Chapter 13: Underneath the Man

Chapter 13: Underneath the Man

One more kiss could be the best thing
But one more lie could be the worst
And all these thoughts are never resting
You're not something I deserve
- Let Me Go by Three Doors Down

Kakashi slept like a log and I took advantage of this time to read the letters in my pack. Still, I was overly cautious and opened one of the letters with the Hokage's seal on it very quietly. It rustled slightly as I pulled it out of its yellowing envelope.

Uchiha Itachi,

I am incredibly sorry for what Danzou has put you through and Shisui has already informed me of everything that has come to pass. I hereby relieve you of your mission to spy on the Uchiha clan. We are planning to negotiate with your family and see if we can dissuade them from rebelling against Konoha. If your role as a spy is revealed, we are prepared to offer you sanctuary in Whirlpool Country.

Thank you for your work,
Sandaime

What was this? The Uchiha Clan had never rebelled against Konoha, I had read all the files and I knew that, they had always worked in Konoha's best interests. And Itachi…he had killed the Uchiha clan, he hadn't been spying on them.

But this had the Sandaime Hokage's seal. It had to be legitimate, but what did it mean? The Uchiha Clan had been planning a rebellion and Itachi had been hired to spy on them. Danzou was somehow involved and so was Shisui, the man everyone believed Itachi had killed.

This had to be true. Then that meant everyone had everything wrong, it meant that Itachi had been acting in the village's interests. It meant he had been a good guy all along, but what had he discovered that was so dangerous to Konoha that he had to kill the Uchiha clan?

This was a letter saying he could stop spying on the Uchiha Clan, saying that he should just let the Hokage handle it…

But the letter had never reached Itachi.

If he had received the letter in my hands now…would the massacre have taken place?

I put the letter away, hiding it in my bag. I didn't want to look at the other letter and the scroll. I was scared of what I would find.

As Deidara sprung from a tree and threw his kunai with a well practiced flick of the wrist, they thudded into the necks of the ninjas approaching him. On the other side of the forest battleground, Itachi was locked in a taijutsu battle against three other ninjas. He saw his chance and kicked viciously at one of their necks, hearing it crack, and then broke the spine of one man over his knee. The last ninja remaining punched him in the stomach but Itachi didn't even flinch. Instead, he rammed a kunai into the man's chest.

Kisame saw a Sound ninja standing up in one of the trees. His fingers were flashing through a long series of signals and instantly he grew tense. A jutsu with that many hand signals was never good and he began to run towards the man. By this time, the man had already finished and was taking in a deep breath. He exhaled loudly over the forest and Samehada smashed into his stomach.

An acrid smell filled the clearing and immediately, everybody began to cough. The man had released a colourless poison gas.

Kisame was unaffected, he had always been resistant to poison and he glanced at Itachi as he began to cough painfully. Deidara was leaning against the tree bark, gasping for breath and the other Konoha ninjas weren't doing much better. The Sound ninjas were all fine, even though there were only three of them left, but they had all targeted the medic.

Itachi was at the medic's side, protecting her for some weird reason, and Kisame half heartedly followed him. He could see the medic panicking as she tried to remove her own poison, wincing as she did so.

"I don't think I have enough chakra for everyone," the medic said hysterically, her voice climbing higher and higher in pitch.

Itachi's eyes flicked to her brown ones for a moment and he sighed inwardly. Sakura would never have acted like this, she would have done what she could and even more knowing Sakura until she collapsed from chakra exertion.

Still, this overly emotional girl was all they had right now and she needed to calm down or else she would make a fatal mistake. All of her friends were busy trying to cope with the poison and fighting the remaining ninjas so it seemed that the task had been forced into Itachi's hands.

"Calm down," he told her in a low voice, "or else you won't be able to help anyone at all. Take your poison out and go help your team mates."

She looked up at him with terror stricken eyes, but as he caught a kunai aimed at her and used it to kill the man who had thrown it, she began to gradually relax. He heard her take a deep breath and knew that his job was done, he just hoped she could keep her mouth shut and not blab to everyone that he had helped her.

Kisame had an amused grin on his face and Itachi pointedly avoided his gaze. His partner commented teasingly, "That was very sweet of you, Itachi-san."

