Chapter 14
Abduction
"A fool in love makes no sense to
me. I only think you are a fool if you do not love."
-Anonymous
-xxx-
"Is this feeling any better?" Sakura asked, her hands bracketed on either side of Juugo's face as she struggled to keep the touch of her healing chakra as light as possible.
She was trying to influence the hormonal balance of Juugo's body. It sounded easy, but in practice was incredibly difficult. Hormones influenced so much of the body, rarely having just one effect, so she would only risk tipping the balance the slightest bit.
Not to mention, that the collar had decided to remind her of its existence in the form of the light, empty feeling curling behind her eyes.
"I feel...calmer," the blonde man said wonderingly, as though he couldn't quite believe it.
"That's only because Sasuke used his Sharingan on you," Karin sniped, pocketing a few kunai as she prepared to leave the room on an errand. "It has nothing to do with her."
Sakura ignored the redhead but Juugo frowned at her, a shadow of anger flitting across his features. The medic was glad that some of the blonde's usual spirit seemed to be returning – he had been so guilty about attacking her he'd barely been able to look her in the eye when she'd first started working on him.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Suigetsu asked Karin rudely. "Somewhere not here?"
Karin sneered and shut the door with a bang. Sakura privately thought it was a miracle the sound didn't wake Sasuke – his battle with Deidara must have truly exhausted him.
"Do you feel anything other than calmer?" Sakura queried, as though she and Juugo hadn't been interrupted. "Headache? Nausea? Anything that just spontaneously developed while I was working on you?"
Juugo shook his head.
And Sakura beamed. "Excellent! I think we may be on the right track here, as far as curing you goes. I'll be perfectly honest – I'm not sure if I could ever completely cure you, but I certainly might be able to help-"
The medic's words were cut off by a large yawn.
"You might want to take your own advice about that sleeping-thing, Princess," Suigetsu commented. Then, with a flirtatious grin, "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you'd look hot even with bags under your eyes-"
Sakura giggled. Suigetsu's playful interest in her was good for her ego, as opposed to the constant barrage of 'ugly' from Sai or the continued reminder of Sasuke's disinterest (though that little episode when she was healing him still made her think). Sure, Naruto did much the same thing, but nowadays it seemed to be an action of habit, as opposed to any real desire for her.
As always, thoughts of Konoha brought a painful twinge of homesickness, and Sakura had to forcefully steer her mind elsewhere to keep her mood from plummeting.
"It's this stupid collar," she groused. "If this was off-"
"I'll have another go at it," Suigetsu offered.
Sakura slumped back against the wall behind her, sitting down and letting her head rest on it to allow him access to the lock that had so frustrated him previously.
"Why don't you just try to cut it off?" Juugo asked. "The leather is tough, and quite close to your skin, but as long as you were careful..."
Sakura shook her head. "When I first got it, I wasn't going to risk cutting it off – I mean, I'm sure I wasn't the first slave to try to cut their collar off, so I thought it was a good bet that there was probably a nasty failsafe built in it somewhere that would do something to me if I tried to cut it off. And now that Sasuke has told me there's chakra moving through it...I'd rather not risk it."
After all, she wasn't an idiot. Who knew what the chakra in the collar would do if the material it inhabited was suddenly severed? It could be perfectly harmless...or it could do something very harmful, like blow up. And frankly, she wouldn't have put it past Orochimaru to put some lethal trick into his slave collars.
She wouldn't risk cutting it off her neck. Picking the lock was far less likely to trigger any sort of negative reaction.
Juugo frowned, and Suigetsu ran his tongue over his sharp teeth as he inspected the lock. He didn't really hold out any hope of finding anything new but felt he should look all the same.
He jabbed at the lock with the tip of a kunai, unsurprised when something seemed to bar his way. Someone inexperienced in lock picking wouldn't realise what was happening, but Suigetsu had opened enough forbidden doors to know that the tip of the blade wasn't sliding in far enough to contact the tumblers.
Something was preventing it.
He tried to angle his head to see into the lock, in case he could pinpoint exactly what was causing the problem. Maybe a small rock or piece of dirt had slipped inside it during Sakura's travels...
But he saw nothing – the lock was too small to really get a good view inside. He was about to ask Sakura to move closer to the window and therefore the light, when Juugo spoke softly.
"She's asleep."
At first, Suigetsu thought he was talking about one of the birds that had re-alighted on the windowsill. It was only when he raised his head and glimpsed Sakura's closed eyes that he realised the blonde had been talking about the medic.
