A/N: Thanks again to Zerojackson for your help with this chapter! And thanks to everybody for reading and reviewing :D

CONTAGIOUS

Chapter Fourteen: Fireworks

"So, what kind of mission is this? Why are we going to Oto?" Sakura asked, trying to ease the tense silence.

Itachi was quiet for so long she feared he wouldn't bother to answer. She was just contemplating opening her mouth to say something she might regret when he spoke up.

"Kirigakure has enlisted us to retrieve a forbidden jutsu scroll from the remains of Orochimaru's compound."

Orochimaru's compound? Seriously? Looks like you won't have to persuade Itachi to stop by the lab after all. Then again, that's not so surprising. What the hell else is in Otogakure besides that snake bastard's compound?

Sakura lept over a boulder, black cloak billowing out behind her. They had been running together since dawn, but Itachi hadn't said much to her all day. Sakura was doing her best not to feel hurt by his sudden regression to chilliness, but it was hard. Particularly since it occurred the second he heard they'd be doing a mission together. But Sakura didn't know why.

Honestly, he must be the most frustrating man you've ever met, she thought, sneaking a glance at his handsome, distant features. You could give yourself a brain hemorrhage trying to read that closed book of a human being.

Itachi's eyes met hers. She looked away, embarrassed at having been caught staring...again. It was becoming a bad ongoing joke at this point.

"Night will fall soon. I'd like to stop at the town up ahead."

Sakura's eyebrows lifted. "We're not camping?"

Itachi stared ahead, waiting a long moment to answer. "I thought you would be more comfortable at an inn."

"Uh — it's fine, Itachi-san. I'm a shinobi. I've been roughing it since I was twelve," she replied dubiously.

"I was referring to your personal space. I assume you'd find it uncomfortable to sleep and change in such close proximity to a male."

Sakura was bewildered. "I've lived in close quarters with men while on missions for years. I've pretty much seen it all."

He gave her a look. Sakura belatedly realized the innuendo in her words. "You know what I mean," she tacked on with an eyeroll, blushing.

Itachi hesitated. "...every situation is different. I'd like to stop at an inn tonight," he reiterated with finality. Sakura shrugged and followed him past the village borders.

They arrived at an unfortunate time. There was some kind of festival going on all week, and every hotel was fully booked. They were turned away from inn after inn until they finally resorted to trying the most luxurious Western-style hotel in town.

"Excuse me, what is the price for two rooms for tonight?" Itachi asked the elegantly-dressed receptionist.

Two rooms? Didn't Itachi and Kisame share one when I met them back in Kiri? I assumed that was standard policy...

"250,000 ryou each, sir," the young lady replied. Itachi's mouth tightened. Sakura balked.

"Itachi-san, you cannot seriously be considering blowing all of our budget — plus a sizable chunk of our reward — for the sake of one night's privacy," she said flatly.

Itachi ignored her. "How many beds are in one room?"

"We have one with two double beds available, and one with a single king-sized bed."

Sakura couldn't understand how this was even a debate. "Separate beds are fine," she insisted.

"We can provide a complimentary privacy screen if you so desire," the receptionist offered delicately.

Itachi hesitated again. "I would appreciate that," he answered stiffly. "Two double beds, please."

The receptionist handed them two sets of keys with a deep bow. "Second floor, down the hallway on your right. Thank you for choosing Yamatoya, please enjoy the festival!"

Sakura couldn't believe the lengths to which Itachi was almost willing to go to avoid sharing a room with her. So she wouldn't have to look at his back, she lead the way up the ornate stairs to their room in offended silence.

Their suite was lavish and modern, with feather beds, a whirlpool tub and a private balcony. However, it was hardly worth the astronomical price the festival had jacked it up to. Somehow this just made Sakura angrier. They could be sleeping outside for free. She claimed the bed nearest the door and unpacked her essentials in silence, avoiding Itachi's gaze. Her empty belly was probably not helping her mood. "I'm going to go find dinner," she announced, slipping out the door without waiting for a response.