"Hm." That meant screw off before I mutilate you into tiny little pieces and feed you to Deidara's birds.

Kisame's grin spread wider and he added, "Haruno must be rubbing off on you."

This was a sentence Itachi ignored to the best of his ability and he killed the last Sound ninja with more force than was necessary. The medic began to run to her team mates, drawing the poison out and Itachi took in a deep breath.

The breath caught in his throat and he began to cough violently, covering his mouth with his hand as he did so. He stumbled away from Kisame and pressed his back against a tree as the blood began to trickle out of his mouth. His chest felt like it was collapsing inwards and crushing his lungs, crushing his heart. Kisame grabbed his arms and yelled for the medic to come over.

He couldn't let them know. He couldn't let the medic know about his illness, she would tell the Hokage and Madara would find out and it would all be over, everything would be finished-

As her hands reached for him, he forced them away and tried to stop coughing. The more he tried to suppress them, the more acute the pain became and he could barely hear the people around him. The medic tried to heal him again but he fought against her, refusing to let her near his chest.

"Itachi, damn it, just let her heal you," Kisame growled at his partner.

"You have to get him to stop struggling, the poison will spread faster," the medic told Kisame nervously and the shark man tried his best to restrain Itachi. He forced Itachi to his knees and pushed him against the tree, the poison had made the Sharingan Master weaker but he was still giving Kisame a run for his money.

"No," Itachi snarled, "no-"

"Hatake-san? Haruno-san? What are you doing here?" a surprised voice said loudly.

"Oh, nothing really, we just decided to tag along…" Kakashi said nonchalantly and Itachi could hear the crunch of leaves as somebody approached them at a hurried pace.

It was her chakra, he could place it anywhere. It swirled like an eel in a barrel of water, gliding gracefully through the water and the medic stepped aside as she informed Sakura what had happened.

"He won't let me heal him at all and he's been poisoned-"

"Thanks, I'll take it from here," Sakura said and the medic went away to go finish healing her other team mates.

Sakura and Kisame exchanged a look and he slowly released Itachi. He went to speak with Deidara and Sakura kneeled down in front of Itachi, silently. She reached out a hand imbued with chakra and Itachi visibly tensed as she grew closer.

She would find out if she healed him, she would know he was dying. She already knew too much, she knew he had been blind, she knew he could see now and she knew he was looking for something in the Uchiha District. She was forcing her way into his life and he should have fought against her, he should have killed her for all the information she had but-

Her hand touched the side of his neck. Her chakra slipped over his skin like silk and began to seep into his throat, warming it like wine. He could feel her other hand on his shoulder, ready to restrain him if need be, but for some strange reason he didn't feel like struggling at all.

Kakashi saw this all take place out of the corner of his eye. It was alarming that someone like Uchiha Itachi had let anybody near his neck. To a ninja, the neck was one of the most vulnerable places on their body and nobody liked letting anybody near it. He had let her close without fighting her at all which meant that he trusted Sakura. He frowned slightly in disapproval.

"I'm going to draw out the poison now. It might hurt a bit," Sakura murmured to Itachi.

He said nothing and watched her quietly, taking in the way her brow furrowed and she bit her lip in concentration. She pulled her hand away from his throat and thought that she had made a mistake. The poison within the extraction bubble was meant to be colourless, she had seen the other medic pulling it out, but the liquid inside her bubble was a dark, crimson red. It was blood.

The other ninjas hadn't been bleeding internally from the poison, it had just filled their lungs with more and more white fluid as time passed until eventually they couldn't breathe and died. This was completely wrong, Itachi wasn't meant to be bleeding, but that could only mean he was sick with something else-

As her shocked eyes drifted up to meet his, he returned her gaze with one of his own. It was almost as if he were waiting for her to do something and his crimson eyes looked so weary, as if he was tired of everything.

"You will not tell anyone," he said in a quiet murmur.

It was almost a question, almost trust because he trusted her more than anyone in the world, almost as much as Shisui. Sakura somehow knew this and realized that she would never be able to stop loving him, even if the world ended, even if she had to kill him for Konoha.

