Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 25

Sorry for this late update…been spending most of my time writing smutty ereri…XD

It was a few days after Sakura's little collapse did she finally make a full recovery. Much to Sasuke's annoyance, she started her work at the hospital immediately after.

Shuffling though the pile up of paper on her desk, Sakura frowned. She was out for not even a week and her desk was freaking overflowing with files and unsigned paperwork. Groaning she ran a hand through her hair, maybe she should take Tsunade's advice and get an assistant. Heaving another folder from the towering stack, she twirled the pen in her hand as she read though the files.

Knock, Knock

Sakura looked up from the file and gave a small 'come in.' The oak door of her small office opened and a tall raven haired male with striking purple eyes walked in.

"Sakura-san."

The said girl studied the male in front of her. He was a year older than her, with a pretty good track record. From his file it's said that he's a diligent worker, who's eager to learn. Sakura's brows raised. He would make a great assistant.

"Yoshida Takaya-san, am I right?" Sakura commented as she folded her hands under her chin in a very Sasuke-like manner.

The male straightened and gave a quick nod. His messy hair flopped back and forth.

"Do you need something?"

"Masuda-san wanted me to give these files to you." Takaya said as he handed two new large folders towards Sakura. Taking the folders she unceremoniously onto her growing pile. God she really needed an assistant.

"Takaya what position do you currently have in this hospital?"

The said boy seemed a bit off put by the question. "Um...I'm an assistant to one of the nurses."

"Do you want a raise?" Sakura asked, a smile appeared on her face. It probably look a bit maniacal but she was too tired to care.

"W-what?"

"I need an assistant." Sakura bluntly replied as she pointed to the mass of papers around her. "I have to much work."

A small frown dawned on Takaya's face. "So you want me to do your paper work?"

"Not quite, you will also be sitting in on all my medical emergencies." Sakura stared at the boy. "So you want the job?"

The boy looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. "I'm sure you're a better boss than Masuda-san."

Tsunade was enraged. This was one of the very few times where she was this infuriated. In her anger she had already destroyed two training fields, and flung her chair out of her office window. With trembling hands she held the small report as she read though it again. A few days ago, she had sent a surveying team of skilled ANBUs to Konoha's sister villages for the monthly update and all the reports came back perfect and then came the report on the Tea country. Her honey colored orbs scanned the report for the tenths time today and few words popped out at her. Village massacred. No survivors. Homes destroyed. Blood ridden town. Sound hitai-ate found on site.

Slamming her hand on her desk she let out an audible growl. Orochimaru was picking a fight with Konoha. She always knew that man was no good. From their genin days she always felt a negative aura surrounding him. He was always quiet, kept to himself, and distant. During their first kill mission while her and Jiraiya could barely stomach taking a life with their bare hands, Orochimaru seemed to relish it. He seemed to enjoy watching the life leave another's eyes, their blood running down his hands and their bodies fell like a sack of potatoes to the ground.

This was the last straw for Tsunade. She could deal with his ruthlessness, or his request for her to heal his arms, but to incinerate a whole village that was the tipping point for her. She was going to end his reign of tyranny once and for all, and she has the perfect team in mind for the job.

"SHIZUNE, GET TEAM 7."

Her brunette assistant jolted in shock at Tsunade's loud voice, before quickly placing down Tonton and running out of the office, the door slammed behind her.

Tsunade stared down at the curious looking pink pig, who gave a small oink in response. She was going to end Orochimaru.

"So what kind of person is Uchiha Itachi-san?" Takaya asked as he carried an arm full of paper hastily tagging after his new boss.

They turned another corner.

"He's much more talkative and politer than Uchiha Sasuke." Sakura said after moment of consideration.

Takaya remained silent as he took in the information. All his life he had this image of Uchiha Itachi as this ruthless, coldhearted person who would kill you in a blink of an eye, yet Sakura's description of him made him seemed so...human.

The silencing of the clacking sound from Sakura's heels broke him out of his thoughts. Turning his head to the side he stared at the white sliding doors of Itachi's room. Jitters filled his stomach. He was going to meet the infamous Uchiha Itachi for the first time.

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"Hello, Itachi-san." Sakura chirped as she entered the room. Takaya quickly following in after her and gently shutting the door behind him. His purple eyes immediately fell onto Itachi. A cold feeling spread through his body. No matter how he looked at this man, he could feel the dangerous aura pulsing around him. Subconsciously he grabbed onto the end of the sakura's sleeve.

"How are you feeling today?" Sakura asked not minding the extra weight latched onto her lab coat.