Sakura shuffled her way through the crowded streets until she spotted a noodle stand. The line was long, but after eating her fill of curried soba and knocking back a beer or two, she felt much better. The festival atmosphere was somewhat infectious; children zigzagged through the forest of legs with balloons in hand, drunken adults laughed and stumbled into people, and everyone generally seemed to be having a good time pigging out on street food. Sakura nursed her beer from her stool and wished Kisame was there with her. Being at a festival by yourself was kind of lonely.

She was beginning to regret blowing off Itachi. Whatever the reasons for his erratic behavior, she was fairly sure he wasn't trying to offend her on purpose. And though his company might not be her first choice right now, she knew from the time they spent alone at the base that he wasn't as terrible to hang out with as she'd thought. They had some things in common, actually. And Sakura had wasted an awful lot of good festivals during her days of isolation after Sora and Haji passed away. Resolving to let it go, Sakura finished her beer and ordered a carton of noodles to-go.

She made her way through the throng of bodies back to her hotel. She knocked once before turning her key in the lock and entering.

Itachi was in the process of pulling his pants up. Sakura caught the briefest glimpse of a naked hip before it disappeared beneath loose black fabric. Her eyes lingered on his bare chest for a moment before she remembered she was supposed to be averting them hastily.

Good lord — Itachi goes commando? I would have guessed him to be a briefs kind of guy for sure! Extra tight ones...

"S-sorry! I should have waited for you to answer before barging in," she squeaked, turning red. She definitely didn't sneak another peek when Itachi pulled a clean shirt over his head, gathering his damp hair into its typical loose ponytail. Definitely not.

"It's fine."

Sakura shook her head free of unwanted mental images and placed the carton of hot noodles on the table. "I brought you some supper." She offered a small conciliatory smile.

Itachi blinked. "You didn't have to do that."

"'Thank you,' is the conventional response, but I guess that works too."

Itachi's mouth twitched. "Thank you, Sakura-san." He sat down and picked up his chopsticks.

"Er — I'll just hop in the shower then," Sakura said, grabbing clean clothes from her pack and escaping into the bathroom. She locked the door behind her. The room was damp and filled with steam from its previous occupant; as she washed, Sakura did not think about how Itachi had stood naked in the same spot not five minutes ago. Stupid biology again. Perhaps this was the reason he didn't want to share a room or camp with her? If so, she probably shouldn't have been so quick to get angry about it...he had a point.

By the time she emerged, fully dressed, hair dripping, Itachi had finished his meal. He sat cross-legged on the far bed, a book open in his lap. Sakura was almost reminded of the casual, unguarded state in which she had first found him back in Kirigakure. The red gleam of his Sharingan told her otherwise. Still, having seen him in an unguarded state even once, she knew it was possible for him. She idly wondered what it would take to get a guy like him to open up. Suddenly, a crazy idea hit her. She knew it would never work, but there was no harm in trying...

"Um, Itachi-san?" she began tentatively. He looked up from his book, face blank. "Since we're here for the night anyway, I was wondering if...do you want to go down to check out the festival with me?"

Something akin to surprise flitted across his blank mask.

"It's just that festivals are more fun in groups, and they're definitely more fun than sitting in a hotel room all night," she elaborated, fidgeting.

Itachi tilted his head for a moment in consideration, a far-off look in his eye. Then, to her intense shock, he snapped his book shut. "I suppose that would be fine. I've read this one, anyway." He rose and headed for the door. Sakura accompanied him down the stairs in a state of suspended disbelief.

"What were you re-reading?" she asked curiously as they wandered into the jam-packed street.

"I grabbed the wrong book by mistake from the library before we left. It's one about perennials."

"You read books about gardening?" Sakura couldn't hide the surprise in her voice.

"I tend the vegetable garden back at the base, actually. Tobi helps me sometimes."

Sakura blinked. "Oh. I wondered who took care of that..." she trailed off in thought. The more she actually got him to talk, the more she discovered Itachi was just full of unexpected revelations. "Maybe you could add some medicinal herbs for me?"