This was a side of Itachi she had never seen before. This was the man disguised underneath the long silences and the black Akatsuki cloak. His red eyes seemed almost haunted, as if he had seen too much too early and he just wanted it all to end.

She nodded because she couldn't bring herself to say anything. A lump had formed in her throat and she began to remove the bloodied poison. Behind her, the medic had started healing Deidara but Deidara never once looked at the girl, he was watching Sakura and Itachi with narrowed eyes.

Sakura removed all of the poison but she began to diagnose his other sickness. He coughed and lifted a hand to his mouth, but she grabbed it before he could hide the blood on it. She then began to send her chakra into his lungs, trying to find out what was wrong and he continued watching her.

He already knew what was wrong, but he didn't feel he should tell her. It was then he realized that Sakura knew more about him than any other person in the world. She was a threat to him, if she told anybody about his sickness his plan would be ruined and everything he had worked for would be for nothing.

She gasped as her chakra came into contact with the walls of his lungs. She knew his chakra well, a calm dark chakra, but this was different. There was another chakra that had seeped deep inside of the walls of his lungs and lodged there, an evil crimson chakra that she knew like the back of her hand. It was the Kyuubi's chakra and it was eating away at his lungs.

What could she do? How did you extract chakra?

She bit viciously down on her lip and moulded her chakra around the crimson chakra. Then slowly, she began to try to pull the chakra out-

Itachi tensed immediately. The evil chakra squeezed his lungs tightly and began to destroy the lining of his lungs, Sakura removed her chakra immediately as he began to cough violently. His breath rasped in his throat and she could hear the blood rattling in his chest as he inhaled and exhaled.

She made to apologize but his eyes flashed quickly as he noticed Deidara walking towards them. Itachi stood up and brushed himself off and Sakura followed suit, turning to face the blonde artist.

Deidara glared at Itachi and put an arm around Sakura's waist, protectively pulling her close to him. There was something in Itachi's eyes that told her he didn't really want her there anymore and she went quietly with Deidara.

"What's with the purple diamond, yeah?" Deidara asked me as we sat together around the fire.

It was night time and my turn to take guard. Everyone was sleeping except for him and me. He had chosen to stay awake and sit with me, but he had just brushed it off by saying he couldn't sleep. I touched the diamond on my forehead self consciously and traced my fingertips over it.

"It's a side effect of the jutsu I used to heal myself," I told him, trying to avoid the details.

"That's a pretty handy jutsu, yeah, but you should have used it earlier," he grumbled, his face going pink with embarrassment at the confession.

I realized he didn't know what Souzou Sansei really was and for some reason, I didn't want to tell him. He was always looking out for me and even though it felt really good to have someone worrying about you, I didn't want him to worry anymore than he had to.

"I'm not going to die yet, Ara. You still need to finish paying me," I reminded him and he rolled his eyes.

"You can't count money, woman. I've probably paid for three of those stupid walls, you just keep using it as an excuse to get me to pay for you," he argued.

"Hey, shut up, I'm the one who has to hang out with you all the time. I deserve compensation," I defended myself.

He scoffed, "You think you deserve compensation. I swear, you're more trouble than you're worth."

"Well, you're not worth anything," I snapped and he shook his head in disbelief at the terrible comeback.

"I met a four year old who had better comebacks, yeah," he stated.

I hit him on the arm and he smirked at me. I clasped my hands together tightly and stared down at them as an awkward silence fell between us.

"You worried about tomorrow?" Deidara asked, he hadn't overlooked the sudden tension.

I shook my head once instinctively but then hesitated. I then nodded and murmured, "Orochimaru…he really screwed Naruto, me and Sasuke's lives up for a long time. And if we win tomorrow and kill him, I don't know what's going to happen to Sasuke and me."

"You and the Uchiha brat?" he asked in surprise, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Don't call him that!" I snapped quickly and then added, "Things have been a bit rough between the two of us lately…especially after all of this…"

"Because of the bastard, yeah," Deidara guessed, jerking a thumb over at the motionless, sleeping form of Itachi.

I shot him a withering glare but refrained from saying anything, it wasn't like he'd stop because I told him to. My eyes dulled gradually as I began to stare at my hands aimlessly, thinking of Sasuke again. Silence fell between the two of us and he cleared his throat.

