Sakura and Itachi climbed the stairs to the second floor of their tower when they were met by a man who strongly resembled a shark.
"Itachi, we have a mission, just a quick run, should be back tomorrow morning at the latest." Kisame said as he looked at Sakura.
"Leader Sama said you are training the newest member and didn't want you gone long." he added.
"We leave immediately I assume?" Itachi said.
"Yeah, I'll just wait right here." Kisame said, grinning at Sakura.
"This is Haruno Sakura she was a Leaf nin." Itachi told Kisame.
"Nice to meet you princess." Kisame smiled with lots of teeth at her. "I'm Kisame, this guy's partner."
"Ice to meet you Kisame San, good luck on your short mission." Sakura nodded to him.
"I'll walk you to your room." Itachi took her by the arm and called over his shoulder, "I will only be a moment."
Kisame grinned after them shaking his head.
"It must be an assasination. It won't take long, I'll be right back. Do not wander out of the village on your own. Stay in your room or the kitchen and common room if you can. Don't go anywhere with Tobi, he is not to be trusted or underestimated. I will see you soon." Itachi hugged her and kissed her quickly. He hesitated at her door momentarily, turned and looked at her one more time. She smiled and he walked out the door down the stairs where Kisame was waiting for him. The sooner he left the sooner he could get back to her.
-Our first night here and he won't even be with us, what the hell-
Sakura shut the door to her room and went to the bathroom to draw herself a bath. She had shopping in the village tomorrow with Konan but nothing else planned. Itachi didn't tell her to train and she wasn't sure if she should without him there to guide her. What if something went wrong, it wasn't worth the risk. Besides, she told herself, he had told her to stay close to the tower and village, she could wait till he got back.
After stacking the wood under the bath she started the fire and waited for the water to heat. While she waited she stripped off her clothes, they were all sweaty from training. She would wash them in the tub when she was done with her bath. She was humming to herself when she heard the knock at her door.
Thinking it was Itachi she wrapped herself in a towel quickly to get the door for him. Her smile faded when she opened the door to find not Itachi but a tall man with spiky long jet black hair running down his back in a black long sleeved tee and black nin pants. He looked familiar but she knew she had never met this man before. She also knew...he was dangerously powerful. Chakra seeped from him like honey from a comb. She closed her eyes as it washed over her, tantalizing her. A gasp left her as she realized she had just closed her eyes in the face of an unknown.
"May I help you?" She asked him a little more bluntly than she normally would have, btu he had unnerved her a bit.
"Good evening my dear." He said in a low purring voice and she immediately backed up and away from him. He walked into her room and shut her door...and locked it.
Sakura narrowed her eyes at the gesture.
"Tobi kun? Or is it...Uchiha Madara?" That's it, she had recognized him from the statue in The Valley of the End. She continued to look at him through narrowed eyes, as she sent small waves of chakra to her body healing her bruises and sore muscles, preparing them for a fight if need be.
A deep gravelly laugh took her by surprise when he noticed what she had just done. "Recognized me did you?"
"I am not here to fight with you my lovely. I just wish to speak to you." Madara sat down on a chair by her bed without invitation.
"What do you wish to speak to me about, and how are you alive, if you are the real Madara, you should be dead and decaying if not dust by now." She retorted.
A devious smirk played over his face as he looked her over in her bath towel.
"Yes, a fascinating story I assure you but I am more interested in you and any new abilities you may have discovered while training with Itachi today hum?" His eyes lowered to the hem of the towel and her bare legs.
"Unfortunately, it does not seem as though I have a good grasp of my new skills, perhaps it is because I am not a blood Uchiha." She said standing tall, or as tall as one can in a towel in front of a man who had already accosted her once, was supposed to be dead and a founder of her former village, not to mention the greatest Uchiha in history.
"You are not an Uchiha at all. I have performed no wedding ceremonies and you have yet to find your way into my bed." Hi eyes dragged up from her bare legs to her face, still smirking.
"Irregardless, I have yet to discover any new abilities aside from the ones the eyes came with." She walked to the door, "If you will excuse me please, I was about to take a bath." She opened the door for him to leave but he didn't move.
"Perhaps you are in need of a more...experienced partner to give your body the stimulation required to get you to ...open up?" Madara started walking to the door, to her.