"Better. The headaches have stopped." Itachi replied. Takaya gave a small shudder. His voice sounded so hollow. Nervously he stared at Sakura to see if she took notice of the voice, yet the girl in front of him simply smiled.

"That's great!" Sakura started to walk towards him. Takaya had half a mind to pull her back, but instead he choose to silently tag after her. Unaware of the irate stare he was getting from Sasuke.

He and Sakura stopped near the edge of the bed. "Let me check your eyes." Sakura said as she unearthed a small flashlight from her pocket and shone it into Itachi's eyes. Takaya stiffened. He knew Sakura was an accomplished jounin and medic but to so casually touch Uchiha Itachi's face without any signs of fear? It shocked him.

"Don't you think you should let go of her and let her properly do her job."

Three heads turned to the new voice. Itachi held an amused expression, while Takaya once again felt his insides turn to ice. He never had many encounters with Sasuke, but from gossip he gathered that he was as cold and ruthless as ninjas can be and from this encounter Takaya can certainly understand where the bases for those gossips came from. When Sasuke had spoken, his voice was so cold and calculating that it almost made Takaya want to high tail out of the room. Immediately he dropped his hold on Sakura's sleeve and took two steps back.

"S-sorry" He gave a small mutter.

"It's fine Takaya." Sakura gave a smile at her new assistant. "The Uchihas are very intimidating people aren't they?"

Sasuke gave an indignant snort, while Takaya chocked on his own spit. Even though he knew Sakura was Sasuke's teammate he never heard of anyone talk about the Uchihas in such a manner and not get a world of hurt rained down upon them.

"But they're harmless people." Sakura continued ignoring the silent pleas of Takaya. "In fact they can be very sweet at times."

Takaya remained speechless, as he watched Sakura turned back to casually making conversation with Itachi as if he was any other patient and having harmless banters with Sasuke. It was at this moment where he really looked up to Sakura.

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"When should I be able to use my sharingan again?" Itachi asked once Sakura was finished with his eyes and was flipping through his chart.

Hearing his question Sakura looked up from the chart and gave a stern glare at him. "Itachi-san you almost died from overuse of the sharingan and you still want to use it?" Itachi opened his mouth to retort back before Sasuke cut him off.

"Are you saying my brother can never use his sharingan ever again?"

Sighing Sakura rubbed her aching temples and turned to Sasuke. "No, I'm saying that your brother can stop thinking about using his sharingan for at least a good few months to let his eyes heals and to stop the black liquid from reproducing." Pausing in the middle of her speech she turned her attention back to Itachi. "That's why as a precaution I'm not having your chakra unsealed in case you do by accident use your blood line. So please bare with this for a few months."

Itachi didn't really want to live for a few month being chakra less. It made him feel vulnerable and he didn't like it. However, finally seeing the more at ease expression on Sasuke's face and how Sakura went to absolute chakra exhaustion to save him, he could only reluctantly agree. After all he was always a grateful man, as his mother had once commented.

'Tap, tap'

Four pairs of eyes turned towards the window, where a brown messenger bird sat. His black beady eyes stared into the room. Sakura's eyes narrowed when she recognized the bird. It was a specialized bird that the Hokage used to call jounin's in for missions.

"Sasuke-kun, Tsunade-sama needs us." Sakura said as she took off her lab coat and handed it over to Takaya, while Sasuke pushed himself up from the chair and swiftly followed after Sakura.

"Takaya just sign the chart and you're done." Sakura ordered as she was half way out the door.

Takaya gave a quick nod before running over to the bed and grabbing the chart, trying his best to swallow his own fear.

Before exiting the room Sasuke stopped and turned to look at his brother. "Ittekimasu." He saw a ghost of a smile crawl onto Itachi's face.

"Itterashai"

By the time they arrived at the office Naruto was already there with an angry expression on his face while beside him was a familiar raven haired man with the same clueless look that Sakura remembered.

"Good you're all here." Tsunade spoke her voice clipped and hard. "Orochimaru and Sound had just recently wiped out one of our closest neighbors; the tea village. He completely massacred that place." Tsunade's voice now a low growl. " I want you for to take him out. Sai will be the leader, since Kakashi's out." With that said Tsunade tossed the mission scroll towards the short raven haired man.

"Let's go." Sai said to his team as he gave them one of his fake smiles.

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Heading out towards Orochimaru's base which one of the nindogs sniffed out, tension ran high in the team. While Sakura was glad to see Sai again, his presence was making her team very agitated. His constant insults thrown at Naruto and Sasuke was making both males highly irritable.

"I see you're still a dickless wonder, and you're still a jackass."

