Sorry! I know I haven't updated in a while, but I was suffering a severe case of writer's block and review withdrawal. Plus, I've got a ton of homework. Meh. High school is shit.

ANYWAY! This chapter might seem like a filler chapter to those of you who can't pick out the subtle clues that this is anything BUT a filler chapter, so;

THIS ISNT A FILLER CHAPPIE GUYS!

Right. Now that that's done, I would like to thank the 9 people that had bothered to review the last chapter. Thank you ^_^ Can I get more for this one?

DontWaitUpForMe: Thank you for the awesome praise! You have officially earned yourself a virtual cookie!

TheNinjaArtist: Hope you can get your mom to agree soon! It would be cool if you had an account!

Now then…

ENJOY!


:: … 2 Years Later … :: …

Sakura sighed. Things have been getting far too troublesome as of recently. Their plan to eliminate Orochimaru was just around the corner. While the rosette was glad that they would finally be rid of the creepy snake bastard, there was also dread constantly pooling in the pit of her stomach. What if something goes wrong? What would happen if Sasuke won't manage to overpower Orochimaru? What if I strike too late?

Those were the questions that were constantly swimming within Sakura's mind. She hated herself for it. Being unable to answer annoyed her more than the entire reason as to why they were going through all the trouble to kill the snake.

Something twitched within her.

The only reason… The only real reason as to why they were planning to run away. So Sasuke can track and kill Itachi without any interruptions.

Sakura hated this. Hated living in constant fear. She hated the urge to look over her shoulder everywhere she went.
The dark shadows under her eyes spoke of many sleepless nights spent wondering, thinking, sometimes even training under the pale glare of the moon.

But there was something else that unsettled the rosette. The seed of doubt that had been planted in her stomach, and no matter what she did, she couldn't get rid of it. When she first arrived at the hideout, the knowledge of the full extent of Itachi's plans fresh in her mind, she had no doubt that if a confrontation was to take place, he would win. His incredible, cunning mind; the ability to think on his feet; the impressive chakra capacity – it all spoke volumes about what kind of ninja Itachi Uchiha was. In her mind, he was invincible. In her mind, Sasuke was a mere shadow, no threat at all.

However that was before she had started training with Sasuke . At the beginning, the young raven had shown great potential, but while he had potential, Itachi had talent. Only now did she realise, that the potential Sasuke had presented was far greater than she had originally thought.

Although he lacked Itachi's stealth or chakra capacity, Sasuke had incredible stamina. He was also more of a hands-on learner, something that allowed him to re-think his attack, while still fighting. Itachi always had a plan. If one manoeuvre went wrong, he would use the momentum to change into a new one and continue fighting. His methodical way of thinking was admirable, but in a battle, Sasuke's act-now-think-later was more effective.

Plus, Sasuke didn't have a deadly disease that was slowly but surely eating out his lungs from the inside.

Sakura had witnessed Itachi's attack only once, but it was enough to make her aware of how much Itachi really had to fight, just to survive another day. And now, when the battle between the two brothers seemed inevitable…

Sasuke might actually win without Itachi's help.

Ever since that fateful night after the chuunin exams, when she was reunited with the elder Uchiha and was first made aware of his plans, Sakura was aware that Itachi planned to die, regardless if Sasuke succeeded in killing him or not. She could even imagine Itachi discreetly taking Sasuke's kunai and stabbing it in his own stomach, or completely cutting off his chakra flow half-way through the battle. But she had a plan for that. Sakura had planned to follow the younger Uchiha to the battlefield, then step in when Sasuke was about to attack, or it looked like Itachi had given up. She would use a doppelganger, take Itachi, run away, everyone would be happy and Itachi would be alive.

But now… knowing that Sasuke might even be on the same level as Itachi… the seed of doubt grew with every day, every time they sparred.

It is possible that I will be too late…

The rosette didn't want to guess, didn't dare to hope. She would take the cards she'd be dealt with and hope for the best. After all, she still had a mission to accomplish.