It said a lot about how exhausted Sakura was that she had fallen asleep within a few minutes of leaning up against the wall. And watching her work on Juugo, Suigetsu would never have guessed she'd felt the slightest bit tired.
"Should we move her?" Juugo asked tentatively. "She doesn't look comfortable..."
"Yeah, but we better be careful. Princess is a ninja, remember? We don't want to startle her awake and get our heads taken off."
In the end, they decided against moving Sakura to a horizontal position (something told Suigetsu she wouldn't remain unconscious for that big of a shift in her environment) so he and Juugo slowly, carefully, edged her a foot or so along the wall and into the corner.
Sakura stirred as her head came to rest in the small cradle provided by the juncture of the two walls, just as Juugo was carefully shifting her legs into place.
"If you're groping me, Naruto, I'll break your arm," she threatened sleepily, her brief moment of coherency only registering blonde hair in front of her and hands moving her legs.
"You know, Princess, some guys might consider that a price they'd be willing to pay," Suigetsu drawled, but she had drifted into sleep again.
Juugo regarded her for a moment, as though he was a photographer trying for a perfect shot.
"Not finished with your masterpiece?" Suigetsu snarked.
Juugo ignored him, pulling a blanket from the closet and draping it over Sakura, tucking it around her to ensure she'd be warm.
Only then did he resume his seat by the window with the birds.
-xxx-
Naruto darted through the trees, finally bursting into a tiny clearing several feet ahead of Hinata and Yamato...to find the others standing grouped around a body. A very familiar body.
Naruto gaped as he recognised Deidara of the Akatsuki, his body cracked and flaking as though he was made of clay...and with several senbon driven through his neck.
"What happened here?" he demanded.
"Looks like everyone else noticed the flash as well," Yamato commented as he drew alongside the blonde.
"Sasuke and Sakura were right here until a moment ago – we tracked their scents," one of Kakashi's summons piped up.
"There are still traces of them left...along with several others," Kiba said, sniffing deeply.
"So...does that mean Sakura's around here somewhere?" Naruto asked desperately.
"Well, the mingling of other scents suggests that Sasuke has other companions besides Sakura," Kakashi said. "We'd follow the trail farther...but it ends here."
"Here?" Naruto glanced wildly around at the trees, as if expecting Sasuke and Sakura to step out from behind one of them at any moment.
"So it's likely a teleportation jutsu was used," Yamato mused. "There are some signs of a battle," he glanced around at the broken branches and scraped bark on some of the trees, "but seeing as there are no other bodies besides Deidara's, that seems to suggest that Sasuke and Sakura survived the encounter. In fact, the evidence suggests that the killing blow was dealt by Sakura."
Naruto glanced down at the body.
"Senbon," Yamato explained. "Targeted to very precise points...points a medic would know well."
Naruto nodded absently. At least it seemed that Sasuke and Sakura were alright.
He knew Tsunade, Sai and even Kakashi seemed to think there was something to those rumours about Sasuke raping Sakura, but Naruto refused to believe it. He couldn't – Sasuke was still Sasuke, deep down, which meant he wouldn't do anything like that, especially to Sakura.
"I've got their scent!" Kiba suddenly declared.
Everyone turned to him.
"Nowadays, my nose is even better than a hound's," he grinned. "I've found Sasuke and Sakura."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, impressed in spite of himself.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Naruto said. "Lead the way!"
"Wait!" Yamato barked. "What about the body?"
Kakashi considered it. It was true that many things could be learned by examining a ninja's corpse, but they had been sent on a rescue mission, not to gather intelligence. And if they took Deidara's body with them, they would surely be subjected to Akatsuki attacks as the organisation tried to claim the corpse so they could destroy it.
"We leave it here," he ordered. "Sakura is our priority."
-xxx-
"Do you think she's alright?" Juugo asked, his eyes on Sakura, still dozing against the wall. "She's been sleeping for a while...
"I'm sure Princess is fine," Suigetsu said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Just kinda beat. Sasuke hasn't woken up yet either."
The Uchiha was still dead to the world as well, slumbering peacefully in his futon.
Until the door was kicked in by Karin. "Sasuke, wake up – we're being followed!"
Sakura jerked out of her sleep with a loud, inelegant snort, and Sasuke blinked awake.
"Who's following us?" Sakura asked, putting aside her confusion about how she'd ended up in the corner with a blanket over her. "Akatsuki?"
"We leave now," Sasuke ordered, his voice firm as he rose. "Get everything ready. Juugo, grab the map and mark the location of every Akatsuki hideout you learned about."
