A/N: Don'tcha just love mistaken identity? Boy, I sure do! Enjoy!
Chapter 10: A New Ally
As the night drew to a close, Sakura was awakened by Noh shuffling near her, calling out into the darkness. "Show yourself. You cannot hide any longer. I don't know how you managed to evade my men, but if you don't tell me who you are, then I will take my assistants away."
There came a couple of seconds of silence before they heard crunching footsteps and Noh gasped sharply.
Sakura opened her eyes, blinking blearily in the faint light from the moon. Turning her body, she squinted, trying to see who Noh had been talking to.
Then her eyes widened and she sat up. "No way...!"
"Jiraiya-sama," Noh stammered, bowing. "I- I'm so sorry! I had no idea..."
A tall, robust man with long white hair shushed her quietly. "It's okay, Cypress. It actually makes me happy that my absence has been widely ignored."
"What are you doing here now?" Sakura whispered, keeping an eye on the sleeping lady next to her. "And where's Tsu- Iris?"
"I've been trailing you ever since you left," he admitted. "Originally, you had quite the band of soldiers following you. Thankfully I managed to direct them away, but I don't doubt that they've caught on by now."
"We owe you our lives, Jiraiya-sama," Noh sighed in relief. "You're planning to escort us, are you?"
"Of course," he winked. "I'd give just about anything to see Tsu again."
Tsunade snarled when that same soldier with the wide, catlike black eyes stepped into the clearing, flanked by royal soldiers.
"You bastard," she hissed. "So you're the one! I knew we were being trailed!"
"Of course, but apparently you didn't look hard enough to spot the spy," the brunet commented calmly. At the snap of his fingers, two royal soldiers were grabbing her by the arms. As she struggled, he came closer, grasping her chin with two fingers.
"Now, and I'm only going to ask you once," he started, staring into her enraged brown eyes, "hand over the princess, if you please, and I will spare you."
"You'll never take her," she spat, twisting her face away from his grip. Unfortunately, that was all she could do at the moment. "When my backup arrives-!"
"That will simply never happen," he retorted with a shake of his head. "My superiors have already taken care of that."
"Now," he started again, taking her chin in his hand again, squeezing tighter, "I demand you to give the princess up to us."
"She was never yours to begin with!" Tsunade roared, kicking out. She narrowly missed his stomach, and he ordered two more soldiers to grab them. "She's the victim of a cycle of manipulation and power-hungry tyrants! Down with the Uchiha!"
Yamato let out a long, exhausted sigh.
A split-second later, a blade was at her throat, and his eyes narrowed. They were still too disturbing to look at, however, and she looked away, signalling something to the trees with her hand. If the event she was waiting for was coming, she hoped that they had seen it.
"I've asked you politely once," he said, the only trace of his frustration being in the way his fingers gripped the blade so hard it shook slightly. "I've tried being nice to you. I've tried making this civil enough that I won't have any stains on my record,"
He leaned in close enough to touch his nose to hers, whispering, "but I guess that's not how you want to play this right now, now is it?"
She tried to wrench her neck away, but he gripped her hair this time, forcing her head up. She grit her teeth in pain, giving him her worst glare. The helplessness was frustrating, but as much as she hated to be a damsel, especially after everything, he was really forcing her hand here.
Deep down, this was terrifying. Her blood turned to slush at the intensity of his wide-eyed stare, his soulless black depths subtly screwing with her mind, gazing right through her. For a moment, the thought that he could read her very thoughts crossed her brain, but a second later she forced it down. Having a knife at your neck, your life flashing before your own eyes... it was more haunting than any long-distance battle wounds she'd gotten thus far.
"Now I won't ask you again." Even through his faux polite demeanor, his voice was still ice cold. "Give me the princess, and no one gets hurt."
"Never," she hissed through gritted teeth. "I'll never surrender her to you. You'll get her over my dead body."
He pulled away, seemingly stunned at her defiance for a moment, but then he seemed oddly pleased.
"That request I can fulfill," he said, snapping his fingers. At once, his men gripped her face.
"Any last words before my men put you out of your misery, rebel scum?" The man's voice was oddly light, as if having a conversation with a friend over tea.
"Yes." She spat at him, a shit-eating grin on her face. "Long live the Resistance. Long live the rightful leader! Long live Senju Hashirama!"
As if on cue, something like a bomb exploded around them, the smoke making it impossible to see.
As the soldiers broke into coughing fits in the thick smoke, Tsunade managed to get free by kicking two in the face, flipping in the air backwards to free her face from their hands. She pulled her bandana over her face and finally stopped holding her breath.
She felt someone hoist her up and race away with her in their arms, multiple shouts of anger erupting from the scene behind them. The sound of wood splintering and arrows flying made her laugh breathlessly, the nervousness swirling in her stomach manifesting itself as a trembling in her limbs.
