Here's chapter 22. I hope you all enjoy what's hinted at at the end of the chapter.

...

Sakura had taken advice from Ino and Tsunade's playbooks and combined them and was running through the woods regretting having done it. She had drunk every bottle of liquor in the house, which consisted of 8 decent sized bottles, and broke every door off their hinges. She was going to regret this…

Itachi had been following the trail of his target back to the house. The trail did not lead to blood and a female's mutilated corpse like it commonly did with this target. Instead it was the sight in the backyard that was less than disturbing. The backyard was filled with the sound of the target's sobbing. Itachi saw the two familiar versions of Sakura tormenting and beating the man he had been hunting in the woods. He was tied, upside down, from one of the trees in the back yards by his feet and had his hands bound up his forearms from his wrists to his elbows.

"You have to help me man." The guy begged Itachi as soon as he saw him. Itachi had tracked the man all the way back to the house and assumed he had snuck up on and assaulted Sakura like he had the other women he made him prey, but it seems Sakura had made him her prey first. "This bitch is crazy." The monotone version didn't seem to like his tone as a solid punch landed with his stomach.

"CHA! Say that looking me in the face and I'll show you who's a bitch when I have you on your knees begging for your life. You little-" Inner's rant continued as she continued to punch him in the gut. The light colored one laughed as she watched the scene.

"Oo~ why don't you tie his left arm to that tree, the right to that one, then do a-" Itachi didn't wait to hear the rest of her suggestion. He went inside and found the real Sakura sitting in her room, looking a little paler than normal, reading a very large book.

"Welcome back." Sakura greeted Itachi without even looking up. Itachi noted the fact that her tone held a hint of… something… in the words. Feelings that he couldn't name. It wasn't disdain or even really hate. Her face was turned away from him so he couldn't see her use her expressions to assess or find a hint as to what the emotion was.

"Call off your clones." Itachi said. He offered no explanation why but didn't walk away. Sakura was baffled by the audacity of the S-ranked criminal. How dare he think he could just order her to do something like that. She was letting the two clones vent their frustration on the man who had broken in.

"Excuse you!" Sakura closed her book then pushed it into her seal. She didn't care if it was in the scroll or not at the moment. She was going to get back to it in a moment anyway. Her outburst must have struck a nerve in Itachi because as soon as she burst from her seat, he sped towards her and wrapped his hand around her throat.

"Excuse you." He repeated much calmer but menacingly. His grip grew tighter and shoved her against the wall. Sakura gripped at his wrist and tried channeling chakra into her hands, but her fear got in the way. "I need that man alive for the bounty. Your clone is about to kill him. Either you call her off or." He didn't finish his statement. Sakura understood what he meant as his grip tightened, and her breathing grew even more difficult. Dots danced across her vision and she gave in. She pulled back on the chakra that connected her to the two clone forms. Her arms dropped to her sides and she lost consciousness. The last thing she was not the black, spinning tomoes in his red eyes, but the tremble of his lower lip as he caught the frown that fought to form on his lips.

When Sakura came to, she was still on the ground and Itachi was not in the house. The man was no longer tied to the tree either. Inner was screeching about how she wanted to beat Itachi with his own legs while Pastel wanted to tie his legs and arms to shinobi dogs and have them run to the four corners until the appendages were separated from his body. Sakura was being to worry about the two as she traveled because with each fall through time, they grew more and more violent.

'There is nothing wrong with me.' Inner said with a huff as she threw herself down into a Criss cross sitting position. 'I'm just pissed off. How dare he man handle us!' Sakura understood her anger and believed that it was just in part. He had also broke a rule that he himself had placed. By doing so she no longer trusted his word and was going to leave. From her seal she summoned the scroll and pulled her gear pouches, basic blue nin long sleeve pants and a long sleeve shirt that would be worn under the vest of any rank shinobi, quickly wrapped bandaging that would go under her gear pouches, she then secured the pouches on her thighs and calves, and neatly returned everything to the scroll then into her seal.

She left her room and went to the kitchen where she knew paper, ink, and a brush would be. She found rice balls on the table with a note apologizing for being so harsh and that he'd explain when he returned. It did not specify when. His handwriting was neat and elegant… and pissed Sakura off even more. She crumpled his note up and tossed it in the trash. Grabbing all the materials for another note. She was more than aware this was not the Itachi of the past. This was a cold-blooded killer and she needed to remember that. This was the same man who traumatized Sasuke. Who would kill many innocent people for the Akatsuki? Who would hunt down and try to kill Naruto for many years to come? This was no longer the emotionally stunted young man she tried to protect. She tried to change his future and he followed the same path despite her warnings.

