Disclaimer: If I owned this story, I wouldn't disappear for copious amounts of time to work on my original fiction.
A/N: That being said, thank you to everyone who's supported my throughout this story. Your interest and enjoyment is the reason why, even when I was having those self-conscious panic attacks authors seem to be prone to, I continued ahead regardless. And after the reviews I got on the last chapter, I thought to myself it's a pity that I'm trying to keep everyone in character. So here's my compromise (and this is one of the beauties of writing fanfiction and having immediate feedback from readers): following the main body of this chapter which contains the canon story will be an M-rated omake. It won't be too graphic for fear of 's regulations, but if you are under the legal age or disapprove, scroll on through. I'm not including it in a separate chapter for those people who don't read author's notes and will be going "What the heck?!" So please enjoy.
Also, for all those people in those reviews who pointed out I connected Sai's name with two masks: Sai painted all the designs for the Shishin. Translations of the norito in this chapter are again not mine, copyright belongs to Ann Evans, ISBN 155369138-5.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When Dreaming in Scarlet
Neji felt the cold prickle of sweat at the nape of his neck. What's going on? he asked himself. He'd shared a bed with Sakura before. He'd shared a bed, a futon, the grass beneath an endless autumn sky, and he'd done it as a brother, a bodyguard, a husband, and a thousand things in between. Almost the greater part of his career had been spent with Sakura. During that time, he'd had the unconditional support of his team, the Hyuuga had begun to feel more like a family and less like a cage, and Sakura's unwavering friendship.
What had Sakura had during that time? A family that seemed to afford her privilege but no real warmth, the harried mentorship of a Hokage who could barely complete her paperwork let alone train an apprentice, the occasional visit from Kakashi? No, he was misjudging her friends, he knew that. It was easier to make the miseries of friends greater than they really were. Yamanaka Ino had been unfailing and near unflagging in her quest to keep her friend connected with others her age.
This had been their quiet, unstrained companionship for three years. Before Sai. Before Itachi. Yes, that had to be it. Silver-white eyes slid to his right to glance at the elder Uchiha. Being a Hyuuga predisposed him to dislike of the upstart branch of the family who'd twisted the doujutsu that was their birthright, but knowing what he did about the rebellion and how badly Sakura had taken Sasuke's betrayal, he was not about to trust a man who'd been a key figure in both incidents.
Itachi did not seem to be thrown by Sakura's careless invitation. Instead he stepped gracefully out of the path of the door and settled on the floor, adopting a meditation posture. "Thank you for your concern, taichou, but I will be fine here."
Sakura's eyes danced over to Neji and he tried not to scowl. This was almost as bad as traveling with the green-clad menaces. Admitting that he would like to rest would be difficult now. Not that he needed it, necessarily, but it was always best to rest on missions when the opportunity presented itself. There was no guarantee of rest once they began to track Danzo in earnest.
He surprised himself with the thought, I wish only Sakura were here. He contended himself with silently mirroring Itachi's position, closing his eyes to catch what rest he could. The battles would begin soon enough.
-X-X-X-
It was strange, Sakura decided, to be the one discussing modifying their route based on the more current information, she and Kakashi bent over a map while their squads waited upon their decision. It was such a little thing, but it again reminded her of her changed position and responsibilities. As a chunnin, unlike Shikamaru, she hadn't had the opportunity to lead many teams. Oh, she'd done her share. It was part of the requirements for promotion to jounin.
But most of her time had been spent in the silent, destructive service of Danzou or in frustrated apprenticeship to the Hokage. The missions with Neji did not count. There was too much give-and-take, too much comfort between them for truly autocratic leadership on either side, though when they'd been younger there had been tense missions where both had been trying to edge the other out. They'd very nearly failed one mission when they had both been convinced that their way was the only correct on to achieve their objective. They'd split up, been ambushed, and only through cunning on her part, skill on Neji's, and compromise had they come through triumphant. It had been a learning moment and from that moment forward, they'd established that whomever had the skills more suited to the mission led and the other followed.
Now that was no longer the case. Sakura was outclassed by the skills of her own team. Sai had served Danzou from the deepest reaches of his memory and Itachi was, well, Itachi. She wasn't even certain Kakashi could face him on even footing. But it was not their command. It was hers and she was determined that this mission would succeed.
"We'll have to part ways soon. You'll need to veer 23 degrees to the east to intercept your target, here," she said, finger landing on a tiny town that the patroness had identified as being associated with Akatsuki. They were assuming that Sasuke hadn't yet heard of Sakura's coup in bringing Itachi back to the village. It hadn't been publicized, Sakura insistent that they keep the information confidential until such a time that it was convenient to lure Sasuke back. She had wanted to be in control of every detail of her third and final encounter with Sasuke, from the place where they would do battle to his emotional state as he entered the fight.
But Danzo had destroyed all that.
She was curious as to why he would jeopardize himself like this, going after Sasuke. If she had learned anything while serving Tsunade-shishou, it was no political maneuver was absolute. The orders that she had delivered to Tsunade-shishou were damning, to a certain extent, but more than even the elders, Danzo was canny and entrenched. He could spin the incident to his advantage, producing evidence that the drastic action had been needed to save the village and that the massacre had actually reduced the number of casualties that would have resulted if the incident had sparked a full-blown civil war.