"Who's following us?" Sakura repeated.
Sasuke glanced at Karin, his eyes ordering her to answer.
"It's either Akatsuki or Leaf ninja," she said at last.
"Leaf ninja..." A small, incredulous joy began to build behind Sakura's ribs. "Then you can let me go!"
Sasuke turned to her. "What was that?"
"You can let me go!" she insisted.
"No, I can't!" he said shortly. "We cannot be sure if they are Akatsuki or Leaf."
Karin, apparently seeing an opportunity to get rid of the other female member of Hebi, chimed in with, "There were several of them...and one of them was a dog, if that makes a difference."
"That has to be the others from Konoha!" Sakura exclaimed. "If there's a dog, that means Kiba and Akamaru are with them. Or Kakashi with one of his summons."
Sasuke was silent.
"Come on – if you just let me stay here, they'll catch up...and I can go with them."
Sasuke knew that this was presenting a perfect solution to his dilemma, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to grasp it. He had become accustomed to Sakura's presence...he even liked it.
And he couldn't forget the picture she'd made when they were sheltering in Manda's mouth, lit by the faint glow of her own chakra as she healed him, her eyes large and dark when she looked up at him, lips slightly parted...
Having Sakura around upset the careful balance within himself he had built over the years. Her presence, her laughter, her warmth...they all threatened his goal because everything she did only drew his mind from killing Itachi, made him wish he was someone else, anyone else. Someone who didn't have a near-impossible obstacle in his path, one that would likely take his life.
Sakura made him wish for a future...with her.
And if he let her go it would all be over. He could return to what he was, focusing on Itachi's destruction to the exclusion of all else...
But what if he didn't want to let her go? What if he'd come to like this?
"We cannot be sure," he repeated. "You will remain with me."
Suigetsu didn't think it was accidental that Sasuke had said 'me' instead of 'us'.
"But she can't do anything," Karin argued. "Her healing is mediocre at best-"
"Enough!" Sasuke snarled. "We leave now...Sakura as well."
Sakura stared at him, feeling her chest constrict with pain. After his confession as to his reason for taking her with him, and that episode inside Manda, she had thought they were growing a little closer. That maybe he respected her enough to trust that she could take care of herself, even with the collar on.
But apparently, that wasn't the case. And now she felt foolish for even considering the possibility that Sasuke might see her as anything more than a weak tag-along.
She turned away, gritting her teeth against the threatening sting of tears. She'd cried enough over Sasuke.
She had returned to help him during his battle with Deidara, yes, but that was different. She hadn't known if he was injured or not, he had been in need of help...but now, he was on his feet again, and perfectly capable of getting along fine without her. For god's sake, now that he knew how difficult it was to take down an Akatsuki, she would have thought he'd understand just how strong she'd become!
But apparently not. And the disappointment was almost more than she could bear.
Juugo moved to her side, resting one huge hand on her shoulder in sympathy. Sakura grasped his hand in her own, smiling gratefully up at him, and something hard and cold lodged in Sasuke's gut. Juugo lifted his eyes to Sasuke, and the Uchiha found himself tensing automatically. Juugo was very fond of Sakura...it was entirely possible he might forgo his previous friendship with Kimimaro and actually attack the Sharingan-user if he thought he was causing her distress.
But the moment dragged on without any action being taken, and at last Juugo bent to Sakura again. "You should be cautious, Sakura. If there is truly no way to tell who is pursuing us..."
"Yeah," the medic sighed, but Sasuke could tell that she was only affecting agreement so she wouldn't hurt Juugo's feelings.
"You seem pretty much recovered," Suigetsu remarked to Sasuke as they left the room, the Uchiha donning his black cloak as they went.
Sasuke nodded. "It seems absorbing Orochimaru increased my healing powers exponentially."
Of course, Sakura's healing had helped.
The medic trailed out behind them with Juugo at her shoulder, struggling not to show how depressed she truly felt. For a moment or two, she considered flatly refusing to go anywhere, but she didn't want to push Sasuke too far. He had once threatened to knock her out to bring her along with him, and seeing as he seemed to have scrapped whatever tentative connection they'd been building lately, she didn't think he'd hesitate to do so. As long as she remained conscious...there was a chance she could escape.
And seeing as her friends were nearby, she didn't even have to evade Hebi all the way Konoha – just long enough for her to find her friends.
"For now, we'll follow up on what Juugo learned," Sasuke was saying. "We'll head to various Akatsuki hideouts."