"Not only that though," I began hesitantly, unsure of whether or not I should tell him.

Deidara glanced at me and waited for me to continue. I continued, "There was a mission a while back and things didn't go well. Something happened and Sasuke was stabbed in the eye and the damage was too serious…I couldn't do anything."

I fell silent again.

- Sakura, Sasuke's eye, it's and Sasuke was nearly hysterical as the blood trickled from his eye like tears and his breaths were sharp and laboured, Naruto was trying to restrain him but -

"He had two eyes the last time I saw him though," Deidara mused aloud and I nodded.

"Naruto gave one of his eyes to Sasuke because he knew it would destroy Sasuke if he was half blind. I had to do the transplant but I don't think Sasuke ever forgave me for being unable to restore his eye," I murmured.

He scoffed, "Well then the brat's just being stupid. There was no medic in the world that could fix his eye and if he hasn't realized that by now then he's an idiot. It's not your fault, yeah."

His words caused a river of happiness to flood within my bloodstream and it warmed me. Deidara really was an okay guy, more than okay even, and I smiled at him gratefully. He met my gaze and held it for a bit longer than was comfortable. Eventually I looked away first, colour rising to my cheeks.

"So, what's up with you and the Uchiha bastard?" Deidara asked and my brow furrowed at him.

In an offended tone, I questioned, "Were you not listening to anything I said?"

"Not that bastard, yeah. I mean the asshole sleeping on the other side of the site," he explained.

"If you just referred to them by their proper names, it would make things much easier," I lectured him in an attempt to change the topic. I really didn't feel like talking to Deidara about Itachi.

He shrugged and said nonchalantly, "The younger one's the Uchiha Brat and the older one's the Uchiha Bastard. It's easier to remember that way."

I rolled my eyes and began, "You are so-"

"Stop changing the topic, woman. Are you two together or what?" he interrupted callously.

My mind went absolutely blank.

After a minute of being unable to string even a simple sentence together, Deidara shifted and he glanced at me through the corner of his right eye. His bronze scope caught the dim traces of moonlight and it gave off a bright glare that made me squint.

"So?" he pressed.

As if he had said a codeword, the lock holding my ability to speak captive was released. I then exclaimed a bit too loudly, if not indignantly, "No!"

He raised an eyebrow at me, as if he really didn't believe me.

"I don't…we don't…Itachi and I aren't together! He's my team mate, that's all he is," I insisted, even though I knew it was a complete and utter lie.

Deidara then asked icily, "Then why are you suddenly calling him Itachi instead of Uchiha-san?"

A tense silence fell.

The look in his eyes, a determined, angry sapphire glint told me he knew that I wasn't telling the truth. But what could I do? Itachi and I definitely weren't together, but what were we? I hadn't the faintest idea and if Itachi's silence could be counted, I didn't think he did either. Not that he'd admit it that he didn't know, being a genius and all.

"I can promise you that Itachi and I are not together," I told him firmly and his gaze steeled.

He still didn't believe me, but he said nothing.

I gave him the truth as far as I was certain.

"Itachi is important to me. Even if he doesn't feel the same way…I'll still do what I can to help him, just like I would you or any of my precious people."

The next day, an ANBU squadron came early in the morning with Shikamaru at its head. Shikamaru sighed in frustration as he tried to keep Sakura from struggling. Deidara looked about ready to jump in and interfere, whereas Kisame laughed at her and Itachi was silent as usual.

Kakashi shrugged and reasoned with Sakura, "Well, we did sort of go out of Konoha against orders. It only makes sense we'd be brought back now."

She snarled, "Shut up, you old man, you told them we were going to be here-"

"You're hardly in any condition to fight. You're still suffering from Souzou Sansei and there's a chance its effects will worsen if you push yourself. Do you want to die so much, Sakura?" Kakashi demanded, his voice suddenly as sharp as a katana.

"Its all for nothing if I'm not allowed to do my job, especially now that the biggest offensive is being launched-"

In a quiet, firm voice, Itachi said, "Sakura."

She looked at him and his Mangekyou suddenly began to swirl. Although she wanted to tear her eyes away from his, her body was no longer hers to control as she began to collapse backwards into Shikamaru. Her eyes were shut as her chest rose and fell, as though she was in a deep sleep. Kakashi instantly turned on Itachi, but Deidara was the one who beat him to it.