And the damnable thing would be that not a word of it would be a lie. There was nothing in the world more damaging, from sheer numbers lost to the psychological impact, than civil war. Sakura could understand the need to suppress it. The Uchiha had been an insular clan of moderate size. Their loss could, under certain conditions, be defined as acceptable, especially when Konohagakure incurred no casualties.
Compassion is only a conceit that the weak practice to excuse their impotency, Madara's thought rumbled through her. When you feel pity, you open yourself to something other than the utter devastation of your enemy. Doubt is the gate to defeat. So never doubt your cause, else you be destroyed with it.
My cause? All I want is to-her mind recognized what she was saying before she even finished the thought-keep the peace in Konoha and to protect my village. But not as Danzo did.
Is that what you truly believe? Danzo was destroyed by his disappointed ambition. His dream became twisted and he lost sight of all he had hoped to achieve. That is why he pursues Uchiha Sasuke rather than shoring up his position. In his heart, he has already foretold his own death.
But why, of all people, would he be after Sasuke? He isn't even a direct threat to the village.
That is beyond the insight I can offer. Just recall that a man with no dream, no hopes, and no goals is a dangerous man. You need not worry of suffering his fate, though. I will make certain that we never die so lost.
That did not reassure her. "Is something wrong?" Kakashi asked. "You have a strange look on your face."
"Contemplating our mission," Sakura answered.
Kakashi looked back to the map. "You've chosen a good team. Whatever your mission is, I'm sure you'll accomplish it."
Sakura glanced dryly over at him. She was certain that Kakashi knew exactly what was going on, but he would never say so. His reassurance was welcome, though. Sakura took a deep breath to dispel her nervousness, then slid her mask back over her face.
"My team and I will take our leave now," she told him. "We'll rendezvous with you after we secure our objective. Shall we keep the original coordinates for the meeting site if you acquire the Uchiha and his team more quickly than expected?"
Kakashi rolled up the map. "With Naruto straining at the leash, I wouldn't be surprised. I think it should be fine. Unless you want me to find another interesting rendezvous point?" His smile was teasing.
"Haha. Not a chance." She saluted him casually. "Ja ne, Kakashi-sempai."
"Ja ne."
-X-X-X-
It was Sakura's first time wearing the white duster of a ANBU team leader. While in private she could wear the modified uniform she'd worn while training, the moment she left the village she was required to divest herself of clan insignia like the Haruno crest and her uniform had to conform to official standards. Official standards, that while quite striking and attractive on her teammates, were quite monotonous and boring when stripped of the honor of belonging to ANBU.
The dusters, white for her and a stolid black for her squad members, concealed even gender when required to act in a public function. She could remember the ANBU who had been on the Hokage's protection detail during her chunnin exam wearing them. She only hoped that this mission had a better end result.
Danzo sat atop a flat rock that an ancient tree had rooted itself to like it was a throne, his Root guards spread like the v of a flight of geese in front of him. This was one of the small strands of hardy forest in what was generally cliff country, a kind of oasis in an unforgiving sandstone desert.
"Speak your peace and then leave," Danzo ordered her as she approached. "I already know what you have to say anyway," he grumbled.
It shocked Sakura that, in a very faint and strange place in her heart, she was sad to do this to Danzo. Like any good villain, he could be depended upon to have a scheme in place at just the right moment to catch the enemy unawares. In the past, his enemy and hers had often been the same. He had ordered her to do terrible things, but he had also taught her much. Perhaps more than he intended. Or perhaps not. It would not surprise her that if, even in his death, he intended to serve the village he had safeguarded his entire life with a brutality and ruthlessness that could have squeezed blood from a stone. In his own way, Danzo had also wanted only the best for the village. But he would have had it walk a path of conquest. He was a tyrant out of the time when such leaders might have been needed. He should have been born even before the First, she thought sadly. Then he might have been hailed as a mighty leader. He might have even established his own village. Unfortunately, there was no longer a need for such a soldier.
We beseech the kami to purify our path so that we may fulfill our divine mission.
Sakura reached into her coat and pulled from it the letter sealed with the personal sigil of the Hokage. She delivered it into Danzo's bandaged hands and waited in silence while he read the short message.
Remove every sort of obstacle.
"Hn," he said thoughtfully. "So the princess has found what she needs to get rid of me at last." He turned his gaze to her, as if he could peer right through the porcelain of her mask. "I assume this was your doing?"
Correct our path for renewed health.
Someone shifted minutely behind her. She did not know if it was Neji or Sai. Danzo laughed. "I hope Tsunade understands what she's getting into. That's the thing about tigers. They do not tolerate weakness. Even if it's their own blood, they will not hesitate to throw them down when they come of age and it is time for them to take territory. They call female tigers queens, but they are alone for most of their life. I truly chose your mask well, Sakura."
