Chapter 23

Déjà vu

A/N: I am so sorry for the late update. I've not had much time to post or write any chapters but I should have more time from now on.

I'm going to be posting a few new stories soon but I'm hoping to get at least one of my current stories completed first.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story so far. I'm going to try and make the chapters longer. This one is relatively long. The next chapter is longer though. I'm hoping to increase the length of the chapters by quite a bit.

I also decided to put some Sasusaku action in this chapter because it's been about 22 chapters with very little Sasusaku.

Also, about the saying near the end of this chapter. I remember hearing it somewhere, but I can't remember where.

Please review and leave your thoughts on this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Sakura felt a hand clamp around her wrist and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was in a room and against the wall.

"Why is it that I'm always in this position when I'm with you?" said Sakura, genuinely curious and slightly annoyed.

"Sakura, you are not in a position to act like this. Stop being foolish." Said Sasuke as he stood in front of her.

Sakura was not so stupid to not take his warning seriously but she couldn't help it. She just happened to gain a sarcastic attitude during her leave from Konoha.

"Wow! You spoke more than one sentence...so you're not emotionally constipated." Said Sakura and instantly clamped down on her tongue with her teeth to prevent herself from saying anything else that would result in her being killed.

Sasuke glared at her and leaned in and when his mouth was near her ear he said, "Don't forget where you are and who you are surrounded by." Sakura froze because of the close proximity.

When he pulled away she maintained a calm, blank facade which left Sasuke wondering why her lack of reaction annoyed him slightly.

Yuuki observed what was happening from a tree outside the window. She watched as Sasuke and Sakura appeared in the room, a few words were exchanged as Sakura was pressed against the wall and then Sasuke left.

She can't develop anymore feelings for the Uchiha. It will ruin everything I worked for to complete this task.

Sakura now stood alone in the room and she let out a breath that she had been holding in. Looking around she realised that the room she was in right now was her 'bedroom'.

She walked towards the balcony and sighed. She stared out of the window for a while and found her eyes fixated one spot which had caught her attention. A tree.

There was something different about it which sounded strange but nothing is to strange in the life of a ninja.

She also noticed that the tree was the perfect place to be able to see into the room she was currently standing in.

Sakura reached out with the intent of opening the window and going to that tree to inspect it, but as soon as her came into contact with the bottom of the window, she jumped backwards feeling as though an electric shock had gone through her entire body.

She clutched her hand which was still tingling and cursed a couple of times before staring back out the window at the tree. She glared at it for a while for no apparent reason and then flopped down on the ground.

She curled into a small ball and finally assessed her situation. She was stuck in the company of people that would not let her go easily; she had no chance of escaping with the chakra barriers around the room. She figured that the only way to escape would be when they began to move, but she didn't know when that would be. The only thing she could do now was wait.

Her thoughts strayed to Yuuki and her betrayal. Maybe if she hadn't left Konoha in the first place, she wouldn't be in this situation. As soon as the thought entered her head, she pushed it out knowing that now was not the time to dwell on the past.

She lifted her head and focused on the door opposite where she was sitting. Standing up, she walked over to the door and reached out, hoping that the chakra barrier was not on the door and at the same time she braced herself for the shock that may rattle through her if she even touched the door.

Surprisingly, when she touched the doorknob she felt no electric shock but the door would not open.

She sighed, ran a hand through her hair and then...gave the finger to the door. Yes, it was pointless but it gave her a small amount satisfaction to know that the door could do nothing back to her.

She flopped down onto the ground again and stared at the ceiling with a bored expression.

"So..." began Suigetsu. At that moment he realised that he had nothing to say so he decided on doing the most productive thing he could think of.

"Hey, Karin! You have thunder thighs!" Not even a second passed before her foot was jammed into his liquefied face.

"Enough!" Came a sharp voice from the other side of the room.

Suigetsu smirked. Sasuke seemed even more on edge ever since the arrival of the pretty pink-haired blossom.

Five minutes passed in silence and Suigetsu sighed before realising that he would have to find some way to entertain himself.

Juugo sat peacefully on the window sill with a bird perched on his hand and more birds surrounding the window.

Suigetsu snickered and ran over to Juugo, waving his hands, and effectively scaring the birds away.

Juugo turned to look at him and for a moment there seemed to be a murderous glint in his eyes but it passed quickly.

"Sasuke, change of plan." Suigetsu spun around and stared, bewildered, at Madara.

"You need to vacate this inn immediately. So why not start the mission a day early?"

Sasuke seemed unsurprised by Madara's entrance. He narrowed his eyes into a glare, "It is night."

"Everyone has their secrets. You need to leave. Anyways the sky isn't looking too good right now. It looks like it's going to snow, so you might as well leave early instead of being delayed."

Sasuke somehow managed to make his glare more deadly but Madara seemed unaffected. Sasuke shifted and stood up before going to the other side of the room and picking up his discarded cloak.

Madara took this as an agreement on Sasuke's part.