The mission…

The Sage of Six Paths had disappeared shortly after she arrived to Oto. At first Sakura was grateful, but now she found herself wishing more and more to hear his stern voice in her mind again. She desperately needed someone to talk to, someone that wasn't Sasuke. Jiraya-sama was also out of the question. Itachi was his best spy, with him being able to effortlessly gain info on the Akatsuki. If Sakura told him Itachi was planning to die, the old man would to his damnest to keep him alive.

Dammit!

She needed the Sage more than she let on. Hearing him again would confirm the fact that she really and truly had to kill Pein, and that it wasn't simply her imagination, making up a scenario in revenge for the years and years of neglect and critique that came from him. Regardless of the fact that it would destroy her sanity – after all, hearing voices in your head wasn't exactly normal – Sakura needed the confirmation.

Please… Just once…

Don't beg. It's unbecoming.


Sakura jolted awake. Her heart was beating like crazy, with cold sweat running down her back. For a moment she felt too disorientated to even move, let alone think about where the hell she was.

The cool, rough surface underneath her, the unmistakable sunlight hitting her pale skin, Wait a second-!

"Well done. An entire forty-two minutes of sleep. Must be your new record." A voice to her right drawled lazily.

The rosette snapped her head to the side, only to see Sasuke leaning against a tree, mindlessly twirling a kunai around his finger. Kusanagi lay on the ground next to his foot, the deadly blade gleaming in the sunlight.

"What the…?" Sakura trailed off.

"We went out to train, remember? When I started warming up," he pointed to the pulverized state of the trees behind him, "You just walked off and sat on this boulder, since the oh-so-great Sakura doesn't need a warm up." Sasuke finished, smirking at her.

"You should've woken me up." Sakura scowled. "I don't like to keep people waiting. Sorr-"

"Are you kidding?" Sasuke cut her off, any trace of playfulness he had gone. "This was the most sleep you've gotten in the last two weeks, Sakura! Do you think I don't notice the bags under your eyes? Or the fact that you're barely alive when we go on missions?" at her perplexed gaze, Sasuke sighed. "You're a human too, Sakura. Not a machine."

Sakura froze, her emerald eyes wide. "Hu…man?" she asked quietly. Sasuke's eyes were trained on her thumb, as it made its way to her mouth, her teeth clamping on the unfortunate nail. A habit – he noticed – that Sakura picked up when she was thinking. At first it disgusted him – how can anyone do that, with all the blood and dirt and other bacteria? – but then he noticed that somehow, Sakura's hands always stayed impeccably clean. Now he just treated it as something the rosette did. Normal. Nothing to question her about. Just another one of her many quirks.

Her reactions were something he'd come to treasure – after the snake's nasty comments and jibes at her persona, then the multiple words of criticism of 'if she kept flaunting her emotions like that she would die quicker than she could say 'It's not fair'', the rosette had become sheltered, guarded. The most that could be seen would be a small quirk to her lips, or lift of the eyebrow if something amused her, or a tiny, almost unnoticeable widening of her eyes if one of their opponents turned out to be more challenging than they seemed.

So, seeing her like that, eyes glassy, unfocused; her teeth nibbling on her thumbnail, a small frown etched on her face – it all reminded him of the first few months after he'd met her. Even the pissy, PMSing sadistic girl would've been better than this – an emotionless insomniac.

"Human…" Sakura whispered. A small smile blossomed on her face as she raised her eyes to meet his. "I guess I am."


Somehow, Sakura didn't know how, but that one comment had managed to awaken something that she'd been repressing for a long time.

Emotions.

And she was glad, oh, so glad that Sasuke had said that. She'd been hiding in her shell for far too long, worrying and planning. Now, as they stood side-by-side, facing the snake-bastard, Sakura didn't flinch under his gaze or try to shut him out. She stared him down, eyes serious, but that seriousness was overlooked because of the mischievous smirk on her face.