We originate from the same root as Heaven and Earth;
Sakura fought not to flinch. She had never truly offered him her loyalty, but she had been with him longer than she had Team Seven. If she had been able to serve him with every appearance of compliance and come out unchanged, she would be inhuman. Perhaps Neji was right to be suspicious of Itachi and lingering sympathies for the Akatsuki's agenda. "Hai, Danzo-sama," she answered instead.
We pray that the kami help us realize spiritual fullness.
"Very well," Danzo said at last, standing stiffly. "Then let us bring this be an end. This battle will decide everything." And for the first time since she had known him, she saw Danzo unwrap the bandages on his arm. What she saw beneath was almost enough to make her ill. She could feel shock emanate from Itachi.
For instead of battle wounds, the pale, wrinkled flesh hosted unblinking eyes, all in Sharingan crimson.
"Danzo-sama, what have you done?!" Sakura demanded.
"Did you really believe that I would allow our village to lose all that power?" Danzo sneered, falling into a combat stance, the ten ninja flanking him also preparing their weapons.
"No," she whispered. "No, I didn't. I just didn't think you would take it like this." The impulse to attempt the battle was there, but she severed it ruthlessly. All that mattered was to win. Not who accomplished it. "Genbu."
"Hai." Itachi's voice sounded strained. As if it took effort to maintain his usual stoicism in the face of the atrocity committed upon the bodies of his family. Because he probably knew as well as she did that only a fresh transplant would take, though she did not know where Danzo had found a medic skilled enough to make eyes live in his arms. He couldn't have taken them from the bodies of the clan members Itachi had killed. No, he would have had to harvest them himself.
"Shimura Danzo has declined to return to the village. In sight of this, he is to be eliminated without reservation. Is that understood?" She hoped it was not too soon for Itachi. Sakura wouldn't be able to give him and his battle much attention. There were ten ANBU Root members who would also need to be eliminated between the three remaining members of her squad.
It was poor odds.
Even for things most impure, even if things are left incomplete and in disarray, respectfully I ask that the kami hear these words and grant complete purification and clarity, both within and without.
Without any sort of signal, suddenly the battle was raging. Sakura blocked an array of shuriken with her duster, shedding it as quickly as she could. Her enemy tried to take advantage of the moment her sight was blocked, but Sakura had also used that moment when the white fabric was between them. She knew the ninja would be expecting her to substitute herself and appear behind him, so she thwarted his expectation, grabbing his wrist through the fabric of the duster, drawing him close like she would kiss his neck, spitting a number of the tiny poisoned needles she'd nipped from the holder at her wrist the moment her face had been covered.
Instinctively, like being stung by a bee, the shinobi slapped at the needles, only driving them deeper. Even as he staggered backward, his face began to bloat as his throat swelled, the poison inflaming his flesh. It was only a matter of time before he suffocated.
Sakura flickered a glance toward where Itachi and Danzo battled, but she could follow neither of their movements with her eyes. But then her focus had to return to the battle at hand as she leaped into the trees to avoid a pair of the Root ninja who'd attempted to flank her, long dark ponytails fluttering like war flags in wind their speed produced.
From the way they handled their ninja-to, she assumed they were weapons specialists. She dropped, slothlike, beneath a branch to avoid being impaled when a third ninja burst from the trees above her.
Divide your enemy.
This was why she hated open combat. Will-o-wisp's Bog was generally her best option in this situation, but the environment was unsuited for it. And the fog wouldn't only obscure the eyesight of her opponents, but her allies as well.
She settled first for a more basic genjutsu as a ploy, one that made it seem to her opponents that the trees were reaching out to grab them. Only one of her attackers fell for it, the others dismissing the illusion easily. Unfortunately, she thought sourly, he didn't take long enough for her to kill him in the meantime as she flipped back onto the branch, turning her body slightly to the side to avoid a killing blow from one of the tailed-twins.
Sakura kicked out, sending him flying into the trunk of the tree, but he staggered back, bruised but unharmed. To all appearances. Sakura felt even Tsunade-shishou could safely bet that he was bleeding internally. But internal bleeding was unpredictable. He could stagger around for hours yet before he died.
Sakura still had her leg extended as she had to press herself flat against the branch, thanking the kami for flexibility training that allowed her to press her knee into her chest without discomfort. Channeling chakra into that extended legs, she used it like a pole to summersault upward and over the head of tailed-twin number two, who failed to appreciate the level of skill it took her in Crane Dance to disable his right arm by stabbing at nerve clusters in his shoulder.
Any sense of victory was quickly smothered when he simply transferred his sword to his left hand. Damn you, Danzo, for being a thorough leader and training your operatives to be ambidextrous. Twin number one managed to get partially past her hasty kunai block, slicing open a gash in her forearm, but before he could bear down and cut sever something more major Sakura allowed herself to fall from their branch.
She reached into her pack as she plummeted to the ground, taking out two glass balls filled with more of the poison she'd used against Sasuke. Grimly she assessed the way the wind was flowing between the trees and how close her squad was. Too close. None of them had her resistance to the poison. Sliding them back into the pouch, she instead swiped her fingers through the freely flowing blood. As soon as her fingers touched the earth, she activated her summoning seal. It was always easier to summon to tigers in connection with the ground. "Kagasuki Boshi!"