The others nodded, except Sakura, and they stepped forward. Karin's hand shot out, seizing Juugo's shoulder and bringing the larger man to a halt.
"Do you think you could get a few of your birds to help me out?" she asked in a low voice.
"With what?"
"I have the shirt that Sasuke was wearing," she said, brandishing the white cloth soaked in sweat and blood.
"Why do you have Sasuke's torn up clothes?" the blonde asked, nothing but bland curiosity in his tone.
"Never mind why!" she hissed. "Leaf ninja tend to make good use of tracking dogs – we can use this to throw them off the scent...except I don't have something with Sakura's scent on it."
"You want me to ask her for something that has her scent on it?" Juugo queried, sounding as though he was getting angry.
"We need to throw them off our scent," Karin wheedled. "After all, we assume it's Leaf ninja, but we don't know for sure, do we? It could be Akatsuki, after Sasuke and Sakura because they were involved in the death of one of their members. You don't want Akatsuki following Sakura, do you?"
Juugo frowned, appearing to debate the matter over in his mind. Then, his decision obviously reached, he stepped up his pace, catching up with the others in front of them. He spoke with Sakura – though Karin couldn't hear what they were saying, she could see Juugo's lips moving. Sakura gave a small, sad smile and shrugged the small pack she was carrying from her back, passing it to Juugo without a qualm.
Juugo then slowly dropped back until he was level with Karin again.
"What did you do?" she asked.
Juugo was looking a little guilty. "I just said she was looking tired, so if she wanted, I could carry her pack for her."
'Stupid Leaf,' Karin thought scornfully. 'Far too trusting...'
Juugo unfastened Sakura's pack, drawing out a small bundle of dusty, sweat-streaked clothes. The clothes Sakura had been wearing earlier that day, before she swapped them for the clean set she was wearing now.
"Bingo," Karin smirked, taking a kunai and beginning to shred the articles of clothing.
"Should we divide up our scents as well?" Juugo asked as he called a small flock of birds to him.
"I don't think so," Karin said, tying two pieces of cloth – one from Sasuke's shirt and the other from Sakura's – around one of the bird's feet. "If it's Leaf tracking us, they'll only have the scents of Sasuke and Sakura. And if it's the Akatsuki, the same applies – after all, they are the only two among us who've had any contact with the Akatsuki, so they're the only ones they're interested in."
-xxx-
"We've got a problem!" Kiba called. "Sasuke's and Sakura's scents are on the move...and they just scattered in all directions."
"They must have come up with a plan to throw us off the trail," Kakashi commented.
"But how c-could they have known we w-were on their trail in the f-first place?" Hinata asked.
"My guess would be Sasuke's team includes a shinobi who is extremely talented at sensing chakra," the silver-haired man replied.
"Then let's search all directions at once!" Naruto proclaimed, his hands flying into the seals of his signature technique.
The next instant, the forest was suddenly thick with Naruto's doppelgangers, each one running off in a different direction.
One of them was sure to intercept his missing teammates.
-xxx-
Sakura was quiet, and Sasuke told himself he wasn't bothered by it. Hebi had stopped in a small clearing, close to where one of the Akatsuki bases was said to be.
And Sakura had yet to speak to him. She hadn't even glanced in his direction. If she had been furious, he could have brushed it off and simply waited for her to cool down. If she had tried to escape, he could have stopped her.
But this...this aura of soft depression – as though she were deeply hurt but trying not to give into it – was something he simply didn't know how to deal with. He didn't want her miserable.
They'd traveled like this for barely forty-five minutes, and already Sasuke was feeling a desperate need to somehow make things better.
He wanted to see her smile again, really smile, even if it was only at Juugo and Suigetsu. He wanted see that fiery spirit of hers again, even if it was only glimpsed in flashes when she snarled at him.
Her attacks he had been able to counter. Her biting remarks he had largely ignored. Sakura's anger...he had been able to deal with.
But this...this quiet sadness was forcing him to realise how much he was truly hurting Sakura by denying her freedom.
But what could he do?
'You know what you can do...' came the soft whisper in the back of his mind. 'You can let her go. There are no more excuses you can make – you know it is Leaf behind you, not Akatsuki. Sakura isn't here so you can protect her – she is here because you want her here! But you never stopped to consider what she wanted.'
"Sakura, come with me," Sasuke ordered. "The rest of you – stay here."
Sakura clenched her jaw and obeyed, determined to act as though Sasuke was nothing but her jailer. From this moment on, she would owe him no loyalty, no feeling – nothing!