"So long as they're appropriate for the current growing season and soil conditions, it's certainly possible."

Sakura smiled. He reads, he cooks, he gardens...this guy should've been a housewife instead of an S-class criminal. She couldn't help but burst into laughter at the mental picture of Itachi in a frilled apron, broom in hand.

Itachi gave her an odd look. "What?"

"Nothing!" she lied, trying to stifle her snickers.

"...you're an unusual girl, Sakura-san."

Sakura glanced at him, surprised he would speak his mind about her like that — even if the comment wasn't exactly complimentary. Maybe she should just stop bothering to be surprised altogether when it comes to him. "...did you just call me weird, Itachi-san?" How bizarre. He's the oddest person you've ever met and he thinks YOU'RE the weird one.

"No. I called you unusual."

Sakura studied his face to try to figure out what he meant by that, but his expression revealed nothing. She sighed. Some mysteries would never be solved. She returned her gaze to the milling crowd around them, spotting a sake stall just off to their right. "Do you drink, Itachi-san?" she motioned.

"Not usually," he replied with hesitation.

"Why not?"

"I like to be fully in control of myself."

Sakura certainly believed that. "All the time, though? Don't you ever want to relax?"

"No."

Sakura reeled. "Oh, please!" Itachi blinked at her. She felt her face redden. "I mean, a person can't live like that, no matter who you are. Everybody needs to relax sometimes."

"...I can't afford to relax, Sakura-san."

"Then why'd you come with me to this festival? Surely you're not allergic to a little fun?"

Itachi opened his mouth, then shut it. He looked like he didn't quite know what to say.

"Don't answer that, it was rhetorical," she grumbled. In a fit of boldness, she grabbed his wrist before she could chicken out. A little jolt of excitement shot up her arm at the contact, but she ignored it. She tugged him towards the sake stand. To her surprise, he allowed her to tow him. "Two, please," she told the old man working the counter, passing him a coin. She forcibly handed Itachi a bamboo carafe of cold sake.

For once, Itachi looked unsure of himself. "Sakura-san, I don't think —"

"That's your problem, Itachi. You think too much. Just stop it and drink the sake I bought you, or you'll risk offending me again."

Itachi stared at her.

"Crap! Sorry, I meant 'Itachi-san!' Now who's being offensive?" she laughed awkwardly, secretly mortified.

Sakura's eyes widened when the corner of Itachi's mouth curled upwards in what could only be described as a half-smile. Sakura almost dropped her cup at the sight of the unfamiliar expression. If a mere half-smile from the stoic man was so impressive, she couldn't imagine what a real one would look like.

"It's fine," he said. Tentatively, he sniffed the sake and took a sip.

"Well? How is it?" Sakura asked with bated breath.

"Strong," Itachi answered with the slightest wrinkle in his brow. Sakura laughed and took a sip of her own.

"It's an acquired taste," she said. "You'll get used to it."

They squeezed through the masses together, sipping their drinks (or pretending to, in Itachi's case) and talking. They passed by a band of taiko drummers, a group of dancers clad in elaborate kimono, and street musicians. They saw white-painted geisha here and there in front of teahouses, playing shamisen or entertaining groups of enraptured gentlemen.

"I wonder what this festival is for?" Itachi pondered aloud as they broke away from the throng near the banks of a river to take a breather. That distant look in his eyes again made Sakura wonder if he was remembering something. She tried to imagine him at some of Konoha's festivals as a child. Surely he wasn't quite so introverted then. Children love festivals. Did he smile and play back then like a normal boy? Maybe he even laughed...comparing the child she imagined he once was to the man he grew to be made her sad, somehow. She dropped that line of thinking. She had no way of knowing what Itachi's childhood had been like. Maybe he was born this way.

An attractive, if seriously inebriated, young man stumbled past just then. Sakura tapped his shoulder. "Excuse me, but what is everybody celebrating?"

He looked her up and down, grinning. "The five year anniversary of the introduction of gunpowder to the area, of course! There'll be a show in a few minutes. You wanna come watch with me? Or are you with him?" he slurred, jerking a thumb towards Itachi.