"Itachi,

You have invalidated our agreement. Goodbye.

-Sakura.

P.s: By coming in my room and choking me out you've authorized the breaking of all your doors."

She really didn't like doing this, but she was really pissed off and it was better than what Inner and Pastel were whispering in her ear. She went room-to-room and broke each door with chakra charged hands. And was gone. She was running in the opposite direction of the town hoping to find another. From there she'd get her exact location and head towards the direction of the last known location of the Haruno clan members. She would do whatever she could to continue her search.

It was dark out. Based on the position of the moon it was already nearing dawn and the cover of night she had would be gone with the rising sun. She pumped extra chakra into her legs and sped off.

…

When Itachi returned to the house he was renting, the state it was in was devastating. The doors had been torn from the frames on the opposite ends, so the damage made it so even parts of the house's structure had to be repaired.

"That foolish…" kunoichi. Itachi never usually had an issue with kunoichi or used the term as an insult but at this moment he felt like this was an adequate moment to do so. This was going to be very costly. Kakuzu was going to be furious with him and would threaten to collect the bounty on his head. He was going to hunt her down and get as much of the repair costs from her then get some sort of payment from her village for her release for the rest.

Using his Sharingan he saw her footsteps led in the opposite direction of town, so he followed them. They were fairly fresh and couldn't have been made more than 2 hours prior. For a shinobi of his caliber it wouldn't take him too long to catch up to her. At her speed just with his long legs it would take him an hour and a half, with his increase in speed and knowledge of the area he could catch up to her in forty-five minute. He would make her pay for the damages and explain herself.

…

Ahead Sakura slowed down when she heard the sound of a young child crying. The sobbing was hushed and muffled but she could make it out because of the chakra she had been pumping into her ears so she could hear if Itachi, or anyone else, was nearby. Sakura stopped and looked around for the kid and was unable to find anyone.

"Hello?" Sakura called out to try and get a response from the emotionally distraught child. "Where are you?" She asked. The sound of grass shifting to her right caught her attention and a little boy peaked out from behind a tree.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked, cocking his head to the side wiping his eyes and wandering over to her. Sakura shakes her head with a sad smile on her face.

"I'm sorry I don't but If you'd like I can take you with me to the next town and we can try to find your family there? How does that sound?" Sakura offered. She didn't like the idea of bringing him along when she was being hunted down but, if she left him there, she would not be sure that Itachi or anyone else would bring him to town and he could possibly die in the woods. The boy nods and Sakura picks him up and holds him close. He appears to be only three but is extremely malnourished so he must have been in the woods for a long time.

Sakura quickly did the required hand signs behind the boys back and summoned three clones to go and hide any, and all, of her tracks for the last 10 miles. Why she chose the last ten miles was because the trees grew thicker and wilder. The uniform and neat nature of the trees grew random and had had them nearly one on each other. Sakura jumped into the trees and jumped, more carefully now that she had a passenger, traveled one mile north before continuing towards the town. She wanted to ensure that if Itachi were to catch up he would not find her because she would be in a different row of trees than him.

Getting to town was a breeze from there. Well kind of. Had Sakura not kept going despite it being nighttime she would have not found the town. She was ten miles south of the edge of the town. If she had kept going straight, she would not have found the town and would have kept going until wherever the next town was. The boy in her arms was fast asleep as she adjusted her course for the bright glow of the unknown village before her. The village wasn't as big as the Leaf village but was big. Before entering the village, Sakura placed a henge over herself so her hair would appear brown and it would look like she was wearing a simple kimono and made her way to one of the inns in the village. Her bubblegum pink hair was now a deep chocolate brown that was a close shade to the boy in her arms. Sakura didn't want to risk running into Itachi and this would be the perfect cover.

"Um excuse me." Sakura mustered up a timid and quiet voice and used it to get the attention of the woman at the front desk without waking the boy in her arms. The woman was skinny and had wavy blonde locks that went down to her waist. "Do you have a room available? We only need it for the night, and we will be gone."

After flipping through the scheduling book in front of her the woman smiled then replied. "Yes, we have a room that is not booked for tomorrow." She went over the pricing with Sakura then gave Sakura the key to the room. "If there are any problems with the room please come let me know. My name is Akira."

"Thank you, Akira." Sakura said with a smile then went to the room where she'd be staying with the boy. She let the boy sleep on the bed closest to the window while she slept on the one closer to the door. She tucked him into the blankets then went through the room with a fine-toothed comb before undoing her henge and taking a shower before going to bed herself.