"SHUT UP, SAI!" Naruto screamed at the man who just simply smiled. Growling in frustration Naruto picked up his speed wanting to get as far away as possible from this man. Smiling Sai also picked up his pace.

"Don't go so fast, you'll get lost dickless."

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While those two were having a racing war, Sakura and Sasuke continued in the back with their normal pace. Sakura shook her head disappointedly at the two immature males in front. Somethings never change do they?

Sasuke's gaze trailed to Sakura as his eyes studied the amused look on her face as she continued to stare at the dobe and the painter. His gaze slowly lowered his gaze down until it rested on the black inky mark on her pale neck. He clenched his teeth, as his thoughts trailed back to his time at Orochimaru's and how that man had the ability to activate the curse seal and deliver mind numbing pain to the host. He didn't want to see Sakura, his precious comrade, go through that kind of pain. If he could barely handle it how was she going to, not to mention she did say that using the curse seal releases a toxin within her and that just made disgust roll in his stomach.

"Sakura don't engage in this battle, Orochimaru can activate the curse mark."

Turning her attention from her other two teammates she looked at Sasuke and gingerly touched the mark. She knew the dangers of facing Orochimaru, but she also knew that facing Orochimaru was the only way to get rid of this curse. "Killing him, means this mark will disappear doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"Than even if he activates this mark, I will fight alongside my team to take him down."

Sasuke gave her a disapproving look but remained silent.

"Here." The team stopped in the middle of a vast clearing.

Naruto squinted his eyes as he looked around. He didn't see any evil lairs so where exactly was 'here' "Uh...where?"

"There." Sai replied as he pointed towards a rather normal looking cliff.

"Orochimaru is hiding inside the rocks?" Naruto was even more confused than before.

"There a base inside the cliff, dickless."

The blond frowned at the nickname, but didn't bother to retort back.

"How should we enter?" Sakura asked as she pulled her black fighting gloves from her pouch and quickly slid them on.

However before Sai could answer and tell them him entrance strategy a loud explosion came from the rocky cliff. The team took a leap back, as they shielded their face against the debris. Squinting their eyes they watched as two silhouettes emerge from the smoke.

"Like my little present?" One of the figures spoke.

The team all got into an offensive stance when they saw Orochimaru and Kabuto appear. Sai's hand was placed tensely on his chokuto while Sasuke had his sharingan activated.

"Heh, you really think you can take on all four of us?" Naruto sneered as he's eyes trailed down to Orochimaru's blackened arms.

The snake man looked down at his arms and gave a mirthless chuckle. "You're right, I am going to need help." Looking up from his appendages his yellow eyes flashed red and a loud scream was heard.

"Sakura!" Sasuke head snapped towards his female teammate upon hearing the soul wrenching scream from her. His red eyes widened when he saw her stiff stance and glazed eyes. The curse mark was slowly spreading.

"Come." Orochimaru called out in a sickly sweet voice.

Sakura's legs lurched forward. 'No, no stop! Stop moving STOP!' She mentally screamed at her treacherous legs as they walked her closer towards Orochimaru.

Seeing Sakura's movements Sasuke's hand shot out and grabbed her around the wrist. His blood ran cold when he saw the gleaming non human-like red eyes on Sakura's face stare back at him, a sinister smile creeped up her face as she sank her claws into Sasuke's hand and tore herself free.

"Like my new soldier?" Orochimaru said as he stared down at Sakura like she was some sort of prized show animal. "The curse mark is a marvelous thing isn't it?" He tilted Sakura's head up to reveal the inky mark which has now spread throughout her whole body.

"OROCHIMARU!" Naruto shouted as his blue eyes momentarily flashed red. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU." He lunged towards the pale man, however his attempt stopped short when he saw Sakura dart in front of Orochimaru and opened her mouth and screeched. Naruto immediately covered his ears as her screech reverberated throughout the clearing.

Orochimaru laughed. "You can't hurt me Uzumaki." He raised his leg and kicked Sakura's back. "Now go get me Sasuke-kun's eyes."

Letting out another inhuman screech, Sakura snapped her head toward's Sasuke. Claws protruding from her hands she lunged towards the boy.

Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw the speed Sakura came towards him at. 'Shit' Hastily he withdrew his kusanagi and defended it against Sakura's attack.

The sound of two metals clinging together filled the area.

"It's over Uchiha." A low, scratchy voice came out from Sakura's mouth, as she raised her other hand and swiped at Sasuke's neck.

Blood spattered onto her face, as her smile grew.

I'm evil i know…another cliffy…I'm sorry….ish?

anyways please leave a review.