"She is," Itachi responded tersely.

"Oh. Have a g'night then!" He weaved his way back into the crowd.

Sakura raised amused eyebrows at Itachi. "How do you know I didn't want to go with him?"

Itachi blinked. "I'm sorry, Sakura-san, I assumed —"

She chuckled. "I was just kidding. You're so serious, Itachi-san. And you can call me Sakura."

He shifted. "Likewise."

"I dunno. Things might get confusing if I have to call you 'Sakura,' too," she joked.

Itachi almost-smiled again. Sakura liked the look on his face. "You should do that more often."

"What?"

"Smile."

It was immediately replaced by an expression of mild confusion. Sakura regretted saying anything. Suddenly, there was a tremendous explosion and the sky lit up. They tensed automatically, crouching into defensive positions — until they noticed the colors. Sakura laughed, relaxing. Itachi straightened beside her.

"Fireworks," he murmured.

"Deidara's gonna be so jealous," Sakura mused, gazing at the multicolored pinwheels of light in awe. They stood side by side on the grassy riverbank, watching the show together in silence for several minutes. Sakura's thoughts kept wandering back to Itachi. "Do you like fireworks, Itachi?"

"Doesn't everyone?" he replied, gaze fixed upward. Sakura watched the different colors play across his skin.

"What do they look like with the Sharingan?" she asked curiously. Itachi's eyes locked onto hers, and Sakura forgot all about the fireworks.

"Amazing."

His tone stirred something in Sakura. Her eyes slid to his mouth, and suddenly all she could see were two pale, pink lips, parted just slightly. His face was so close. For the briefest instant she was overcome with the ludicrous desire to lean in and touch them, to see if they felt as soft as they looked —

Then they were gone. Itachi had turned his back to her. She couldn't see the expression on his face, but she could hear the trepidation in his tone.

"...I can't." He disappeared into the crowd.

Sakura stood alone on the riverbank, frozen in time as fireworks zipped off to their colorful deaths in the black void overhead. Her heart sank to her knees.

What the hell were you thinking?

He was right, Sakura thought in agitation as she climbed the steps to the second floor in the posh hotel. We should have gotten separate rooms.

She couldn't believe how stupid she was. Staring at Uchiha Itachi's mouth — Itachi, of all people! Her physical attraction for him was out of control, not even she could deny it any longer. But she'd be a filthy liar if she pretended that was all there was to it. She couldn't blame this one on biology. Now that she was finally getting to know him, she discovered with dismay that he was not at all the person she once thought he was. If anything, he was rather likable — he was gentle and polite, though too formal and stiff. He was intellectual, multitalented, and she was beginning to suspect he had a (very) subtle sense of humor. When he actually lightened up a bit, that rare half-smile of his was so attractive —

— and she was really, really an idiot.

Developing affection for a mass-murderer was the last thing a young, healthy girl should do. There was no way Itachi would be interested in something like a 'relationship' (she cringed inwardly at the word — what exactly did she want from him? Sex? Companionship? Both?). But even if he was theoretically interested in such things (yeah, right!), he obviously wasn't interested in her. But all of that hardly mattered, because the crux of the problem was that Itachi was Akatsuki. An enemy of her village. Where could it possibly go? This was emotional masochism at its best.

If that's true, then you're in major trouble. Because literally ALL of the relationships you have right now are with Akatsuki members.

Sakura put her head in her hand and knocked on the door, wishing she could be anywhere but here. This time, she waited for an answer.

"Come in," Itachi's muffled voice called.

Sakura turned her key and entered. The privacy screen greeted her, separating her half of the room from his in a neat, impenetrable boundary. She heard the turn of a page from somewhere behind the screen.

Wordlessly, Sakura undressed and climbed into bed. She turned off her light and squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to think of anything in the world besides the body of Itachi lying four feet and a million miles away from hers, but it was like struggling to swim upriver.

Sakura felt like she was drowning.

