notice that his face held no real surprise.
Sakura stuttered incoherently a bit, but in the end, she couldn't think of one thing. All she did think about when she learned of the benefits was how she could do good with such power. Not once did she try to calculate how to manipulate them into earning her money, power, or reputation of any sort.
Itachi simply sat there, with an accomplished, but waiting smirk. He knew that he had won.
"Since it seems that you are at a loss for a reply, I will show you to your room. You may further contemplate your decision there, as you wish. Follow me," Itachi commanded, still a bit smug about his victory.
They exited the meeting room and once again entered the badly lit hallway. They walked down a bit further, until Itachi turned to wall and opened a door. She wouldn't have even noticed that the door even existed had they kept walking. It seemed to blend in perfectly with the wall.
"This is your room. I advise against you leaving it until I come to retrieve you for tomorrow's meeting. Since it is unlikely that you will be able to find it again. Also, if anyone decides to make any surprise visits in order to attempt to get rid of you, don't hesitate to kill them. Those people would be scum that the organization could do without anyways," Itachi stated coldly, even though in translation he just commanded her to kill his comrades if they even thought about harming her in any way.
She nodded and entered the room. Sakura understood what he meant, but it was highly unlikely that she would ever kill anyone.
"Thank you," Sakura said quietly and Itachi nodded in reply. With that he shut the door and walked away.
She inspected the room that she had been given to stay in. It wasn't anything luxurious, and it certainly wasn't homey. It had a cold, empty feeling that chilled her by just standing in it. It lacked warmth and care of any sort.
The bed was made properly, and the blankets were without wrinkles. It was plain, nothing special or intricate. The bed gave her the feeling that the person who made it was so accustomed to the task that they performed in a mechanical manner. Next to the bed was a nightstand, which was made out of wood and adorned with ivory candle on top. She noticed that there was a small drawer inside of it.
Sakura walked over swiftly and whipped open the drawer, hoping to find something that might enlighten or entertain her in some way or form. She was rapidly disappointed when she discovered nothing more than a pack of matches inside.
Sighing at the letdown, she studied the walls and the floor. They were the same as the rest of the cave—nothing more than rock. Next to the door, a lone torch decorated the wall, making it seem a bit less empty.
There wasn't enough room to have much else, but it just seemed so forsaken. Face set with resolve, Sakura decided that she needed to do something to make it seem less… vacant and over-efficient. It was too clean in there, and it needed some mess to spruce it up.
She marched determinedly over to the bed and messed up the blankets. Then she ripped the sheet out from under the rest of the blankets and threw it on the floor. Next, Sakura opened the drawer, took the matches, and lit the candle. Once the candle was securely lit, she placed the matches back in their proper place.
Plopping herself onto the stiff bed, she admired her work. She hadn't done much, but now the room seemed at least a tad livelier, instead of its previous lethargic perfection.
A bit happier with her temporary housing, Sakura laid back on the bed to relax. As she stared aimlessly at the ceiling, her thoughts wandered and her emotions thrashed about.
If she accepted this position, she could do so much. But, what exactly would she do with that power? Sakura would be able to do so much with authority like that, and yet she had no idea just what to do with it.
Then again, there was always the option to turn down the job tomorrow. After all, they couldn't force her to be their Leader; that would just be dumb. Anyone who is forced to command others would probably direct them all to ultimate destruction on purpose to free themselves of their unwanted duties.
If she turned it down, she was turning away the extraordinary opportunity. However, she was accepting her normal life with her friends and family. If she turned it away, she was refusing the protection and happiness of her best friend. Either way, she would undergo investigation for simply fraternizing with the Akatsuki, even for a day or two; she would be branded a criminal and a traitor regardless of her final decision.
Sakura sighed deeply and thought aloud, "I could be Leader Sakura…" then shivered and shook her head, "No, I sound old… and conceited. If I accept I will be the commander of a criminal organization. I could use the power I have been given to help Konoha. Heck, with that sort of power, I'm sure I could manage to help everyone!
"However, if I did choose to accept, I shouldn't rush any changes… Well, no use getting ahead of myself. I should decide whether to join or not first."
After a few more moments of Sakura staring determinedly at the ceiling, attempting to figure out what to do, she smirked a bit and an expression of complete resolve crept slowly over her face.
Now Sakura was sure of her answer and what she would do with the path she had chosen—Sakura was sure of herself.