"Well, well, Sasuke-kun. It seems like your ex-teammates are tracking down someone I know. It would be pitiful if they got there before you… and Sakura-chan of course." His eyes gleamed. With a flourish Sakura didn't know he possessed, Orochimaru unrolled the scroll in front of them.

"It seems as if my ex-partner and my replacement have been ordered to hunt down the One-Tailed Jinchuuriki of Sunagakure. However it seems as though the Godaime has issued a special retrieval team. There's the Hokage's apprentice," the sannin turned to Sakura, "with very… similar skills. And there's also Copy-Ninja Kakashi, the Nine-Tailed Jinchuuriki, and some other unimportant brats. The problem is, my dears," Sakura felt Sasuke shiver next to her, repulsed with the pet name. She herself barely repressed a shudder of disgust. "The problem is the elder that is tagging along with them. Sasori's grandmother."

"Chiyo?" Sakura murmured. "But from what Sasori'd told me the hag had retired… How peculiar." There was a sort of cold detachment about her voice that Sasuke didn't miss.

"Indeed, and since they've started their pathetic goose-chase three days ago, you'd better get going if you want to catch up." Sadistic glee simmered in his yellow eyes.

Sasuke nodded. "We're going."


Sakura was bustling around her room, packing the necessary equipment in one of her carrier scrolls. Her gaze fell on the small, face-less marionette that lay propped up in the corner of her cell-like room. A wave of nostalgia washed over her.

Sasori…

She gently picked up the petite doll and pressed her lips to its forehead. "Sayonara." She whispered.

"You're not going to follow his orders, are you?" Sakura almost jumped.

What's up with me? I'm never this jumpy. Not around Sasuke.

"No." she muttered. "But then again, when have I?"

"Sakura." When the rosette still didn't turn around he repeated louder this time. "You don't expect him to survive, do you?"

That got her attention. With a small swish of her white cloak she snapped her head to stare at him, her eyes wide. She wasn't that easy to read, was she? "What gave you that idea?" she masked her surprise with that same cold detachment. It was easier that way.

"Akasuna no Sasori is a puppeteer. He's also an Akatsuki member. That doll," he pointed to the marionette Sakura had just replaced, "It's from him, isn't it?"

The rosette sighed. "Why do you have to be so damn observant?" she groaned.

"Being forced to interact with someone on a daily basis for over two years, you start to pick up on their reactions." His eyes twinkled with amusement. "Though you're probably the only person who I can truly say this rule doesn't apply to. Half the time I still don't know what you're thinking."

A small smirk formed on Sakura's face. "You're being awfully talkative today, Sasuke-chan. What's up?"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, turning away. No way in hell would he let her see the small blush on the bridge of his nose! His dignity had already suffered enough. "We should get going."

"Whatever you say."


First impressions suck dicks.

That was Sasuke's main thought as he and Sakura met outside to take off. If he hadn't known her for the last two years, hadn't seen her style or got to know her quirks, he'd have immediately underestimated her.

Though seriously, who wouldn't have?

Sakura was a genius. That he'd managed to figure out. But he'd only recently realized that she didn't like it when people found out about the fact. She'd go to extreme measures to keep that fact a secret. An advantage against her most cocky enemies.

That's why, as she walked alongside him, even Sasuke found himself underestimating her ability as a ninja, even though he knew that the seemingly fragile girl could easily overpower him at any given moment.

Her white, calf-long white cloak and the knee-high ninja sandals weren't designed for speed nor agility. That, together with her waist-long pastel pink hair and doll-like face were what threw people of the quickest. Many also noticed the fact that she didn't appear to be carrying any weapons, and, at first glance, her chakra seemed miniscule, though not repressed.

Unfortunately, most of the higher rank ninjas were male, and therefore possessed a higher – like Sakura called it – 'cocky factor'. If they saw a 5'8 girl, dressed in a stark white, dress-like cloak with pink hair, they immediately dismissed her. That was their first mistake, which, also unfortunately came with a steep price – their lives.