The tiger that twisted through the fading smoke not as large as Ekie Boshi, which made him more suited to battle in the closed environment of the trees. It did not make Kagasuki any less deadly. He was thin almost to the point of gauntness, his hipbones like great blades beneath a pelt striped in black and steel grey with a strange green tint. His eyes drooped like he never fully woke, but the irises were the milk-white of a blind man.
His voice rolled and echoed in his chest like thunder, the deep-toned bells chiming on anklets wrapped around his rear paws. "Shishou, there is an ill wind."
"Kagasuki!" Sakura yelled up at the tiger before he could begin to offer prophecy, drawing Sasuke's sword smoothly as she retreated to relative safety between the tiger's paws. Whereas Ekie Boshi would grumble and help and Subaru would demand something that smelled of her, Kagasuki lived within an elaborate roleplay. "There are those who stand against my kingdom!"
Those milky eyes stared out at the wary Root, who had separated so they did not make an easy target. From behind her she heard the roar of a great fire, but she didn't turn. "Who would dare to interfere with your righteous rule, shishou? Who dares stand against the one who bears the favor of heaven?"
"Look before you, Kagasuki Boshi! Behold the unrighteous and the impure. It is they who bring the stain of death and decay upon us. Let the weight of their unclean acts be turned against them!" she intoned, feeling only slightly ridiculous. For Kagasuki's special ability made all the grandstanding worth it.
The tiger inhaled and the leaves shifted with his breath and the whole world seemed to still. And then he roared. It was like the fiercest wind whipped in from across stormy waters. Trees shivered and broke, birds took flight and then tumbled to earth, breaking themselves as they impacted. For Kagasuki's breath was laced with poison that hung so heavy in the air it was a spreading black haze.
It advanced like it was a sentient creature, tendrils rushing towards the ANBU that had been hiding in the trees. Sakura's mouth sat in a grim line of satisfaction. All the elements could be countered, but it was difficult to counter poison, especially one that seeped in through the pores in the skin.
It did not kill, which was a pity. Kagasuki's poison was somnolent and it visited the recipient with every act he had ever been ashamed of in a rondo of dreams that could literally kill with guilt. Sakura did not know if the ANBU agents even felt shame, but she dashed forward as Kagasuki's cloying breath stunned the Root but did not disable them.
Yet another shame, that. Like many topical poisons, it was slower to act than something digested. Sakura brought down her weapon in a crashing blow, wishing for a moment she could use lightning or wind chakra to lend it an unnatural edge, but she satisfied herself with her chakra-enhanced strength, which shattered the inferior blade just the same.
A second stroke took off his head. His companion managed to, with a frantic death cry, sheathe his blade deep in her shoulder, but Sakura pivoted on one heel, yanking the sword from his trembling hands. With her free hand, she smashed her open palm into his chest and his heart literally leaped out his back as his upper torso erupted from the lash of chakra she had put into the strike. It was Shifting Sands in its purest form. Her hand spasmed, but she flexed it out as she knocked three kunai from the air as she turned to face her last opponent.
He looked like he could barely stand upright, but was still intent on killing her. He was even supporting himself by leaning against a tree. Sakura bared her teeth at him behind her mask, snapping the Root member's blade still wedged in her shoulder in a show of strength and throwing the bloody sword tip so that it wedged in the tree only inches from the ANBU's masked face, quivered. She reached behind her and pulled out hilt-end of the sword, letting it drop to the ground where the sparse grass and loam muffled the sound of its fall.
Rather than charging in, the Root operative spoke. "Danzo-sama had something he wished me to tell you in the event of his death."
The fire was still roaring behind her and she'd heard great swathes of forest being eliminated and she could still almost feel the hostile chakras playing against her skin. Danzo was doing unexpectedly well against Itachi. It was only when she heard Kagasuki roar in pain and outrage that she was distracted. Half-turning to see the tiger, who'd been locked in combat with a strange beast that had rear talons like an eagle and a long nose like an elephant that had blasted away the cloud of poison nearest the tiger.
She'd thought the ANBU agent almost unable to move, but his last step was almost only a flicker in her peripheral vision. He knocked her mask of with the hilt of a kunai, already removing his own. If he'd slit her throat or put out her eyes, she wouldn't have been surprised, but he crushed her toward him to kiss her instead, his tongue forcing her lips to part.
It was not until she felt the rush of foreign chakra that she understood. Her hand, almost by reflex, had guided a kunai beneath his diaphragm and up into his heart. There was a sucking noise as he stumbled away from her, tumbling to the ground an empty shell. Sakura stared blankly ahead. It took almost all the energy in her body to turn to see the black flames burning in the part of the forest that had become a hellish wasteland.
Before her, the tiger and the Baku engaged in a battle that was like a storm and as the winds collided, she couldn't avoid being slammed into a tree. Her vision was hazy, but she did not know if it was a concussion or the fuinjutsu. Her small seal between her toes, the one that had allowed her to open doors in the Root compound, had felt nothing like this. It was almost like being ridden by Madara.