"Don't forget to take the little pink petal with you." His voice sounded mocking to Suigetsu's ears, as if he were purposefully goading Sasuke and his tone of voice somehow managed to convey the message, 'I know something you don't know'.

"I'll get her." Juugo offered and stood up from his place on the windowsill.

"No." Sasuke said whilst walking in the direction of Sakura's room.

Sakura could hear someone approaching her door and she rolled her eyes.

She stood up before the door had opened. Lying down in the wake of the enemy made Sakura feel vulnerable.

The door opened and Sasuke said, "Come."

Sakura's inner-self reprimanded her, What are you talking about? Sasuke's no enemy!

Sakura quickly shoved her thoughts into a corner of her mind as she deemed them to be inconvenient. Of course Sasuke was the enemy. He was cold-hearted and power hungry. He wanted to destroy Konoha. Sakura had mulled over this particular thought for a while. If she hated Konoha so much, then why did she dislike Sasuke for wanting to destroy it? She couldn't explain it. She felt some sort of protectiveness for her former home and couldn't help but miss the days when she would be accompanied by friends to Ichiraku's or the times when they would complete missions and create fond memories.

All of it was gone now and knowing that made Sakura's heart ache in a way that she hadn't felt since two years ago.

She quickly realised that she was still in the room and that Sasuke was nowhere in sight.

Across from the room she was currently standing in was the door that Sasuke had entered. She walked out of the room and looked to her right, where there was a staircase leading down.

She looked incredulously at the door in front of her and then at the staircase beside her. She made her decision within seconds and made a beeline for the staircase.

Sasuke appeared so suddenly in front of her that her heart almost leapt out of her throat.

He grabbed her elbow and dragged her into the room.

She jerked her arm out of his grip and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "You know, this whole appearing in random places thing has got to stop!"

Suigetsu sniggered, "Well, if he did that blossom, then you would have a quick escape route out of here!"

"That's not exactly a bad thing." She defended.

"Well, it is for us!" Suigetsu said.

Sakura glared heatedly at him. "That's some glare you've got there. Enough malice in there to rival even Sasuke's." Suigetsu said.

Sakura blinked and decided that the safest course of action was to change the subject. "Care to explain why I was dragged here?"

"We have a mission." Said Juugo helpfully.

Sakura turned her gaze on him and couldn't help some softness creep into her eyes as she said, "You do missions?"

Juugo nodded.

"That's weird! So what's the mission?" Sakura questioned.

"We have to go investigate a small village which has had some strange things happening recently." Suigetsu said. Sakura noted that it was about the only helpful thing that he'd said to her.

Sakura's forehead creased, "What kind of strange things?"

"Tourists have been disappearing when visiting there." Karin said snobbishly as if Sakura's question had been stupid.

I wondered when she was going to say something to me, Thought Sakura with wry amusement.

Sakura seemed to consider for a moment.

"Well, I sure as hell am not going to help you!"

Sasuke eyes flashed threateningly in her direction but she ignored it.

She headed for the door. If she couldn't escape then she was going to go back to that pathetic excuse of a room she had been in.

Sasuke flash stepped in front of her and she glared at him before glaring at the door.

"You will come." Sasuke said firmly.

"Or what, you'll knock me out?" Challenged Sakura without any hesitation. Unwanted memories of a moonlit night, a certain raven-haired boy walking away and a cold stone bench flooded her mind.

Something passed his normally firm, emotionless eyes. "Don't make me."

Sakura felt as if a tsunami had hit her. Some part of her felt disheartened by the fact that there had been something, some sort of emotion, in his eyes. But it was gone in a heartbeat.

She knew that he had remembered that memory as well. Right? She wasn't sure.

But then other memories entered her mind.

Flashback

"Sakura is a burden to us and slows us down on missions. She's annoying."

Flashback

Sakura's eyes hardened and she glared at him. "Then knock me out." The challenge was clear in her tone.

She loaded her fist with chakra and aimed for his face. He disappeared and appeared behind her.

He pushed her out of the door and into the room across from them. She staggered and glared at him as the door swung shut behind them.

"Not, going to knock me out?" She taunted. Her inner was yelling at her, Do you have a death wish?

She ignored her thoughts incessantly nagging her.

Sasuke stalked towards her. She stubbornly held her ground.

He was so close to her now that she had to tilt her head up to see his face.

She couldn't help but take a couple of steps backward and she inwardly berated herself for that small show of weakness.

She felt her back come into contact with the wall. Sasuke placed his left arm beside her face and Sakura was overcome with a sense of déjà vu.

Sakura could feel his presence all around her. It was as though he were surrounding her purposefully, making her feel intimidated.

She heard the sounds of his Kusanagi being drawn from its sheath. The cool, sharp edge of the sword settled itself against her neck. It was barely touching, but she felt all too aware of the fact that at any second Sasuke could cut her throat.

He moved his face forward until their noses were almost touching and her breathing hitched.

Suddenly he smirked and Sakura felt fury rise within her like a tumultuous wave. That bastard!

