Ambush

Shikamaru yawned as he looked up at the sky that's already darkening. He took one last puff from the cigar before throwing it on the ground and stomping the stick with his foot. Shikamaru texted Naruto the address of their meeting place and that was two and a half hours ago and Shikamaru has been standing there for twenty minutes.

He was ready to ditch them when a car stopped in front and Naruto and Sasuke came out. By now the sky has already turned dark.

"Where's Sakura?" Shikamaru looked behind the two men but no Sakura behind.

"We have to leave her behind," Naruto said, rubbing his upper arm which Sakura punched after he suggested she should not come.

Sasuke also agreed to Naruto not to let her come with them. This kind of dealings is unpredictable to say the least. Even if Shikamaru's father say the shipment is clean, no one can really tell what will happen until they are back in the penthouse. Most of the time, it resulted to an ambush and it would be better to have someone waiting for them in the hotel who can tend on their wounds if push comes to shove.

"You guys seriously took your time getting here eh?" Shikamaru said as they started to walk towards the building across the deserted alley.

"This idiot right here drove to the wrong street four times."

"Hey Sasuke-teme! We only got lost twice and that was because you've been brooding about Sakura being left alone."

Sasuke, hearing Naruto call him such a profanity, gritted his teeth and gripped Naruto by the collar as he sent the Uzumaki a glare.

"Hey, stop it you two," Shikamaru said nonchalantly. "What about your loyal watchdog, Sasuke?"

"I already told Jugo to keep an eye on Sakura," Sasuke said, releasing Naruto a bit too harshly.

When they got in the building, there were two people waiting outside. One is a girl with hazel brown hair tied in two small buns on either side of her head and she was wearing a Chinese outfit together with black tight leggings.

"Yo! Shikamaru, it's been a while," she said, waving her hand as she blew a bubble gum.

Shikamaru nodded his head and look behind at Sasuke and Naruto. "This girl right here is Ten Ten, she's a weapons' handler."

"Hey there you two! I handle weapon shipments in South Asia."

The woman's companion is a guy with black hair cut in a bowl as he sported a green tracksuit.

"Osu, Shikamaru!" he said and Shikamaru nodded in acknowledgement towards him.

"And this guy is Lee."

Lee looked at the two before his stare settled on Sasuke.

"You must be the infamous Uchiha Sasuke," he said before nodding. Sasuke just looked back at him with a slight frown.

"Let's get inside," Ten Ten said, grabbing Lee as they walk inside the abandoned parking lot.

Naruto sneak close to Sasuke as he whispered, "Are they Chinese?"

"How the hell would I know?" Sasuke asked in a grumble and shrug off Naruto who's way too close to his face than necessary.

Sasuke can't help but feel like he wanted to finish this transaction as soon as possible and he doesn't even know why he feel...

Anxious?

Once they're inside, there were men waiting for them. Shikamaru counted seven cars in total and fifteen men in front, all armed.

In front were boxes where different guns, ammunitions and grenades are place.

"Good evening gentlemen," Shikamaru started and the leader of the group stride forward.

"You can pick anything to your liking," he said, no doubt about his accent that he's Korean. He gestured towards the weapons and Shikamaru nodded.

"We'll see what we'll need and get the hell out of here."

"We're taking everything," Sasuke said.

His words almost sparked misunderstanding as the men stood on guard and held their guns. Sasuke cleared his throat and rephrase his statement.

"We're buying everything."

Shikamaru's head whipped towards Sasuke who has a deadpan expression.

"What do you mean everything?" he asked as he walked towards the Uchiha.

"All of them."

"No," Shikamaru said and leaned in towards Sasuke. "I didn't bring enough money and if we didn't pay these guys would go ballistics," Shikamaru whispered-yelled.

Naruto, of course, had heard it. "Can't we just wire them the money?"

"Oh sure!" Ten Ten said. "That won't be a problem, right?" she asked, looking at the leader of the group.

He was silent for a second, as if calculating before he finally nodded.

"As long as you don't bitch out, I'm fine with wiring the remaining money. Of course you'll have to pay in cash."

"No problem with that," Shikamaru said, handing the attaché case towards the leader. He nodded towards them to go check the weapons.

While Sasuke and Naruto check the weapons in the boxes, Shikamaru walked to the corner to finish the last part of transaction with Ten Ten.

"I'll send you the address where you'll be dropping the weapons," Shikamaru said.

"When?"

"I'll still ask Sasuke, he's the Boss after all." Shikamaru looked behind to where Sasuke and Naruto are.

Naruto was the first one to sense the danger.

He walk towards Sasuke and secretly looked around.

"Sasuke, something isn't right," Naruto whispered as he slowly took a hand gun from the box, looking at it as if he was examining it then took out bullets and slowly loaded it.

"It seems we have company," Sasuke said as he looked up directly to a very familiar man in the corner.

It wasn't just him. At least half of the men in the parking lot look familiar to Sasuke as they are members from his organization and they are here to kill Sasuke. At least that was Sasuke's initial thoughts.

When the man made eye contact with Sasuke, he immediately drew his gun at the same time Naruto yelled Shikamaru's name.

They were ambush.

