Accidentally
Chapter 13: Raise Your Voice
"Sakura..."
She flinched in her sleep.
"Sakura..."
She opened her eyes, glancing from corner to corner of the small white room she was contained in. She was startled, when she turned her gaze to the ceiling...
...and there was Uchiha Sasuke, standing over her.
"I've come for you, Sa-ku-ra," He chuckled.
"Sasuke...kun." She mumbled. Her voice was low, and she was unable to raise it.
He drew his sword by the hilt, and his face went impassive. Her eyes went as wide as they could. A voice cut through her fear as Sasuke held his sword away from her at arm's length.
"Sakura-chan! Don't be afraid!" It shouted. Female.
Another rang in Sakura's ears.
"Sakura-chan! We've got your back, yeah!"
More.
"We know what you want, Sakura." A solemn, strong voice told her.
Chidori was now surging through Sasuke's katana, but the voices kept coming.
"Haruno Sakura, I do not hate you."
"Rogue Shinobi never back down."
"Fucking kick his chicken ass!"
"This is your home now, Miss Sakura!"
Gradually, she seemed to glare more and more intensely at Sasuke.
"We are your family. You are accepted here, Sakura-san."
"We'll help you through this, Sakura-chan!"
"Foolish little brother, your inept ninjutsu is no match for Sakura-san's abilities."
Sakura almost laughed at that one, but regardless of their consolation, one voice toned above all.
"Was this what you wanted, Sakura?"
Sasuke was gone. His form had been replaced by someone else's. Sakura's eyes softened. "Shikamaru-kun..."
He helped her stand so that they were adjacent to each other.
"Well?" the shadow user urged in a low tone.
"Uh, I..."
He placed his hands on her shoulders, staring her hard in the eyes.
"If this is what makes you happy, Sakura, then stick to it. But, promise me one thing..." he leaned closer, and rested his forehead against hers.
"...promise me that we'll always be best friends."
Sakura's eyes brimmed with tears as the words sank in. "S-Shikamaru, I-"
...
"Sakura...Sakura, wake up."
Her watering eyes cracked open. "P...Pein?"
He nodded, and helped her sit up. "Yes. I need you in my office. Now. It's important."
OoOoOo
"A-ah, Ohayo, Zetsu-san...!" she greeted as she stepped into Pein's office. He replied with a smile and a nod.
"He's considered a part of this too, Sakura. Come take a look." Pein motioned for her to come closer.
"I spotted them a couple of miles away from the base, Sakura-san. You know them, right?"
She analyzed the photograph Pein had given her, before gasping and nearly falling over.
Pein raised an eyebrow. "I take it that they're familiar to you?"
"Oh, yeah..." She confirmed.
"Well?" Zetsu drawled softly.
Sakura glared at the piece of paper. "Yakushi Kabuto. Orochimaru's assistant, and...and Uchiha Sasuke. Itachi-san's little brother."
Pein put the picture away. "What do you suppose they want?"
Sakura didn't want to reply, even if she knew the answer. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Pein and Zetsu exchanged glances, before the latter nodded. He sank into the ground, retreating.
"Sakura."
Aforementioned kunoichi still stared at the back of her eyelids. Pein put his hands on her shoulders, giving Sakura a sudden Déjà Vu vibe. She raised her head to meet his rinnegan eyes.
"I'd like to understand what you're going through, but I can't. Nor do I understand what those two are to you, but I can tell that they're not exactly comrades."
'Not anymore, at least...' Sakura mused, lowering her head again.
Pein continued. "But I assure you, the Akatsuki will do anything and everything in its power to protect y-"
"No," she stated firmly, looking up at him with new-found determination, "I don't want protection. You said it yourself, Pein. I don't need it."
This amused him, apparently, because an eyebrow rose and he smirked a bit. "Then what will you do?"
Sakura smirked. She was going to keep her promise to Shikamaru, of course. Oh, yes...
"I'm going to skin his chicken-ass."
OoOoOo
"Okay, everyone, settle down," Konan ordered.
"No way, yeah! That Uchiha brat is back? He is going down this time!"
Pein entered the room at this statement, and he laughed – believe it or not. At that, the entire room was silent...and a little weirded out.
"Not by your hands, Deidara. Not by your hands..." He objected.
"Sakura," Konan called in an angelic voice.