The next morning was one of the most awkward of Sakura's young life. They woke before dawn and dressed on either side of the privacy screen. They left the room without looking at each other and checked out. They ran for most of the day without speaking. Sakura's canteen was empty and she was dying of thirst, but she just couldn't bring herself to talk to him. Eventually they passed a stream and Sakura couldn't take it anymore.

"Itachi."

He started in surprise, but slowed to a stop once he noticed she had paused. He looked at her with guarded eyes.

"I just need a drink," she said, bending to refill her canteen.

Itachi turned away and waited. Sakura stood and took a long gulp. She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her cloak. "How much further?" she asked, pocketing her water and resuming her run. After enduring the awkwardness of breaking the silence, she might as well find out.

"Another hour or so and we'll be in Oto," he replied without inflection. He touched his temple.

What, so just talking to you gives him migraines now? she thought bitterly, though she suspected it was actually something else. She'd seen that gesture before.

"Is your head okay?" Sakura questioned aloud, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice.

"It's fine."

"I've heard that one before," she remarked dryly, slowing to a halt. "Let me examine it."

Something flashed across Itachi's face that could have been annoyance, but he stopped running. "It's nothing. I'm used to it."

Sakura arched a brow. "If it's a chronic problem you definitely better let me have a look. It could interfere with your ability to perform optimally on the mission. We have no idea what kind of traps we'll find in Orochimaru's compound, so we have to be in peak condition."

An efficient person like Itachi couldn't really argue with that. He let out a restrained breath and sat down cross-legged under a pine tree. Sakura knelt next to him and gathered chakra to her fingertips. She tried not to look at his face as she pressed her palm to his temple. She trickled chakra into his system.

Her lips parted in shock. His optic nerves felt exactly like Kakashi's, only a million times worse. The residual buildup from chronic chakra use was so bad Sakura was amazed that he could see at all. Every nerve ending was shredded and inflamed. She shook her head in wonder. "Itachi, your eyes are so damaged by all rights you should have been blind some time ago. I can heal your headache temporarily for now, but it will always come back if you insist on keeping your Sharingan activated constantly. The only way to fix it permanently is for me to heal your eyes."

Itachi went very still. "You're able to do that?"

Sakura nodded. "Not completely, but if you cooperate with a treatment plan I could probably improve your condition significantly. I would've been able to heal another Sharingan user almost fully, if not for his physical inability to turn it off. I used to clear the residue from his chakra pathways regularly instead."

"You mean Kakashi-san?"

Sakura swallowed and nodded. "Yes." She closed her eyes in concentration and did her best to flush out his optic nerves, pushing her chakra deep into his system. About halfway through her work, she caught a whiff of something...off. It was elsewhere in his body, so it was very faint, though unmistakable. Sickness.

Her eyes snapped open. "What's wrong with you?"

Itachi shut down. "Nothing."

She looked at him squarely. "Why are you lying? I can help you."

"It's none of your concern."

"Itachi —"

He cut her off. "Please, Sakura. We have a mission to complete."

Sakura's mouth was a hard line, but she backed off. She finished clearing his chakra pathways and soothed his inflamed nerves before standing. "That should help for now, but it's only a temporary fix," she warned. "If you continue to abuse your Sharingan, eventually you'll cause irreparable damage. I won't be able to help you then."

Itachi blinked and stood slowly. He looked at the trees around him like he'd never seen a forest before. His eyes landed on her face. His stared. Sakura flushed. "Better?"

"...astounding." Itachi appeared to be memorizing the color of her hair. Sakura cleared her throat.

"We should go."

Nodding, Itachi followed her south.

Orochimaru's central base was hidden deep underground. They located its entrance: a hole beneath a tree with two markings on it, a snake and a snake's skull. They descended a very long set of stairs that reminded Sakura unnervingly of the shrine in Lava Country.

Everything was dark and damp. The place was as labyrinthine as the last of the snake-nin's hideouts Sakura had broken into, but the walls were crumbling to ruin. It had clearly been abandoned for some time, but that didn't make it safe. Itachi broke off a root growing through a dilapidated wall and lit the end of it with a katon. They made their way down the hall, wary of boobytraps.