He had purposefully tested the waters to see if he still affected her and had then exploited her weakness right in front of her.

She silently fumed and glared and then realised that Sasuke had not moved from his position. In fact, confusion entered his eyes briefly.

Sakura couldn't but notice that she would only have to lean forward by about an inch and their lips would be touching.

The door opened and the tense atmosphere broke. Sasuke turned to look at the door while Sakura continued to stare forward at the raven strands of hair obscuring her vision and used the few seconds to calm her erratically beating heart.

"We're ready to leave." Said Juugo, rather awkwardly as he took in their position.

"Hn." Sasuke swiftly walked out the door, whilst sheathing his katana.

Sakura pushed herself away from the wall and inwardly gaped after Sasuke.

"State your purpose." A guard said.

"A holiday with my friends and um..." Karin glanced at Sasuke and blushed.

Sakura rolled her eyes and for a moment she was reminded of the overly-sweet, almost sickening, way she used to act towards Sasuke.

Karin was deemed to be the most normal looking out of all of them so she had been designated the task of actually speaking with the guards.

And so, after sealing all of their weapons and ninja-like clothing into a scroll, which was now being carried by Sasuke, they had headed towards the village gates.

The guard nodded and moved to the side, "Enjoy your stay."

Sakura looked around as they walked through the streets of the village, searching for an inn, and was reminded of Konoha. The streets bustled with life. Children ran around with carefree smiles on their faces, woman chatted in groups with other women about the latest gossip.

Sakura heard a few teenage girls giggling and pointing at Sasuke. Karin glared at them and walked closer to Sasuke.

Finally, they located an inn. After booking one room and receiving the key, they headed up the stairs and entered their room. Sasuke immediately entered the bathroom and a moment later they heard the sound of a shower.

Sakura went to the small cupboard and extricated some futons. She picked one up and busied herself by setting her own one up in the middle of the room.

Sasuke's hand was braced against the cool, tiled wall of the shower while the lukewarm water cascaded into his hair and down his back.

His eyes were closed and his jaw clenched as he recalled when he had pinned Sakura to wall only hours earlier. The way his subconscious had whispered that he could drag his katana down Sakura's body and use it to slit open the front of her shirt. He could easily overpower her and do whatever he wished with her.

He jerked the shower off and grabbed the towel.

Sakura had finished setting up her futon and said, "Dibs on being next in the shower!"

"Want some company?" Suigetsu smirked at her from across the room. She grabbed a spare pillow and chucked it as hard as she could at him.

His face liquefied the moment the pillow hit him. Sakura gaped at him.

"Never seen that before, have you?" Suigetsu drawled. Sakura shook her head, "How do yo do that?"

Suigetsu shrugged, "Orochimaru and some of his other subordinates," he pointedly glared at Karin, "tinkered with my body and this is how it turned out."

Sakura could feel her compassionate side take a hold of her. "They experimented on you?"

"Heh! You actually care don't you." Suigetsu said, waving a hand.

Sakura's compassionate gaze didn't waver and she openly stared as if sympathising with him.

The bathroom door opened and Sasuke walked out. Sakura stood up and walked into the bathroom intent on scrubbing herself properly. She hadn't showered in a while and she felt dirty.

Sakura tossed and turned in her futon. She had been like this for about an hour now. It wasn't that the futon was uncomfortable, on the contrary it was very snug, but she was too busy thinking. She had continuously glanced at the calendar pinned on one of the walls. It showed that today was the date that two years ago she had found out her friends opinions of her.

She sat up and stood before walking to the other side of the room towards the window seat. She wasn't going to try to escape. She knew for a fact that Sasuke had probably awoken the moment he had heard the small creak she had made whilst standing up.

She sat down on the window seat and stared at the sky. It was a full moon. Just like that night. Sakura mused.

That night she had cried more than she could ever recall. It had certainly never crossed her mind that two years later, she would be sitting in a room with a group of sleeping missing nins, one of which was Sasuke.

Sakura frowned slightly as she stared at the sky, only now realising that it was stained a dark shade of blood red.

From the depths of her mind, Sakura dug up a saying.

Red sky at night, blood will be shed that night.

Of course, blood was shed almost every night but to Sakura the sky presented an ominous sign.

Yuuki sneered as she pulled her kunai out of Zetsu.

Only Zetsu's white half was present but there were many of them. After realising that she was being followed, Yuuki had confronted Zetsu and had killed one of his clones as a warning.

Zetsu swiftly disappeared.

Apparently Madara still did not trust her. And for good reason.

Although, she had to admit that the supervision was inconvenient and annoying.

Yuuki wiped the blood off of her kunai on the grass beneath her and looked up towards the sky.

It was stained a dark, blood red. Yuuki stared at it for a while and then stared at the blood stained grass beneath her feet. She shrugged at the coincidence and continued on her way to the very important task which needed completing.

A/N: Please review.

Preview

"There's no way I'm doing that!" Exclaimed Karin, appalled.

"Then I'll do it." Said Sakura simply.

Preview