And no matter how many times he'd seen it, Sasuke still couldn't believe how well the rosette could manipulate her appearance and other's reaction to her advantage.

Her eyes and fragile built were a decoy – Sasuke had seen the transformation far too many times. From sparkling emerald to deadly cool jade. Her body held muscle, both, for her monstrous punches as well as the incredible speed and agility she possessed.

The white cloak – that was Sasuke's favourite. It held so many traps, so many hidden weapons that he was surprised Sakura wasn't weighted down by it. The Uchiha had once made the mistake of trying to see just how many weapons there were when the rosette was sleeping.

He flinched inwardly. Ah, the amount of kunai, shuriken, senbon. Scary. I think I even saw a self-launching mechanism.

Many would call that paranoia, but Sasuke knew that it was one of the many things that came with being a ninja.

And finally, the Sakura no-weapons. That was also wrong. She had far too many weapons - they were just really well hidden. had once said that the katana she used to carry on her back was a 'Dead give-away. I can't afford to have give-aways'. And her chakra.

Ah, her chakra.

The reason it didn't appear repressed, though it definitely was, was simply because of the meticulous practise the rosette put it through each day. He'd asked her about it.

'I see my chakra as a whip. If I uncoil it, straighten it; it strengthens it and I can also control how long or short I want it to be – chakra-wise, how much I want to repress it.'

All those, together with her almost adorable thumb-to-mouth quirk was only a couple of the many things that made Sakura almost… Invincible.

Atleast in his opinion. No way was he ever going to tell her that. He had dignity.

Yep. First impressions definitely suck. He confirmed. That, or she's just a master of mind-fuck. Sasuke frowned. I prefer the former.


It was around midnight when they finally stopped for the night, though both knew that they could easily have kept going for the next twelve hours. Sakura sat on one of the lower hanging branches sharpening her kunai, while Sasuke entertained himself by attempting to count the stars. It was more challenging than counting sheep.

Plus, it would be atleast three more hours until Sakura even thought about going to sleep. Not that she could, anyway.

"Hey, Sasuke." Sakura said in her quiet, soft voice.

"Hn?"

"Do you… Do you ever regret running away?" she asked.

Sasuke sat up. He didn't even bother to question where that came from, but somehow he knew that it had to do with the bells she talked about in her forty-two minutes of sleep. He'd have to ask about that later.

"No. Not really. If I hadn't run away, I would still be weak." He turned his face to the sky. "Actually, they might even underestimate us."

SLAM!

The raven-haired teen jumped slightly when he saw the tree split clean in half. Sakura's kunai was ebbed clearly in the tree trunk behind. "Underestimate us you say?" a small glint shone in Sakura's eyes.

"Well then, we'll just have to teach them a very important lesson, won't we?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Humour me."

"We are not to be underestimated."

THUD!

Another tree split cleanly in two.

"Damn it, I want your chakra control."

"I want your stamina."

"You can train your stamina!"

"Well, you can train your chakra control!"

Sasuke chuckled. There's no point. He was sleep-deprived, she hadn't killed anyone in a whole entire week. Very small chance of them having an intelligent conversation.

So, instead he asked. "Hey, Sakura?" getting a lazy hm? In reply, he deemed it safe to continue. "What do you mean by 'I keep hearing the bells'?"

Sakura froze. "W-Where… Where did you hear that?"

"Doesn't matter. What does it mean?"

"I.. I'm not sure. I just have a very bad feeling." She paused, and took a deep breath. "Sasuke… I think Sasori is going to die."


Tada!

Done!

So, yes, I know it's kinda weird, but both, the bells and Sakura's complicated thinking are going to be explained in the next chapter. Also!

Anyone actually reading this, prepare for some DeiSaku and SasuSaku next chapter!

PLEASE REVIEW!

(Or else I'll send Pakkun after you! Be scared!)

~Ja ne!