"Do we have any idea where the scroll is?" Sakura asked, stepping gingerly over what might have been a body, once. It certainly smelled bad enough.

"The mission brief indicated it should be in Orochimaru's main office."

"Where's that?"

"I don't know."

They spent the next few hours combing through the place, kicking in rusty metal doors, checking cellars, climbing stairs that led to yet more corridors. On more than one occasion they followed a passage to literally nowhere, greeted by the sight of a blank wall.

"What mad archaeologist built this place?" Sakura asked in annoyance.

"It's probably designed to confuse intruders," Itachi pointed out.

"Well, it's more effective at irritating them," she mumbled.

They wandered around for another hour or so. Sakura was bewildered that they hadn't run into a single trap or bit of trouble. Maybe this place has been dead for so long that even the security system's down?

Sakura used her chakra to smash open a pair of heavy, locked steel doors. Her jaw dropped. Inside she found a massive laboratory, about the size of an entire floor of Konoha's hospital. The equipment was state-of-the-art, though breaking down from disuse.

"If his lab is here, his office is nearby," Itachi deduced, walking out the door. Sakura followed with painful reluctance. She jogged up to him.

"Itachi, I want to go back and see something —"

She was cut off by the sound of Itachi opening doors engraved with entwined serpents. Orochimaru's office loomed before them, dark and foreboding with a large desk situated in front of an intimidating throne-like chair. Sakura followed Itachi in, tense. She rifled through the desk while Itachi probed the walls with chakra.

"There's a genjutsu along the far wall," he announced. She felt it too. They exchanged a silent look and mentally shattered the illusion, prepared to be attacked.

The wall disappeared to reveal a recessed alcove, but nothing untoward leaped out at them. The stillness and silence were suffocating as they searched through hundreds of scrolls in rows of shelves that spanned from floor to ceiling. Sakura found some truly gruesome specimens, but not the forbidden scroll on genetically modifying humans into amphibians that Mist was after.

Finally, after what felt like a small eternity to the anxious Sakura, Itachi pulled a particularly thick one from the wall.

"This is it," he said, examining it.

"Thank god." Sakura exhaled in relief. They exited the office without incident. Sakura cleared her throat as they walked down the hall.

"Itachi. There's something I need to see before we go," she said as firmly as possible.

He gave her an inscrutable look. "What?"

"Just let me pop into the lab real quick and —"

"Alone?"

Sakura huffed. "Fine, come with me if you must, but I really have to look at something..." she trailed off, ducking into the lab. She made a beeline for the large filing cabinet at the back of the room, rifling through its alphabetical index until she found a section entitled 'Pathogens and Contagions.' The corresponding drawer was unlocked and looked empty, but Sakura knew better. She dispelled the genjutsu.

"What are you looking for, Sakura? We shouldn't be lingering after a mission like this."

"It's just some medical research Orochimaru was doing that I'm interested in," she explained absently, pulling a thick file from the top of the stack with Konoha's leaf insignia on the front. She flipped through it.

"Pertaining to what?" Itachi asked, peering over her shoulder.

Now it was Sakura's turn to be secretive. "Nothing, just an unusual virus," she brushed the inquiry off. Her eyes lit up in excitement as she read. This is it! This is about the ouroboros!

Suddenly, they could hear the electric humming of a machine. The lights flicked on overhead, blinding them. Sakura stuffed the file into her coat, assuming a defensive posture alongside Itachi. An alarm screeched as the broken doors to the lab slammed shut. They ran towards the exit. Sakura peeled open the metal doors just in time to have to duck a hail of kunai. She sensed heat at her back and glanced over her shoulder to see a raging purple inferno swallowing the lab behind them.

"What did you take?" Itachi demanded.

"Later!" she shouted, summoning a wave to put out the fire. These were no normal flames, however; the water seemed only to add fuel to them. They moved terrifying fast, engulfing the area in seconds. Itachi grabbed her wrist and dragged her through the doorway down the hall.