In strolled said kunoichi, all suited up in her ANBU battle gear, just fastening her Akatsuki cloak. She wore her rogue Leaf headband with pride this time around, where it sat on her head. Bangs held back as usual, but something was definitely different. As to be expected, some Akatsuki men gaped, some clapped, some whistled, and some just plain smirked. Half of them were whipped by Kakuzu's stitches, who was mentally berating himself, 'I can't believe I was the first one of these idiots to crack...'
Sakura smiled sweetly at each and every one of them, "It's gonna go down today, and I'll need my family's help."
The group nearly felt like squealing at how much their little Sakura-chan had attached herself to the organization. Here she was, the little bud that thought the band of antiheroes to hate her, now a fully-bloomed cherry blossom accepting them as family.
"Sakura will be the one to lead, this time. Does anyone oppose to the idea?" Pein declared, patting her on the head like a small puppy.
She stuck her tongue out at him, and that urge to perform a chorus of Fanboy Squeals became all that much harder to resist. No one spoke against her, of course. They all knew just how capable she was of fending for herself - some of them had the bruises and bone fractures to prove it!
"Alright, here's the - "
Gritting her teeth and whirling around, Sakura was just in time to catch a lone kunai that had flown in from the coincidentally open window. White noise pierced the girl's eardrums, and she flung the knife back out the window, waiting for the explosion. After it sounded, Sakura spun to punish the Akatsuki who would be the cause of that.
"WHO LEFT THE GODDAMN WINDOW OPEN? WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE WINDOWS IN HERE?" she screeched.
An orange blur suddenly leaped behind the couch, latching itself onto the not-so-surprised Kisame's leg. It began to cry and shake profusely, and Deidara slapped it. Sakura stomped up to the orange thing and grabbed its collar, shaking it angrily and shouting.
"NOOO! PLEASE DON'T YELL AT TOBI! TOBI DIDN'T MEAN TOOOO! TOBI JUST FORGOT TO CLOSE IT AFTER HE FED THE BIRDIES THIS MORNING! THE BIRDIES LOVE SENPAI'S PORRIDGE!" the thing wailed.
"Tobi, yeah...what the hell are you talking abou – "
A light squawk was heard before another explosion sounded, making a little over half of the beings in the room face-palm.
"BAKA! THAT WAS C4 CLAY, YEAH! NOT –"
Another kunai was dodged by a fully-suspecting Sakura, and plunged conveniently into Hidan's shoulder. He glanced down at it after a minute or two, murmuring a quiet, "Ow?"
"Long story short, I want Pein, Konan, Itachi and Sasori to stay behind. I suspect that Kabuto knows better than to challenge the Akatsuki alone," she explained.
Sasori gave a questioning look, but Sakura couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes. She closed her eyes momentarily, 'Oh, Sasori can...Sasori can shut the hell up,' she told herself. In any other situation, Sakura would have come up with a lame excuse like, 'W-We don't want anyone knowing that you're alive, right?'. But It didn't feel like they had enough time for that, because here came another kunai, which Sakura bent over to dodge, and the knife, coincidentally, pierced Hidan's other shoulder. But...
Why, oh why, had Zetsu chosen to materialize out of the ground behind her at the exact moment in time in which Sakura had avoided the kunai?
So now, standing at the crossroads of life, seven Akatsuki sat and stared at their comrade and their prized possession in a position that seemed, for lack of a better word, erotic. Zetsu and Sakura stood still for a moment, and, after a wild array of emotions and colors were displayed across their faces, and some profuse blinking, the two parted and bowed quickly to each other, waving and clasping hands in an attempt to nonchalantly brush off that entire predicament.
The other six mortified men (and the Tobi) still sat wide-eyed, even when a barrage of shuriken whipped past Sakura, Zetsu, Pein and Konan, directly into Hidan's chest and forehead. No one but the two formers' expressions changed, but even Pein had to blink himself out of a dumbfounded stupor at the scene. Konan seemed completely un-surprised by this whole chain of events, as her face practically screamed, "Just another day in a life with Akatsuki."
Oh, but thank Hidan's god for the enemies' wonderful timing. Apperrantly, they were getting frustrated, and running out of kunai and shuriken, because next, a scalpel came through the window, which Sakura chose to catch. She shouted at them, "OKURA SERU!"
Turning back to the Akatsuki, she explained what little of her plan she openly had left. "Zetsu-sama, please keep watch outside the compound, and if there is a sign that the possible intruders are with Kabuto or Sasuke," she stared at him hard, "destroy them."