Deidara shouted, "What the hell did you do to her, Uchiha?! You didn't have to fucking attack her, you bastard!"

"I did not attack her. She is merely unconscious," Itachi explained.

There was a stiff, awkward silence.

"Um…thanks, I guess," Kakashi said as though he didn't quite know what to make of it.

As the Akatsuki members watched them go, Kisame ventured quietly, "What's so bad about Souzou Sansei that they would have to bring Haruno back to Konoha?"

It hadn't escaped Kisame's notice that Itachi and the Konoha nin were being much too careful with Sakura than was necessary. Deidara wasn't totally blind to it either, and from out of the corner of his eye he watched Itachi, waiting for an answer.

"It's kinjutsu," Itachi answered.

Kisame shut his onyx eyes and nodded slightly. Deidara completely forgot that he hated Itachi and turned to face him now, his face white.

"How many years did it take off her life?" Deidara demanded.

Itachi turned and walked towards the rest of the squad that was still waiting for them. Deidara made to grab for Itachi and force the answer out of him, but Kisame stopped him.

"If she hasn't told you anything about it, then she doesn't want you to know," he told him.

- pretty handy jutsu, you should've used it earlier and she had frozen with a smile that only now began to hurt him as she quickly changed the topic -

Deidara found himself grateful that Itachi had knocked Sakura unconscious.

Next Chapter Preview : Shield

"I'll do anything if it means protecting Konoha and Naruto! I'll always be a ninja of Konoha first before Haruno Sakura and even if I have to kill them myself, I'll do it!"

"Itachi, I found something for you."

"I love you."

Selandoraaa if I buy you stuff from the anime-con, will you answer my questions? (HELL YES.)

Didn't Shizune say in Naruto that Souzou Sansei only took a few years off someone's life as opposed to a great whopping decade?
…this is called 'artistic license'. ( :

How was your lunch?
That's a very nice thing of you to ask, thank you. It was okay, but it wasn't enough so I went out and bought Yoshinoya (that stuff is magic).

Sasuke has issues.
Yes, he does, and even though a hundred million other people have issues as well he's convinced that his are the most important. GAH. I hate him.

If you hate him, then why are you planning a sasusaku?
…because I'm actually starting to like the pairing again. I know, it's the ultimate betrayal to Itachi, but I can't help it! The new Naruto chapters are corrupting me!

You said in your author's note that you were finished writing itasaku, so does that mean that this will end up deisaku?
Heey, that's a very sneaky question. If I say no, then that means it'll be itasaku and if I say yes then that'll mean it'll be deisaku. I'm not saying anything, but I compliment you on your sneakiness.

Do you think Kisame has a split personality?
Hm, sort of. He completely changes when he fights. : )

Ahaha, the kiss was salty and bittersweet. Maybe it's cause Sakura didn't brush her teeth after being in hospital for so long?
Um, well, actually salty was meant to be her tears and bittersweet made it sound more mysterious. : )

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT DATTEBAYO?!
YES! Holy crap, they've announced they're going to stop subbing Naruto Shippuuden! And, no other subbing team has taken over yet! Okay, since I read the manga, this doesn't really matter to me as much, but I am in love with Naruto's seiyuu and Sasuke's is pretty cool. He plays Uryuu in Bleach as well. (hey I just went off on a tangent again-)

Hey, shouldn't you be at school today?
NO! There was a really bad typhoon (tropical hurricane, whatever you call it) where I was so the teacher's meeting scheduled for Friday was cancelled. And since they needed that teacher's meeting for the first day of school, they were like, "Okay, let's do the teacher's meeting on Monday and push the first day of school back one day."

I spoke to my friend who went to the anime-con yesterday.
"JJ, JJ, JJ, did you go to the anime-con?"
"Yes-"
"And did you get everything I asked you to?"
"No."
"…what?"
"They didn't have anything D. Gray-Man."
"Yeah, but what about Naruto?"
"Well, I saw the Claymore booth and lined up there first, so by the time I went to the Naruto booth everything was gone."

Selandora (feels incredibly lazy.)