"Why was the Leaf symbol on that folder? Is something happening in Konoha?" he yelled as they raced down the hall, pursued by the unnatural purple fire.

Sakura didn't have time to wonder why he cared. "Now is not really the time to be having this discussion, Itachi!" she cried shrilly, launching water bombs behind her. The flames just swallowed them and loomed higher.

"You're making it worse," he warned as they hurtled around a corner.

"Well, I'm open to suggestions!"

Itachi grabbed her hand and curled her fist into the fabric of his cloak. "Keep me away from walls, please," he requested, spinning around to run backwards without even slowing down. His red irises bled into the deadly pinwheels of his Mangekyou Sharingan. Black flames appeared, consuming the purple ones — along with everything else they contacted.

"Why are you using Amaterasu when we're still inside!?" Sakura hissed.

"I'm open to suggestions," Itachi returned dryly, blood trickling from his eye. The purple flames disappeared beneath Amaterasu, but now they had to contend with the unstoppable black hellfire. It burned much slower, giving them some time, but Sakura was disinclined to linger. She ducked around a random corner.

"I have no freaking clue where the hell the exit —"

She was stopped dead in her tracks by the sight of the biggest snake she'd ever seen. Its coiled black and purple body barely fit into the stadium-sized room. Before she even understood what was happening, a fang twice as long as her whole body was descending on her.

A rib cage of solid black smoke encircled her, deflecting the deadly jaws. A thin red line ran from Itachi's other eye down his white cheek. His body was tensed in pain. "Manda," he said, glaring up at the snake.

"Itachi-san," the snake hissed. "Long time no see." It thrashed its tail once, destroying half the compound. "You seem rather low on chakra. Are you sure using Susanou was wise?"

Sakura didn't know how Itachi and this behemoth knew each other, but she didn't want to stick around and find out. Poison, obviously, was useless. The snake's colossal body was too big for her to begin to damage physically, super strength or not. It was even too large to use her blood-boiling or swelling jutsu on; she just didn't have the chakra to alter that amount of fluid. She'd have to try a crapshoot to buy time for Itachi to recover. She made one seal.

"Iwa bunshin no jutsu!"

Sakura spit out a hunk of rock, which quickly formed into her mirror image. Her doppelganger darted left while she went right, hoping to distract it. "Who the hell gave you permission to be so ugly?" her clone jeered at the monster while Sakura made seals.

"Oh?" the serpent laughed in wicked amusement; a rumble shook the compound. "Your woman talks, Itachi-san. I wouldn't let her do that, if I were you."

It struck like lightning; Sakura was astounded that such bulk could move so fast. It snapped up her rock clone in its massive jaws and swallowed her whole. Sakura had a weird moment of dissociation as she watched herself get eaten by a giant snake, but she refused to let it distract her from the task at hand. She reached out for the snake's mind with her chakra.

It was disgusting. The flavor made her sick, like congealed blood, but Sakura pressed her chakra into its primitive cerebral neural system anyway. It felt different from a human mind; the sense of smell was inconceivably powerful, with taste and touch vying for a close second. The other senses were negligible. This was fortunate for Sakura, who still couldn't control more than one or two senses at a time. She was unfortunately familiar with the smell of corpses in her line of work; she multiplied her memory of it times a thousand, assaulting the huge serpent's sensitive nostrils.

Manda thrashed; Sakura could hear the compound collapsing around them, but she was too busy fighting the backlash of the genjutsu to worry about it; some of the unbearable stench of death was leaking through to her own senses. She concentrated harder and imagined great redwood-sized steel beams bursting through the purple scales, impaling the endless body against the rock floor like a grotesque insect pinned to a display. The snake screamed. Sakura gasped in pain and fell to her knees as she felt echoes of the illusion throughout her own body. She could do no more.

"Finish it, Itachi!" she yelled in a strained voice. Itachi winced as his Mangekyou began to swirl...