Nodding with a smile and licking his lips, he sank into the ground. Shortly getting caught up in her own thoughts while the Akatsuki readied themselves, Sakura bit her thumb. Who does he think he is, she snarled, Showing up like some kind of knight in shining snakeskin armor! The dick.
She stood at the window, and, idly, she wondered what Shikamaru might be doing right now. 'Don't worry, Shika-kun, I'm getting our revenge.' Itachi came to stand beside her, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. The Uchiha prodigy blinked when a spark went through his body, but Sakura was quick to explain.
"Sorry about that; I know better than to go up against an Uchiha unprotected. What you just felt was an ample layer of a chakra barrier created by myself and my shishou. It reflects the chakra of any attack, including genjutsu, and sends it right back at the attacker with double the force. Only medical ninja can use it, but it's not like we've revealed it to the entire world."
An air of approval filled Itachi's lungs as he prepared his next words. "Sakura," he pronounced her name with such suave vocals, she couldn't help but look at him, "if there is anyone else in the world that would be more suited and capable than myself to take Sasuke's life, it's you."
Her cheeks burned just a bit, but given the situation she obviously didn't have time for feelings right now. Not to mention that really shouldn't be something to blush at, but considering it was Uchiha Itachi...
Smiling wholeheartedly at him, she grabbed the hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, Itachi-san, but if countless times before I was unable to do that, how am I to know that I'm capable of it now?"
Itachi left his face blank, but he felt like scoffing at this girl's obliviousness to her lack of self-confidence. She squeezed his hand for some ten seconds, and when he broke out of his trance, he turned to notice his brother standing parallel to them.
Damn, was this awkward.
Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Itachi. The latter were holding hands, for Kami's sake. Sasuke had disgust, betreyal, utter shock, and some disappointment etched across his face as he watched them. Sakura's face read, "Oh, fuck."
Still holding hands, still standing awkwardly, Itachi reached into Sakura's other hand and retrieved the chakra scalpel, set a seal, and threw it at his little brother fast enough to the point that only Sakura or Kakuzu would've seen it coming. It exploded, of course.
"Give that back to Kabuto for me," and with that, Uchiha Itachi released Sakura's hand slowly and moved to retreat.
Before he could, though, Sakura had grabbed his arm, and pulled him back to her in an on-the-brink-of the most awkward and stiff hug ever.
"Chauvinistic asshole," she muttered, and Itachi relaxed.
"Good luck, Sakura-chan." he pet her head before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
Turning back to Sasuke, she followed Itachi's suit. Reappearing between Deidara and Hidan, she pulled on her gloves, to which Kakuzu had sewn cute little Aka-clouds on the backs of the palms. She didn't speak. No one did. First time for everything.
Of course, Sasuke Hopped up with Kabuto onto a convenient little platform just below where the Akatsuki stood on a small hill that they used for training.
Oh, yes. It was quite an epic scene.
Epic, and corny.
"Sakura," almost as suave as Itachi...
...but not quite.
OoOoOo
Okay so I really can't tell if it's long or short but here you go! It's been so long and I actually had written more than this but I couldn't find a good stopping place so I cut it off there, and...TA-DA~! This probably means that the next chapter should be up rather quickly, especially since I got my motivation back and the school year is ending! I just felt that you all deserved SOMETHING for putting up with my procrastination!
Hidan: Che, no shit.
*glares*
Hidan: *sigh* Oku-chan is very fucking sorry and loves you all...!
*eyeroll* So I'm sure that I had something I wanted to say that I'm forgetting but there is one thing that's been getting on my nerves. It's in a lot of fanfiction lately and I keep correcting them by screaming at my poor computer screen.
Sasori: Talking to oneself is the first sign of insanity, Raven.
Sanity...? Why the hell would I need something as useless as that? And look who's talking!
Sasori: *eyeroll*
So anyway, the thing that's bothering me is how people are always writing about how Sakura or Sasuke or whoever took or passed their Jounin Exams to get to where they are, or whatever...well the thing is, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE JOUNIN EXAMS! IF A HIGH-RANKING CHUNIN IS TO BE BOOSTED UP TO JOUNIN THEY MUST BE APPOINTED SO BY THE HOKAGE! IT'S IN THE FIRST FLIPPING DATA BOOK PEOPLE!
*sigh!* So their you go. If you've ever written a story like that, I don't mean to be rude. It just irks me to no end how many so-called "Narutards" don't even know that.
Thank you for reading and I'll update soon!
Hidan: Damn straight she will!
Deidara: Please review, yeah!
~Raven100