Ah, I've reached the hyphenated numbers. My story has gotten quite long. I may or may not regret the length of this story. I may or may not regret promising to finish it. I may or may not regret making this story an AU which can make this story go on and on…

Well…I do this for you. Enjoy!

An extra note: Friends, as this chapter and the next comes out, I want you to know that all of my knowledge about bank robberies comes from the media. Fortunately, I have never been a part of one, and I have never looked into planning one either.

I hope though, that this seems as realistic as possible—and for those of you that may have had traumatic experiences similar to this, I apologize if I am making light of the situation by using it as part of my plot. In no way do I want to trivialize experiences like these—and also of the other situations I've used in the past, including the military and kidnapping.

Chapter Twenty-One:

do you know who I am?

Sakura had never been this scared to write a check out before in her life.

Hunched over one of the standup counters to the side of the bank, she gripped her pen so tightly that she could see the whites of her knuckles. If anyone was actually looking at her, they would know that she wouldn't be able to write out a check with that much tension in her hand, but it wasn't like she was trying to get anyone's attention anyway.

She leaned a bit forward over her check, letting her head's shadow block off the main space that she was writing on. She saw strands of her bronze-colored hair touch the surface of the glass table, reminding herself that she had dyed her hair the other day in order to keep their actions as conspicuous as possible.

After all, if Sasuke truly was going to be here, she wouldn't want him noticing her by her pink hair.

This was the second time that Sai, Naruto, and she were carrying out their "capture Sasuke" plan, which they were going to keep repeating until the end of the week or until he came around. Tenzou had predicted that Sasuke was going to come to this location at some point this week, and the three of them had to be prepared.

Sakura went over the instructions in her head again.

"You're going to be crucial in this plan," Sai said. "Can you do this?"

Yes, she had told him the day that they rehearsed the plan. Yes, I'm doing this for you and for Naruto.

A small part of her was hoping that Sasuke wasn't going to come rob the bank today—just like how he hadn't the day before. And maybe—just maybe—he would never come here at all and not rob anything this week. There was a miniscule part of her that hoped that the conclusions that Tenzou had made were wrong. Even though she knew that Sai's trust and judgment of Tenzou relied on Sasuke showing up here, she ultimately felt ill-prepared to follow through the plan when she saw him—despite how many times she went over the procedure.

It's okay, just focus, Sakura, she told herself. And she made up a fake amount to write, slowly adding zeros and commas to the cash value portion of the check.

Agonizingly slowly, she wrote out the word value of the number that she had randomly inscribed. She wrote out the addressee: Ichiraku Ramen Shop—the only thing that seemed to come to mind to her at the time—and then slowly signed her name.

She looked up. Everything seemed to be in normal business.

Sakura took a deep breath of relief. She looked at the fake check for a moment, before ripping it out and then shredding it into six squares. She took her time to take the pieces to the trash can before returning to the same counter and writing it out again.

One more time, she told herself.

At this point, she didn't know whether she was hoping that Sasuke would just waltz in and she could go through with the rest of the plan and stop writing checks out, or if she was hoping that he wouldn't come at all today and she wouldn't have to deal with him.

5,000. Five thousand dollars only. Ichiraku Ramen Shop. Sakura Haruno.

She looked up again. Nothing, again.

One more time, she told herself, as she ripped out another check, shredded that, slowly took it to the trash and started again.

2,475.33. Two thousand four hundred seventy-five dollars and thirty-three cents.

Sakura looked up and surveyed the bank. Nothing.

Ichiraku Ramen Shop. Sakura Har—

Then, a scream.

Sakura ducked her head under the counter and looked around, trying to make sense of the situation. This was the moment that she was waiting for—this was her time to act.

Three shots were fired. Then, the lights in the entire building went off, and the doors locked—keeping everyone inside. Where was he? Where was Sasuke?

"I see the police and I'll kill at least three of you!" an all-too familiar voice yelled.

Sasuke?! She followed the sound of the voice to the far left corner of the bank, and her eyes stopped when she saw—

Him.

He was practically no different since the last time that she had seen him. Maybe he had longer and seemingly darker hair, but his face was all the same—he still had his fair complexion, sharp jawline, thin well-defined eyebrows, and he still carried himself tall and proud. He walked toward the center of the bank's public space and with the large gun that he carried on his shoulder, he shot up at the ceiling twice. Shards of glass rained down on him and onto the tile floor, and he gave the retreating customers and bank employees a malicious smile, knowing that he was in complete power—just like every single other time he had committed these crimes.

He looked maniacal.

Sakura looked to the right—trying to find a batch of moving people that were heading behind him. She walked on all fours, making her way to a safer place, and huddled by the other people, who were whimpering or pale in terror.

"It's him. It's him," she heard someone whisper.

"Please hear my prayers."

"My kids are still in the car outside!"

Sakura closed her eyes and blocked out everyone else's worries. This was terrible. And he was terrible for doing this. Even though he was standing right in front of her in all his glory, she still could not believe that her childhood friend was the criminal causing everyone in the bank pain and suffering, and she still could not believe how far their lives had taken them in the last two years.

"Shut up!" her childhood-friend-turned-enemy yelled. "One word, and I'll blow your face off."

Sakura took a deep breath. She gathered up all the strength that she had and then stood up, drawing a gun out of her hand. "You shut the fuck up," she said, aiming straight at Sasuke. The people around her let out a whimper and retreated away from her as well.

She started walking closer to him.

Sasuke turned around, sneering at her. "Are you volunteering to set an example?" His onyx eyes settled right into her eyes, and she wondered if he recognized her at all. If he did recognizer her, he wasn't showing it at all.

Sakura took the safety off her gun. "I'll kill you," she said quietly.

Woah, she thought. Where did that come from?

"Oh yeah?" Sasuke said, now fully swiveling his body in her direction. He raised a gun to her head. "Well I'll kill you first."

She was a deer in headlights. Everything was a cold sweat. She couldn't think anymore beyond realizing how shaky her gun was in her hands, and how malicious his smile was when recognizing how scared she was. What was she thinking? Was she actually going to be a martyr for this cause? Was the plan going to work out? She couldn't stand down now—she had gotten so far and so many people were relying on her courage.

This was for Naruto, for Sai. She couldn't let them down for this ghost of a person that has only haunted her nightmares and this ghost of a person that has left her waiting by the phone for a return call back.

"Put your fucking gun down, you shitface," Sai said, taking his place behind Sasuke and gripping him around the neck.

Sakura was relieved, but she still hadn't recovered from her shock of facing a barrel of a gun.

The plan was all working out. All she had to do was follow the plan.

Sai wrestled Sasuke down to the ground.

Sakura quickly whipped out her phone, ready to dial Naruto, but then right before her eyes, the impossible happened.

As Sai reached down to get Sasuke down to the floor, pushing his neck forward, Sasuke's head seemed to shed—and underneath it, she realized that they had gotten it all wrong from the start.

This wasn't Sasuke, she realized. That was someone disguised as him.

The mask fell completely off, and the person hiding underneath the disguise smirked, taking advantage of Sai's surprise and reversing the power situations that the two of them were in.

Sakura gasped. This wasn't expected—of all the things they planned for, they did not expect Sasuke to make someone else play him.

She turned around, reverting to one of the back-up plan proceedings.

And that was when she met Sasuke in the eye.

And this time, his onyx eyes recognized exactly who she was.

Whatcha think? :3

thir13enth