"Itachi will train me in all I need to know. I see no reason for you to waste your time on something so trivial." She spoke with her head high she was not going to let him intimidate her.
-Wasn't Madara Uchiha taller and better looking?-
"You are anything but trivial my dear. Tell me what Sasuke was to you that Itachi would give you his eyes?" He leaned into her, his breath on her brow, warm and close...too close, as he shut the door she had opened for him, locking it again.
She backed up against the door to get away from him but was caught up short. He moved slightly and pressed his body against hers.
Sakura had raised her hands up to keep his body from making contact with hers but he was strong and her hands were trapped against his chest pressing back into hers, the tension of their bodies the only thing keeping her towel in place. Could she bring herself to use chakra infused fists against Madara Uchiha, was it wise...
-Ok, he is pretty tall and not bad looking-
"What is your interest in me, you don't know me, is it my association to Itachi, you seem to know alot about our relationship. I am nothing special, I am not beautiful, nor a genius, I lack extraordinary talent. I have nothing you could want. I only have Sasuke's eyes."
" Is that what you are after? There could be nothing else." She did not like being pinned against the back of the door but if he really was Madara Uchiha, what chance did she have, he had already shown her how fast he was earlier and she could feel his insanely powerful chakra rolling off of him, he wasn't hiding it from her.
"Are you humble like Itachi or do you really not see your own prowess or abilities? I have read your file, the Akatsuki have been keeping track of you for some time now. Have you hidden from the world so long that you do not know the extent of your own worth, does he not worship your body everyday and tell you how rare a jewel you are every night?" Madara ran a finger over the top of the sliding towel grazing the tops of her breasts as he did so.
"Pity. Such beauty, hiding such skill and such...ruthlessness." He ripped the towel away from her, lifted her legs and slammed her back up against the door again leaning into her kissing her hard.
"I hear you took out a whole village by yourself, punched hole after hole through their chests. An angel covered in blood." He licked her ear as he spoke the words in his low penetrating voice.
"You who has a chakra reserve that rivals the Nine tails, who mastered jutsu before the age of ten that was created by the second Hokage, a genjutsu master before you had Sasuke's sharingan." He bit her neck dragging his teeth down the side to her bare shoulder.
She shivered in his arms.
"I know you. I know you better than you know yourself. You try to maintain control, I say lose control, and live up to your full potential, stop wasting your time, and be who you have always wanted to be, who you know you truly are." He released her legs and let her slide down the wall to stand before him.
"I would lay the world at your feet and crown you Queen, if you would let me." He took her face in his hands and kissed her, forcing his tongue past her lips, tilting her head up to his, forcefully moving his body against hers rocking into her sending waves of heat over her naked body, and then he was gone.
-That was fucking hot-
Shut it, she thought to herself.
Kakashi sat beside Sasuke's hospital bed thumbing the fabric of Sakura's headband they had found in the cabin. Was she still here, or had she gone already? He needed more information. She knew him, she knew him well. She knew he would find the cabin, that he would track her scent. He hadn't been lying when he said they were practically the same person, they had a lot in common. She would need another sign, more proof her hunch was correct...so did he. She would send him another sign , he knew it. He knew her.
Sasuke's chakra spiked. Kakashi tucked the headband in his pack and stood up looking worriedly over the boy, the man, he corrected himself. Was he finally waking up? A machine to the right started a long drawn out whine. Oh shit, thought Kakashi wasn't that a bad noise?
Nurses and a doctor rushed into the room pushing him out, telling him to go wait in the waiting room and then ignoring him as they wheeled Sasuke out of his room down the hall to the emergency operating room. Shit.
Deidara hummed as he walked down the stairs to Sakura's room. She had been training most of the day with Itachi so he had left her alone and gone to his own room when he was struck with inspiration.
He carried the results of his effort and creativity in his hand excited to show her his art. She loved his art and he couldn't wait to give it to her. He knocked on her door and whistled a little waiting for her to open it.
The door opened not long after he had knocked and she stood aside welcoming him in.
"Hey Deidara, how ya doing?" She smiled at him smelling strongly of water and flowers.
"Good and you hey?" He smiled at her. He was so glad she was here with them, part of the Akatsuki.
"I'm good." She looked to his hand where he was fidgeting with her gift. "What's that?"