The seal spread from the roof of her mouth and she could feel the dark lines of chakra leaking across her skin. "Danzo-sama?" she croaked.
Inside her mind, she could feel things shift. Was he manipulating her thoughts? What kind of ability was that? If she had a coherent mind, perhaps she wouldn't have been aware of it. But she was what she was, so she and the other inhabitants of her mind watched with interest as thoughts and memories shifted.
In her hazy state, she almost saw herself suspended in the air above a great black pit in the depths of which something as black as the darkness shifted restlessly. Above her, in three platform-like apparitions, she could see each of the Three Kingdoms. Each of the manifestations had their eyes focused on a different point. Orochimaru as the dark-haired youth she'd become familiar with long ago was watching the patterns on the vaulted sky, but he spared her a brief smirk. Haku was crouched on the very edge of where sand was slowly draining into the abyss, staring down into the darkness where Amanozako waited. And Madara, Madara was watching her with eyes that burned.
She watched as her conviction shifted. Sakura had been certain that there were only two remaining Uchiha. Now she suspected there was a third. Why would she suspect such a thing? The manipulation of her thoughts provided no such helpful hint, though it revealed to her why he had been chasing Uchiha Sasuke.
That third Uchiha was growing closer to encountering Sasuke and for some reason, Danzo thought that would be very bad. As in, lead an attack and massacre innocents in the village bad. Danzo had resigned himself to being stripped of his power. But he had anticipated what Sasuke might do if told that Itachi had been told to murder the clan. So he had wanted to make the village safe, once again, by eliminating Sasuke and this third Uchiha, if he could manage to do so.
You are the inheritor of my will of fire. That thought rang very clear, even though Sakura was certain that she shouldn't have a memory of him saying that aloud.
Her mouth moved and she could vaguely feel that it aped her movement in the real world. "Hai, Danzo-sama." A single warm tear dripped down her cheek. She had hated and despised Danzo for so long, but it had been mingled by admiration if not affection.
"Are you crying for him or are you crying for yourself, Sakura-chan?" Orochimaru asked slyly. Was she seeing a vision of herself in the future, dying aged, withered, and misunderstood by a village she had treasured?
"Why did he challenge you to battle?" Haku asked. "It doesn't make any sense. He must have known he would lose."
Lose. The word rang large in her mind. Her mind and her body were suddenly one again and she shouted, "Kagasuki! We have been deceived!" Milk-white eyes swung to regard her as he held the battered Baku down. "Seal away the flames!"
Turning to eye the great fire she knew instinctively was Itachi's, Sakura didn't even hesitate to watch as Kagasuki turned toward the black flames. This time, as she rode the wind of his roar, where a great unspoken seal lay dormant, she closed her eyes, seeking out Itachi. There. He was grappling with Danzo, it seemed. There was something very strange about all this.
But that was something to think of later, at she stepped between two of the strongest shinobi that Konoha had ever known. "Stop," she commanded coldly as she caught Danzo's fist in a crushing grip and blocked Itachi's attack awkwardly with Kusanagi.
"Taichou?" Itachi questioned.
Danzo frowned.
"I am sorry, Danzo-sama, but I cannot let you take the easy way out. If the situation with Sasuke disturbs you so much, you will help to rectify it."
Danzo's eyes narrowed and it was only now she realized that he had two and one was a Sharingan, the pattern new and unfamiliar. "Kotoamatsukami is a jutsu to manipulate a person's thoughts without them being aware of it. How did you-?"
"I don't think that is important at the moment. Itachi," Sakura demanded, "is there a third Uchiha survivor?"
Itachi went very still and wary next to her.
"I see," Sakura remarked. "Perhaps this was a case of poor communication. Tell me, Danzo-sama, why you would have let us kill you? If you were going to be a matyr, it would have been to nothing but secrecy."
Danzo sighed and straightened. Itachi mirrored him, the kunai he had been holding disappearing. Sakura noticed that several of the eyes on Danzo's arms were now closed. "Because I am an old man. I wanted to make certain that my plans would continue after my death. I am not so arrogant as you might think."
Sakura regarded him carefully. She was almost certain she knew what had been manipulated and what had not been. If anyone might know that, it was Orochimaru and she sent the thought searing through her mind, hoping that Madara would relay her the answer since he no longer allowed contact with the other Kingdoms in her waking world.
Itachi almost echoed her thoughts. "Taichou, are you certain you're not being manipulated? I am familiar with the Kotoamatsukami."
"I am being manipulated," Sakura admitted baldly, "but not in the manner you might think. I am, apparently, Danzo's heir apparent and he wanted me to be certain his estate was in order. But I think it would be best if he took care of it himself." She glared at him suspiciously. "I think there are things he would have kept secret even in death. But before we have this discussion, call off your Root. Let's not shed any more blood today."
Danzo nodded shortly and soon the remaining five Root and her team were standing by. Sai and Neji, at least, seemed very confused by the sudden turn of events, but the Root agents were stoic as always. Four of the five were badly injured. As it turned out, it was her hands that had spilled the most Konoha blood upon the ground today and there was a nagging guilt about that fact that ate at her.