She had been smothering her sorrow for so long, choosing instead to focus on her anger, that when this blow was dealt she had found herself practically swept away in a sudden onslaught of depression. She was sure she had worried Juugo (and probably Suigetsu as well) with her despondent behaviour, but she had been struggling to deal with the death of the hope that maybe, just maybe, Sasuke really could be dragged out of the dark hole he had fallen into.
If he had let her go...it would have proved that the Sasuke she once knew wasn't completely gone.
But he hadn't. Sakura sighed, then shook her head firmly, telling herself to grow up and get out of this slump. Sure, it hurt, but she just had to get over it and pull herself back up.
After all, she'd dealt with Sasuke's abandonment, hadn't she? She could certainly deal with this.
Sasuke, for his part, was wrestling with his very personal revelation. It was rather stunning to realise that he hadn't brought Sakura along with him because he was concerned about her safety – he'd brought along because he didn't want to part with her again. He wanted her with him, so he took her.
With no regard for her feelings on the matter whatsoever.
He was starting to realise that when he came to Sakura, he had been selfish for his entire life. Frighteningly little of his interaction with her had been done with her feelings paramount in his mind. It had all been about him; it had always been about him.
He'd always been selfish with Sakura...so he would be generous this time. She wanted her freedom, and even though he didn't want to see her go...he would give it to her.
They found the cave that served as the entrance to the Akatsuki base, and Sasuke walked in a little way, turning down one of the tunnels. Just enough to be hidden from the outside world, but not far enough to be in the hideout proper.
"What's going on?" Sakura asked quietly when he turned to face her.
The dim light of the cave threw Sasuke's mind back to when they'd hidden in Manda...and that moment when he'd considered kissing her.
If he was going to let her go...couldn't he be selfish one more time?
He approached her slowly until he was barely an inch away from her.
Anyone else would have been intimidated by his advance, uncomfortable with his proximity...but even now, after all he had done to her, Sakura's eyes showed nothing but mild puzzlement at his actions.
Even now, she wasn't truly afraid of him. Sasuke took some comfort in that.
Sakura stared up at Sasuke, unable to decipher his motives for doing...whatever he was doing. If he expected to frighten her into cooperation (explaining why he'd left Juugo and Suigetsu behind) then he was going to be sadly disappointed.
But he was making no move to intimidate her. On the contrary, the hand that traced the side of her face before falling away again brought back memories of their stolen moment within Manda's mouth.
'What's he trying to do?' she wondered.
But then he stepped forward, closing the last particle of distance between their faces as he dropped his head and kissed her.
To say Sakura was surprised would be a gross understatement. Her whole body froze, her green eyes staring blindly at Sasuke's closed lids.
Part of Sakura's mind (the part that was still functioning) could admit that when she had thought of Sasuke kissing her – which had happened more often that she liked to admit since she had healed him – she had imagined he would probably be forceful, maybe even a bit rough. It would have made sense for Sasuke to approach a kiss like it was some form of combat.
But instead, he was achingly gentle. His mouth rested only lightly against hers, and he made no move to deepen the kiss. He made no attempt to hold her in the kiss, either – their lips were their only point of contact, his arms hanging limp at his sides – Sakura's arms weren't moving either, but that was mainly out of shock.
He stepped back before she could respond, his eyes opening once more. And it might have Sakura's imagination, but she could have sworn he looked...sad.
"You're free to go," Sasuke said quietly, looking away from her.
Sakura gaped at him, certain she'd misheard. "What?"
"You're free to go," he repeated, sounding as though the words pained him.
He looked like he would have said something more, but he suddenly tensed, slowly turning around.
Sakura guessed that he'd sensed something.
"Is there someone there?" she asked, all business. She was a kunoichi, after all – strange kisses out of nowhere from childhood crushes you never really stopped loving could be pushed aside in favour of focusing on immediate threats.
Sasuke didn't answer, staring into the dim cave. "Who's there?"
A dark figure moved, lifting its head...and revealing Sharingan eyes.
"Hello, Sasuke."
Itachi was standing in front of them.
Sakura sucked in her breath in a stunned gasp, and beside her, she saw Sasuke become so tense it was a wonder his bones didn't snap beneath the force his muscles were exerting.
"You're not going to rush in screaming at me like last time?" Itachi commented.
Sasuke smirked, cold fury in every line of his face. "You don't know a thing about me."
Once again, the younger Uchiha moved too fast for Sakura to track. In the space of a moment, he was behind Itachi, piercing the elder with his lightning blade, using the solid electricity to cleave into Itachi's vital points.