Suddenly, the serpent hissed with laughter. The walls shook as great chunks of stone and steel rained down alarmingly fast. "Foolish child," Manda spat. "You think your genjutsu can stop me? I am King of the Snake Summons!" The creature opened jaws the size of a house and struck.

Itachi threw himself into her. They rolled together, but one of Manda's huge fangs impaled Itachi's leg, pinning him. He didn't cry out, but fresh blood poured from his strained eyes as he focused on the enormous mouth.

Amaterasu's black flames burst forth, consuming the serpent's muzzle. It screamed in earnest, thrashing wildly, turning the surrounding stone to rubble in seconds. Gums dissolved in the fire, it reared its head back, leaving Itachi pinned to the ground by an enormous tooth. The black flames licked down the fang towards his leg. He swayed dangerously, blinking blood out of his eyes. Sakura lurched to her feet and yanked the fang free of his thigh, tossing it as far away as possible.

Meanwhile, Manda's whole head was now consumed by black fire, eating the snake alive. It shrieked and rolled, coming perilously close to crushing them both. Sakura lifted Itachi to his feet. Impossibly, he stood, face white and taut with pain. A normal person wouldn't have been able to stand, let alone move, yet Itachi managed to follow her down the corridor back the way they came, trailing blood.

They ran into a sea of Amaterasu's fire. It had spread unchecked, consuming the entire hall before them. They were trapped on both sides, the compound coming down around them. Sakura grabbed Itachi's hand and pushed chakra to her feet, dragging them both up the wall towards the high ceiling of the corridor. Once upside-down, she made six seals and slammed her palm into the stone.

The ceiling cracked in two. The halves parted just enough for the two ninja to squeeze through. They dashed up the rock walls of the chasm and burst out into the light of day together. Even far above the chaos, the ground shook. Sakura pressed her palms to the earth and closed the gap behind them. She sat back and panted as the quaking subsided. She turned to Itachi.

His mangled leg had stained the grass a deep crimson. The fang had definitely hit his femoral artery. His face was pale and wan, breath coming in shallow pants, sweat dampening his hair. Sakura dashed over in alarm.

"Fucking hell, you're poisoned and bleeding out," she swore. She had no idea how powerful Manda's venom might be, but if she didn't attend to the bleeding first he would die within minutes for sure. The scarlet pool was already spreading uncontrollably beneath him.

Sakura unzipped his cloak and examined his leg. An enormous hole gaped open on his thigh. She summoned chakra to her palms and pressed them into his bloody flesh, applying physical pressure to assist the healing chakra.

The damage was bad, going all the way through his leg. It took much longer than she'd hoped to do the bare minimum. Precious seconds ticked by as she knit his epidermis back together and repaired his artery. She had no time to worry about healing the myriad of other broken veins, nor the hole in his muscles or shattered femur. The skin around his wound was rapidly swelling and turning black. Itachi looked barely conscious. If the poison had already reached his heart, he was done.

Sakura formed a chakra scalpel in her palm and made an incision just above his wound. She didn't have the proper medicinal fluid on hand, and there was hardly any time to make some, so she would have to make do with water. She summoned a sphere of liquid to her side and began pushing the fluid into the incision, carefully separating the toxin from the blood and re-suspending it in the water to flush it out.

Sakura lost track of how long she worked. There was an astonishing amount of poison in Itachi's system — easily enough to kill a boss summon like Katsuyu. The sphere of water turned black with the toxic substance as Sakura extracted it.

By the time she was satisfied that Itachi was in the clear, the sun had long sunk over the horizon. Sakura was completely out of chakra and too exhausted to move, and Itachi had finally drifted off to sleep. She collected a sample of Manda's venom from the sphere in a glass vial before floating the rest of it several feet away and bursting the bubble. The grass touched by the deadly substance smoked and turned brown, dead.

Her own injuries were comparatively minor (thanks to Itachi), which was lucky because she didn't even have enough chakra to finish healing his thigh. She peeled off his blood-soaked cloak and tossed her own somewhat drier one over him. She curled up in the grass and passed out beside him the second her head hit the dirt.