"It's for you yeah." He holds it up for her to see it better. He grins as the smile explodes across her face, that's what he had been waiting for, that's what he wanted to see.
"It's me! You made another me? Oh I have my katana and am attacking something!" She squealed in delight. He was so cool.
-You think that is exciting? After Madara's visit? This lump of dirt excites you?-
Her smile left her.
"You okay Kura?" Deidara looked at her. "You stopped smile suddenly."
Did she not like it as much as he thought she would, was there something wrong with his art? Deidara frowned as he looked the little figurine over.
-Oh pet names now is it? Think we're that close do you?-
"Oh, I'm sorry, I love it Deidara, is it for me? Do I get to keep it?" She smiled at him apologetically.
"Of course it is for you hey, you are my muse yeah." She had the little figure in hand and was walking to the window desk. She placed the new Sakura figurine, her katana held in a fighting stance, next to her other Sakura figurine and larger bird.
"Look." She pointed the the picture he had drawn her, of her reading by the lake, it was framed in a dark grey and silver frame hanging on the wall by her bed.
"I have my own little Deidara art gallery." She laughed and smiled at him. "Thanks so much I love your art."
"I will keep making you things as they come to me, but right now I'm hungry, wanna go get something to eat hey?" He asked her.
"Sure, let me just put on a different shirt, I just got out of the bath." She grabbed a shirt off the bed and went to change in the bathroom.
When she came out he was looking out her window. "You don't have any drapes, anyone can look in on you. That's not good hey."
"I can just put up a genjutsu for the night, let's go I'm starving." She laughed and they left her room together.
Deidara took one last glance at her window then followed her out her door.
Tsunade came out of the operating room hours later to find a very frazzled Kakashi harassing the nurses for an update on Sasuke. She grabbed him by the collar and half lifted , half dragged him into her office where she threw him into a chair, got out two small cups and a very large bottle of sake.
She poured for them both and threw hers back. When he only sat there she nudged the cup toward him and he drank it. She poured for them again and took hers in her hands sitting back in her chair.
"I have news but you might not take it well." Tsunade says.
Kakashi's head drops to his chest and he takes in several gulps of air quickly.
"No, not that, Sasuke is going to be fine , it is what I found when I was looking at his eyes. I got his chakra stabilized, that is what set off the monitor. Once I had taken care of that though I decided to take advantage of the drugs he is on to look at his eyes again and found something that wasn't there before. When I unwrapped his eye sockets...he had eyes." She paused here unsure how to proceed.
Kakashi's head jerked up, "What?"
"I found chakra, healing chakra in his eye sockets, that wasn't there before and it isn't mine." She said looking at him.
He held his breath.
"It was Sakura's." Tsunade said as if she couldn't believe it herself.
"You're sure her healing chakra wasn't there before when you checked him?" Kakashi asked her.
"I'm sure. One more thing Kakashi. His eyes, he has...Fugaku's. His father's eyes." Tsunade took and poured another drink.
"Fugaku died years ago, Itachi killed him in the massacre." Kakashi said.
Tsunade nodded her head in agreement then shook it in disbelief.
"Four years ago, his eyes, they were buried with his body?" Kakashi asked her.
"Fugaku, because of who he was, because of the Mangekyo his eyes held...his eyes, his whole body was burned." Tsunade said quietly.
"But." Kakashi protested.
"I know!" She paused again. "I can't explain it, can you?"
Kakashi didn't say anything but he did take another drink. It wasn't peppermint gin but it would have to do.
"Got any theories? Cause I don't." She said.
Kakashi sat still for a moment letting this sink in. He played the events over the last few days in his head. He sighed, yeah, it had to be it.
"I only have one theory." He reached into his pouch and pulled Sakura's headband out and handed it to Tsunade.
"Don't touch the back, there is dried blood on it, it is important." He waves his hand to the headband.
"This is." She flips it over and looks at the date." You're fucking with me."
"I asure you Lady Tsunade, I am not fucking with you." Kakashi takes another shot and fills both of their cups again.
"This is old and rusted, weathered, it must be at least," She stutters.
"Yeah, ten years old or so." Kakashi confirmed her thoughts with his own.
"You think she went back in time?" Tsunade asked him eyes wide and mouth hung open.
"She has his Mangekyo, and perfect chakra control, you know her as well as I do, she could do it if she puts her mind to it, if it was possible, she could do it."