But she ignored it in favor of explaining the situation to her team. Itachi was silent, but Sakura knew him well enough now to perceive that Danzo wasn't the only one keeping secrets.
This situation only grows more complex, Madara commented.
No kidding, Sakura returned snidely.
"I am curious, Haruno-taichou," Itachi asked and there was something about his tone that made her wary, "but how were you able to tell that Danzo was manipulating your thoughts?"
"Well, Kakashi-sempai has had his Sharingan for a long time, but he still hasn't mastered it. Perhaps Danzo-sama doesn't have full control of the technique either?"
She did not think either Danzo or Itachi believed her, but neither pressed her further.
"So, what's the plan, hag?" Sai asked.
Sakura took a deep breath. "Now we go after Sasuke. And maybe meet this 'third Uchiha.'"
A/N: Well, there it is. Chapter twenty-eight. Now onto twenty-nine, which will be the beginning of the Shinobi World War arc.
-STOP READING NOW IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO ENCOUNTER SMUT-
(A Reminder: This is my version of fan-service, it is not canon to Five Kingdoms)
(This will be M-rated. You have been warned. This reads like erotica-of the non-explicit sort as required by FF's guidelines.)
Sakura held her breath for a heartbeat after the words escaped her mouth, watching anxiously to make sure her teammates wouldn't misinterpret. There was nothing that sapped the respect due a female squad leader quicker than sleeping with her squad members, except maybe rumors that she was sleeping with them.
But except for a tiny quirk of Itachi's lips and a stiffening of Neji's spine, there was no response to her ill-thought out words.
A tiny piece of her was disappointed. That was probably Anko's influence-she would be the first to tell her that if the rumors were kinky enough, it might win her respect instead of losing it. Only among the ninja population, of course.
Sakura rolled onto her stomach so she wouldn't have to feel Sai's breath on her eyelashes, but she couldn't relax. "Do you ever wish you'd given the village something to really talk about?"
She didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until Neji asked, "What do you mean?"
Sakura rolled over and sat up, speaking to the two ninja who'd positioned themselves like the lion and the Korean dog guarding the door. "I mean, with the exception of Itachi's mass murderer thing," and the ninja in question cocked a brow at the casual dismissal of a heinous act, "what do people say about you? That you're a prodigy, a genius? That you espouse the ideal of the Hyuuga house? Those are all dehumanizing labels. This child's a genius, this one's a prodigy, and that's fine, but what are they like as a person? Everyone knows that Naruto loves ramen, has a least one story of a prank he's pulled, and they're always gossiping about this and that. What do they say about you, Neji? Or me, for that matter? Or even Itachi?"
She pulled her legs up into her chest. "All that we are is in a single word: shinobi. But that's a weapon, not a person. I just wish, sometimes, that people wouldn't assume that I'm happy with just being the Hokage's knife in the dark. If they even know that much about me," she said bitterly. "It's not that I'm complaining-no, maybe I am. All I know is that, when I became chunnin, and even when I advanced to jounin, I was invisible. My style's not that flashy and I don't have a clan with history. Haruno's a prestigious name in some circles, but it's adjectives are staid, respectable, and constant. It's a family that swallows you up. You are important as a Haruno, but not as a person. Surely you must know what I mean."
Surprisingly, it was Itachi that answered her. "When I was growing up, I was hailed as a genius. But it was not a genius built on my own strengths. According to everyone around me, I was because I was born into greatness as an Uchiha. My father, especially, was the worst. He took everything that I did for granted. I did not mind, at first. I have never had to work as hard as those around me. So maybe I thought I deserved to be called a genius. But after a while, I became 'the Uchiha prodigy.' Even to my younger brother. There were days when I doubted anyone but my mother remembered my name. But I could not fail their expectations. So everything that was not in line with how their worldview, I stopped. After a few years, only my mother and my cousin remembered that I liked sweets. I think, perhaps, that I once liked to read when I was young. But I can't even remember now what kind of novels I liked best."
Neji cleared his throat awkwardly, staring suspiciously at the Uchiha. "My clan-it is difficult to be yourself in the Hyuuga clan. But I suppose that is the case in most traditional families. Or maybe families in general. And you are right in saying that when people say that I am a prodigy, they also say it is because I am a Hyuuga. But that does not bother me. Hinata is the firstborn daughter and is even more invisible than I am."
"So you aren't unsatisfied living like this?" Sakura asked, frustration knit tightly into the words.
Neji was silent for a moment. "Sakura," and he shocked her a little, addressing her like that, "you have to understand, this is more than I have ever had. When I competed in the chunnin exams, I expected to be punished for not knowing my place in the clan. Not to be mentored by Hiashi-sama. To be respected by Hinata-sama, who knows my favorite teas as well as you do. And I'm perhaps too close to my team," he said with a touch of irony. "Gai-sensei wouldn't know a melancholic worldview if it stepped up to him and introduced himself."
"You've never wanted to give Konoha something to talk about?" The word this time had a foreign lilt. One she'd heard Ino use, but never used herself. Perhaps it was the atmosphere, perhaps it was sense that her world could end the moment she caught up to Danzo, to Sasuke, and her elaborate masquerade was all torn away.