Blood splattered the floor of the cave as Itachi's body fell to the earth.
Yet Sakura was still on edge. It couldn't possibly be that easy...
"You have become strong," Itachi murmured, his voice low but perfectly audible within the cave.
And then he dissolved, becoming a flock of crows.
"Doppelganger," Sakura whispered. Did that mean Itachi was close by?
Sasuke seemed to think so – he was starting to move deeper into the cave. Sakura made to follow him...when she suddenly felt her right wrist seized and twisted up across her body, forcing her against a hard, lean chest. The razor edge of a kunai pricked the skin of her throat, resting so close to the jugular vein she could feel each beat of her pulse push her skin against the blade.
She wrapped her left hand around the arm that held the weapon, automatically trying to tug it away from her neck even as she drew breath to scream...
"One move, one sound...and I will kill you," came Itachi's voice, right next to her ear.
Sakura froze.
Itachi didn't like what he was about do...but it was necessary. Sakura had a strange hold on Sasuke – if the kunoichi remained with his brother, Itachi was certain everything would go as it was meant to. At first, he had resented the extra variables she brought into his plan, but now he was certain that Sakura had to remain with Sasuke at all costs.
He had intended to just deliver his challenge to Sasuke and leave, but when he realised that his brother was preparing to farewell the girl...he knew he had to step in.
What he had planned now would not only ensure Sakura was with Sasuke when he killed him, but would also serve to increase his brother's thirst for his blood.
"Sasuke," he called quietly.
Sasuke spun around, and if Itachi had any doubts as to his brother's feelings for Sakura after the kiss they'd shared, they were wiped away in the emotions that flooded Sasuke's eyes when he saw her held hostage.
It was only for a moment, just a moment before his usual mask of anger and hatred slid back into place...but that moment had been enough. The depth of horror and blind panic in Sasuke's eyes in that instant spoke quite eloquently of just how much he valued the pink-haired medic.
"If you move, she dies," Itachi said quietly.
Something in Sasuke had frozen the moment he had turned around to see Sakura in Itachi's grasp, a kunai held against her neck. He clenched his fists against the urge to fly to her aid, not wanting to provoke Itachi into carrying out his threat.
Blood squelched up between his fingers, but Sasuke was oblivious to the pain. All his attention, all his focus, went to the two figures in front of him.
The curse seal pulsed – it often responded to anger and hatred, especially in the intensity Sasuke was feeling them now – and began to ripple across his body. Sasuke grit his teeth and attempted to push it back, but his normally flawless control of the seal was wavering, his usual iron restraint under attack by something primal and violent that screamed for him to tear Itachi apart and get Sakura back right now!
"Sasuke..."
Sakura's voice reached his ears – soft and concerned, with the slightest sour tinge of fear – and Sasuke clung to it, staring into gentle green eyes as though they could anchor him to sanity.
And miraculously, they did.
As it had done once before, so many years ago in the Forest of Death, the seal's hold on him ebbed beneath her gaze, shrinking back to its quiescent state, her simple plea restoring him to himself so quickly it was shocking.
Itachi watched the writhing curse marks retract, as though repelled by the sound of Sakura's voice, and something in him marveled.
He had watched the spread of the seal, wondering if Sasuke would force the confrontation and rush him beneath its corrupting influence. He had been preparing for just such an event...and then Sakura had spoken his brother's name, and the marks had slid away as though obeying some silent command.
Interesting...
But he couldn't focus on that now.
"Come alone to the Uchiha hideout," Itachi instructed. "We will settle things there."
Sasuke slowly nodded. He'd never imagined Itachi might issue a challenge to him – in all the scenarios he'd accounted for, it had always been him tracking down Itachi and forcing the confrontation.
"And it would probably be better for Sakura if you hurry."
'What?'
Then both Itachi and Sakura vanished in a cloud of black feathers.
"NO!" The shout was torn from Sasuke's throat. He rushed forward, reaching futilely for where Sakura had been, but his hand ended up hitting the unyielding cave wall.
For a moment, Sasuke was frozen, staring at the empty space that had so recently been occupied by a pink-haired woman, not wanting to believe what every one of his senses were telling him.
Itachi had taken Sakura.
Something hard and sharp and hot rose in his throat like bile. He was somehow more furious than he thought he'd ever been in his life and at the same time, almost nauseous with horror at what had just happened.
Itachi had taken Sakura.
-xxx-
"Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Kahlil Gibran
-xxx-
AN: Thanks to justcallmefaye for beta-ing, as always!