Around forty minutes after Sasuke and Naruto left the penthouse, Sakura busied herself by making dinner.

Well, trying to make dinner.

Sakura planned to come with them but Naruto said she couldn't and Sasuke agreed. He said Jugo will keep an eye on her so Sakura just nodded in defeat and let the two leave her.

"Who did they think I am?" Sakura said, roughly chopping the carrots.

She heard the door opened and thought it must be Jugo so she didn't really pay much attention as she continued to chop the carrots.

Until she heard footsteps coming her way.

Sakura ignored it, dismissing the fact that it was just Jugo and put the knife back in its place before washing her hands.

That was until she felt someone behind her.

Jugo wouldn't sneak like that behind her. If anything, he would be too polite to even stand near her. And something feels off by the sound of the footsteps.

It wasn't just one guy.

Sakura looked at where she put the knife. It was far but she could reach it if she leaned in.

However, before she could even lift her hand she felt something pressed on the back of her head.

It's a gun.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked, gulping down her fear.

"I highly suggest not putting up a fight. My Boss would not harm you, Sakura-sama."

Sakura frowned. Did she just hear someone calling her with such high honorific?

"Then why are you pointing a gun on my head?"

"This is to ensure that you would not run or take that knife in a futile effort to fight."

Sakura was mildly irked by how the man sounded both formal and rude at the same time.

"Okay," Sakura said, she really doesn't have a choice.

She felt the gun lowered as she slowly turned around. The man was tall, his dark purple hair cropped short and he was wearing a dark suit. He gestured for Sakura to walk towards the living room and Sakura did so. She couldn't afford to have a bullet planted in her body as the only thing she could do is buy some time until Sasuke and Naruto get back.

Sakura hated not being able to do anything.

But even if she did, these men might kill her.

Waiting in the living room was a man in his early thirties, his dark onyx hair was long and tied in a loose ponytail and it made him look more elegant than anything.

He smiled when he saw Sakura.

But she doesn't know if the smile was real or not. It didn't reach his eyes or maybe the smile looks more sad than it was genuine.

"Why don't you take a seat, Sakura? I would love to have a chat with you."

Sakura frowned, trying to study the man's feature that resembled Sasuke. Are they related? Who is this man? Sakura had questions like that running wildly in her head that she just stood there frozen.

"Don't worry, my Boss doesn't plan to kill you. If he does, you'd be dead by now," the man behind Sakura said, which did not help Sakura feel any better.

"Aoda, it's okay. You don't have to threaten the girl."

Sakura gulped. She doesn't want to think about the possibility, she tried to weigh the odds of it being possible.

But Sakura realized who this man might be.

"Are you Sasuke-kun's..." Sakura trailed off, reality slowly sinking in to her as her heart hammered in her chest.

"Older brother? Uchiha Itachi...-san?"

The man sitting on the couch smiled again, this time Sakura was sure of it. The smile was a genuine display of sadness and Sakura doesn't know what to believe anymore.

Is this the same man who killed their parents?

The same man who ordered to torture Sasuke?

The same man who Sasuke wanted to kill?

At this point Sakura doesn't want to think about it for a second.

That this man might not be someone as bad as she initially thought.

Approximately twenty minutes right after Sakura met Itachi, Sasuke, Naruto and Shikamaru stood in the parking lot. Dead bodies on the ground as the three men catch their breath. Their clothes soaked in blood but not one of them was fatally wounded, in fact they aren't wounded at all.

Right after Sasuke and that man made eye contact, he threw a smoke bomb and the group of men from Korea thought they were ambush and everything from then happened so fast.

"We need to get back," Sasuke said in a rush as he run outside.

If this is ambush is planned by his brother, then Sakura might be in serious danger.

"Hey Sasuke! Wait up!" Naruto yelled as he run after Sasuke.

He was just in the nick of time to get inside the car as Sasuke stepped on the gas and they were a few meters away already before Shikamaru got inside his car. He rolled the window down and looked at Ten Ten who was standing outside.

"I'll give you the address. Do I still have to wire the money?" Shikamaru asked.

"What? The men are already dead, just get the hell out of here," Ten Ten said, waving at Shikamaru who quickly started the ignition.

Sasuke was driving way past the speed limit as Naruto fumbled in his seatbelt. "Sasuke, will you calm down. It'd be a hassle if police officers—"

Naruto was cut off when the car swerved as it overtook another car and because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he practically drove face first in front.

Luckily, they weren't caught for violating the speed limit and got in the penthouse with blood-soaked clothes. But Sasuke could care less about his appearance as he search inside the penthouse frantically searching for Sakura.

Sasuke found her in the dining room, placing plates on the table.

She looked up and her eyes widen as she saw Sasuke's appearance.

"Sasuke-kun what happ—"

She was cut abruptly when Sasuke took a few long strides towards her and did the most unexpected thing Sakura thought he could have ever done.

Sasuke pulled her in an embrace as if he was afraid he lost her.

Fear was a foreign feeling to Sasuke.

But he was there, feeling it himself.

"You're fine," he muttered as his hold around Sakura tightened.

"You're fine," he repeated, as if convincing himself.