And just as she had never addressed someone who wasn't a mark and therefore didn't count, using that tone, Neji had never been the one to whom it was seriously addressed. There had been harmless teasing, role playing within the safe bounds of cover personas, but now he was dumbfounded. He settled for neutrality, not knowing if she was only saying it, not knowing if she meant it. Because if she did, things would change.
His hesitation cost him. Neji had grown up in the closeted, reserved atmosphere of the Hyuuga clan and his manner turned away all but the most lewd propositions, none of which he'd been willing to take up once he came of an age to be interested in sex. Puberty for Hyuuga Neji had mostly passed him by unnoticed, consumed as he was by his development as a ninja.
Not so constrained was Uchiha Itachi. He'd spent his formative years with the temperamental Uchiha clan and there'd been many older women eager to introduce the gifted boy to all sorts of pleasures. After all, winning his heart as well as his body carried the chance of netting the title of matriarch of the Uchiha clan. And Itachi, raised to be a gentleman, never disappointed a woman. And as of this moment, his captain had just asked him to look beyond the mask and armor they all wore to see her as a person. Part of that person was a budding sensuality that had been ruthlessly crushed and tightly bound in her quest for worth as a shinobi. "Perhaps, captain," and he gave the word a sly twist that she was free to respond to or ignore, "you are tired of just talking and being talked about. Perhaps," he suggested, "you want to substantiate a rumor?"
Sakura's heart tripped over itself in its hurry to rush blood to her cheeks, but she fought the blush down. Once upon a time, she'd been a girl who knew what she wanted. She'd shed things that really mattered in her pursuit of Sasuke. She wasn't so naive she didn't understand what Itachi was offering to her. In Konoha, there was only one fierce rumor that could be applied to this situation. And Itachi was offering it to her without demanding she sacrifice anything except her hymen, which likely wouldn't even be intact after the rigors she'd put her body through as a kunoichi.
"Hag, I have read that being indecisive during intercourse is one of the greatest causes of sexual dissatisfaction."
Sakura took a long, patient breath. "Sai. Timing, timing, timing." She flicked his forehead and he blinked, looking confused. "There is this thing called atmosphere. You just destroyed it."
Sai sighed and sat up. "It looked to me like I was only interrupting the period where you watch the Uchiha hop about the subject like he's a bird of paradise in the spring and you decide that your enormous complex comes before carnal satisfaction and everyone goes to be frustrated." He leaned forward, searching her expression for something. "You only have two hours. If you intend to make the Hyuuga take your virginity, I recommend starting soon. You'll have to overrule his outraged objections."
"Neji?" Sakura squeaked.
"Because if you choose the Uchiha, he will never forgive you," he said baldly.
"Sai, if you don't stop saying nonsense, I"ll-," Neji never got to finish his threat as Sai cut him off.
"Turn your painfully obvious sexual jealousy against me? I am the only man in this room that has seen Sakura naked, after all. That should be much more provoking than red-eye's resemblance to a boy she thought she loved when she was twelve."
Neji's fists clenched, but he could make no argument. Leashing his temper, he found Sakura watching him cautiously, curiously. "Neji," she said hesitantly, "you know I would never do anything to hurt you, outside of a sparring match. You've been there in the dark times and the bright. I don't think this is something I can casually as of you, of all people. I like and respect you too much to use you like that. So," and she winced, "if you could look in on Hinata or something? This is the most dangerous mission she's been on," she prompted.
Neji's voice was flat. "And Sai?"
Sakura didn't quite meet his eyes. "He's going to go listen in on the information Kakashi's supposed to be collecting from the proprietress."
"After that speech about recognizing people as human beings, you realize you've all but admitted you'll be using Uchiha-san," Neji said coldly. "I've thought many things about you, Sakura, but I didn't realize you were a hypocrite. How dare you try to decide this for me. Sakura, you're right to say that I won't let you use me as a one-time encounter, but for once, Sai might have a point. If you let Itachi..." he found he couldn't even vocalize the thought. He was standing without realizing he'd moved.
Sakura's hips twitched, like a cat might flick its tail when it sees something interesting. "Would you...," she licked suddenly dry lips and tried again, "would you come over and say that to me?" she challenged.
Neji's eyes narrowed and he stalked across the room to the bed, but Sakura wriggled backwards until she was out of convenient reach, forcing him to come to her. It was awkward and in any other situation it would have been degrading to crawl across a mattress on his knees to make a point, but he was beginning to become caught in the pace of Sakura's game.
He could have used his body to trap her against the headboard, but he knew Sakura did not respond well to being cornered. And that was not what he wanted in any case. He did not want to make her choose him. He wanted her to choose him of her own accord, as her first lover. Because he knew Sakura. If she was going to live the rumor, she was going to do it well.
It was less awkward than he'd feared. They were each familiar with how the other moved in battle, so it was no great feat to tip their heads just so, Sakura's lips surprisingly soft against his. There was so little soft about her anymore.