Finally able to relax after figuring things out, she rolled over and allowed herself to drift to sleep.
Sakura found herself in a black abyss of nothingness. Most would be scared, but she felt at peace in a place like this. Feeling serene, she allowed herself to let loose, and she began to dance in circles while singing softly to herself. Her singing was more of a jumble of incoherent words than anything, but it sounded charming nonetheless.
Her singing skills weren't wonderful, but her voice was relaxing. She sounded like a parent singing their child a sweet lullaby to put them to sleep.
Sakura's singing went to an abrupt halt, however, when she saw a blob of orange in the distance. She began to walk tentatively towards the splotch of color in her darkness.
"Hello?" she called with her hands cupped around her mouth. She received no reply as her voice echoed back at her, but she kept walking towards it.
The color, it reminded her of something. It gave her a sense of foreboding dread, but she knew she had to go to it. Sakura wasn't sure why she had to go to it, but she simply had to, no matter how much it frightened her.
She began to run to whoever or whatever was there, trepidation pulsing through her with every new step she took. As she raced to this thing, she realized that she wasn't afraid of it at all, but rather the reason of why it was there.
Her mouth gaped in shock when she realized who it was. It was Naruto. He was wearing his usual orange and black jumpsuit, however there was something very different about him. He was facing the opposite direction, and seemed to be unaware of her presence.
"Naruto! It's me, Sakura!" she shouted in his direction.
He offered no reply, instead only to slowly turn around. His movements were rough and jagged; as if it took epic amounts of effort to simply move.
Sakura's gut instinct told her that she didn't want him to turn around, that it was a mistake to even seek out to orange blotch of color that had been lost in the distant darkness. Every muscle in her body was trembling and she was internally shrieking at herself to escape, but her efforts were to no avail.
Naruto finally turned all the way around, but his faced remained downcast and engulfed by shadows.
"Why, Sakura? You lied. You weren't there," Naruto croaked, and then slowly lifted his head as his finished, "Everyone suffered because you weren't there. You could have stopped it, but instead, you lied."
By now, Sakura was hyperventilating and cold sweat was dripping out of her every pore. Her quaking only increased and she was beginning to sink to her knees.
Shaking her head rapidly, Sakura stuttered, "N-no, Naruto. I didn't lie; I swear I d-didn't. I don't know what you're t-talking about. Please, Naruto. Please, s-stop. STOP IT!" By the end of her denial, she was shrieking. She was futilely attempting to convince herself that this was only Naruto, nothing to worry about. However, it wasn't his identity that frightened her, but rather his actions and words.
Sakura finally gathered enough courage to look directly at his face and immediately regretted doing so. His face was sunken in and he had lost his usual tan, instead his skin was a sickly pale. His eyes looked empty and his lips were parched.
She looked at the rest of his body and realized that blood covered the front of him completely, and more blood began to dribble out of his mouth. So much blood, it couldn't possibly be all his. If it were all his he would surely be… dead.
His bloody hand of death reached out and grabbed Sakura's right wrist roughly.
At the thought of Naruto being dead and the knowledge that she had a bloodstained hand wrapped around her wrist, Sakura clamped her eyes shut tight and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Her scream of agony and fear drowned out everything; and finally it all faded to black.
When Sakura woke up, she was utterly drenched in sweat. Her heart was racing and her breathing was irregularly heavy.
She sat up swiftly and immediately looked at her right wrist. She sighed with relief when she didn't discover it to be dripping with blood.
Sakura lay back down and focused on stabilizing her blood pressure and steadying her breathing. When they finally returned to normal, she attempted to go back to sleep, only to end up tossing and turning as she contemplated the horrifying dream. His words seemed to echo endlessly in her head.
"Everyone suffered because you weren't there. You could have stopped it, but instead, you lied."
Hurrah! I'm really happy about this chapter, it was a LOT of fun to type. I am really happy with the length as well! I am so proud that I was able to focus for so long!
Due to complications in recent manga chapters, I have decided to make my storyline go up to, not including, chapter 353. Also, I'm curious, I would like to know what you think Sakura will do if she accepts?
I have an idea that I have been toying with, and I can't wait to see how it turns out!
I would like to thank you all for reading and also those who took the time to review.
I might take me a bit longer to update than usual, because my schedule is going to be packed. However, I shall try my hardest!
-Selah