"Boy am I glad to see you," She beamed up at the blond carrying her to safety, clutching tightly at his cloak. "Are Karin and Aika safe?"
"Course they are," the young man scoffed. "Kisame and the others caught up with them up ahead."
"Are you hurt?" the flat voice of a handsome young man with hair like blood asked, catching up.
"Nah, just have a bruised ego," she shrugged. "I assume Noh and the others got the message."
"Not quite yet," the blond, Deidara, shook his head. "Last time I heard, Kakuzu-san was on his way to report."
"Ah, I see, I see." She sighed in relief. "Hoo boy, I'm exhausted."
"Sleep," the redhead advised. "We'll wake you when we get to the rendezvous point."
"Thanks again, Kisame-san," Karin said between sips of water. "I don't know what we would've done without you."
"'s no big deal, Spitfire," said man chuckled, ruffling her hair. "It's the least we could do after that whole Morino mess."
"Indeed." Itachi piped up, glancing back into the trees with a frown. His eyes were of pure scarlet, black tomoe swirling like black swans in a pool of blood. "Cypress's group should be arriving soon enough. For now, we must wait."
Aika relaxed against a tree trunk, taking off her hood. Her indigo eyes glanced around the clearing for a moment before she took a dainty sip of tea from a bottle.
Karin slumped next to her, mindful of her back as she lay on the damp grass with a groan. "Thank Kami that's over, right?"
Aika nodded silently. She'd seen a lot in her three years of being in the group; she'd battled, she'd won, she'd ran, the usual lot of those 'lucky' enough to escape and be forced into a fugitive's life.
But, she thought, looking over the soldiers that had escaped with them as they slumped against one another in relief, I wouldn't trade this for anything.
Along the way, it had ceased being an unfortunate fact and had started to be a kind of... home. A family, if you will.
Besides, this beats the setup back home. She exhaled silently, resting the back of her head against the rough bark. I think I fare way better being a fugitive of the law rather than being some nameless, voiceless lady-in-waiting to her.
At the very least, she had the frame of some kind of noble-born woman. It seemed enough to fool the royal soldiers - really, how it had still baffled her to no end. But now, hopefully the real Lady Hyuuga was safe and on her way.
Itachi glanced up sharply when they heard rapid footfalls. "They're here," he said simply. In an instant, his eyes melted back into their moonless black and he rose a hand in greeting to the captain of Squad Ten.
"I trust that you delivered them safely without incident," his voice seemed courteous enough, but it still held an edge of warning.
"Of course we did, Raven-sama." the captain bowed briefly to him. "We also managed to snag, ah, another unexpected traveller."
"Define 'unexpected'." Itachi's eyes narrowed.
"Eyyy, 'tachi-sannn!" Jiraiya greeted cheerfully as he stepped out of the underbrush, followed by Sakura and Noh. Hinata was in the pinkette's arms yet again, looking quite sheepish as all eyes went to her.
"Is the lady unharmed?" Karin was quick to ask, jumping up from her position to take her.
"She's fine, just had a helluva time keeping up." Sakura shrugged, letting her set her feet on the ground. "Couldn't have her spraining an ankle or anything."
With a quiet thank-you, Hinata turned to hide the way her cheeks were flushed in embarrassment.
Karin checked her over worriedly for a moment, but sighed in relief and pulled back a few moments later. "Good. You guys scared us for a minute there."
"Scared you?" Sakura snorted. "You scared us! First we barely manage to lose them, and then we get news that Iris has a situation?"
"Ah, yes, is she alright?" Noh panicked.
"She's just fine, don't worry." Kisame pointed a massive thumb at the trees. "Ol' Sasori's taking care of it."
The woman sighed heavily in relief, practically melting against Jiraiya. "Oh, thank Kami..."
"That just begets more urgency for us to get moving," Itachi pointed out. "Once they arrive, we'll have to give you a direct escort to Morino."
Jiraiya looked uneasy at that. "Morino...? But that's the town that the king ordered attacked, right?"
"Yes." Itachi nodded. "For now, they won't think to look in a destroyed village. We have associates there who are willing to hide us for the time being until we can regroup. Luckily for us, any and all guards they have there are a handful of low-levelled rookies. Easy to dispose of and easier to erase from the ranks."
Sakura nodded, her eyes narrowed with determination. "Did Tsunade explain Plan B to you in detail?"
"We were debriefed the very moment it became an option," the noiret said calmly, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Rest assured, the Akatsuki will do whatever it takes to ensure its success."
For a split-second, something flashed in his eyes, and for the first time since befriending him Sakura felt a shiver of genuine fear ripple up her spine.
A/N: JIRAIYA IS HEEEEEERE! I love this dude so much, you don't even know!
Please tell me what you thought, feel free to speculate, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter.