Their first kiss was the soft press of lips, noninvasive, like children holding hands. Their second was more confident, but still not proprietary, a kind of give and take as they explored the unfamiliar contours of their partner's body through that single point of contact.
Pulling back, he was pleased to see that Sakura blushed, though he was blushing as well. "You know, I always imagined my first time as a little more traditional than this. Less people."
"Be grateful there's a bed," Neji advised.
"Oh, I am. I could see this being much more awkward and complicated." She glanced at both Sai and Itachi, not quite making eye contact. "So...?"
Itachi sighed, standing from where he'd still been sitting beside the door, coming to stand beside the bed. "Don't over think this," he advised. "All you have to do is feel."
Sakura frowned at him but did not argue, reaching down to begin undoing her armor.
"Ah." It was a single syllable, but Sakura glared at him.
"You said all I had to do is feel and I felt like I should take my clothes off."
"Don't you think it might be more interesting if your partner does it?"
Sakura glared. "Are you going to provide running criticism? If so, I might change my mind."
"Sex isn't something you have by yourself. That's masturbation. Take your partner's feelings into consideration."
Neji pinched the bridge of his nose. "Her partner also thinks that the coach is unnecessary. Let Sakura do as she pleases."
Sakura shot Itachi a superior look, but then her expression turned playful. She tackled Neji, nearly knocking him off the bed, doing her best impression of the cat that caught the canary as she ran a taunting finger in a line that traced from his lips to the top of his pants, letting him feel just the merest sensation of flesh against flesh as she plucked the black fabric. Neji sucked in a breath.
Sakura kept eye contact with him as she deftly undid the shoulder clasps of his armor, sliding her hands lower on both sides of his body as she simultaneously unbuckled the lower straps, muscles in her legs taut as she held herself just above his lower body.
He allowed her to peel away his armor slowly, tauntingly, before he arched his body up to press against hers, one hand sliding behind her neck to pull her close for another kiss. His free hand was not idle, her armor sliding down onto the bed with just the slightest sound of metal. When he'd pulled her down, she'd lost her precarious balance on the just slightly too soft bed and she was now sitting quite provokingly atop his arousal, only the layers of fabric between them.
"Sorry," Neji whispered, "but just this once, I absolutely won't let you win." Sakura's brow rose and then her eyes widened as he flipped them over, her tangling pink hair now dangling over the edge of the bed. Sai was grumbling something as he was forced to vacate his previous position, but as he left the bed he tangled his fingers with hers, distracting her from Neji.
Especially when he knelt down, running the back of her hand across his cheek, his dark eyes suddenly having an unexpected depth. It was hard to make black look warm, but in this moment he managed. He nipped gently at the knuckles on the back of her hand, like a cat demanding attention, and then his lips ghosted along them, turning wet and warm as he licked playfully at her fingers before biting down with gentle pressure on her nails.
Having captured her attention, however briefly, he uncapped his calligraphy brush and with the confident stroke of a apt pupil of the ancient art, he defined a long-tailed bird. Suzaku. Sakura's lips twitched at the evidence of Sai's dry sense of humor. But that was before he made his usual handsign and rather than peeling itself from her body, it fluttered on her skin and she felt the sensation. The long-feathered plumes of its tail, which had curled back toward Sai, drifted like kelp in the ocean down her arm, lingering at the sensitive skin of her inner elbow, then the black line of ink disappeared beneath her clothes. The sensation of touch didn't abate, warm like ink never was, a trail like Sai's tongue on her fingers exploring places she would have never considered erotic but still made her shiver as one plume trailed up her neck and behind her ear.
She found Neji was watching her with an almost uncharacteristic amusement. He leaned close, lips almost touching the shell of her ear. "Shall I show you what the Byakugan is capable of?" The veins around his eyes bulged and Sakura knew he was watching her chakra flow beneath her skin.
His fingers were unerring. Having her chakra blocked hurt and having it flood an area was just as painful, but this was something new, different. She could actually feel as her chakra began to flow, stagnant areas she hadn't even noticed before running clear. It wasn't necessarily sexual, but it was intimate, and she felt light as air, light as glass as he patiently administered to her body, leaving him setting at her feet, silver-white eyes knowledgeable. If there was a feeling to having your body purified, of having all the corruption of the present world washed away, it might have been this one. Sakura wanted to laugh and so she did, the sound bubbling from her like a mountain spring.
Her laughter made Neji smile and it was a lighter, more boyish expression than she'd ever seen him wear.
There was a soft sound of disdain from the side of the bed where she knew Itachi stood. "If we keep at your pace, you will be satisfied by a little foreplay."
As he reached up to remove his glasses, Sakura gained the sense she did in the best battles, as if time was moving more slowly. She could almost count the strands in his hair as he pulled the band from it and it fell in shining darkness around his shoulders. Sakura swallowed. She could see how he might be related to Madara. She wondered if he would also feel like fire.
A/N: I'm going to go hide in a corner now, having written that. And posted it. Gek. I didn't realize how hard to was to keep M-rated fiction from becoming MA. Just in case you missed it, no one even takes all their clothes off. But if it went any further than this, well, let's just say we would be treading deep into MA territory.
