In a name

Chapter II: Mind breach

Silent Shadow

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"Kuroko... Sakura."

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Naruto was horrified when he realized what happened, mostly at himself for letting Sakura get the brunt of that attack. He saw her sea-foam gaze transfixed in Itachi's, and then he saw her wince horribly, and for a split second he saw her...

Angry?

Finally, Sakura collapsed and fell limply of the tree limb like a rag doll, spiraling gracefully towards the ground. If it wasn't for Naruto she would have hit it, he managed to grab her fallen figure half way to the ground and land on his feet.

"Sakura-can?!?" he shouted in desperation, but there was no movement. Naruto cursed, she didn't even look alive. He was pretty sure that whatever Itachi's freak eye thing did, it wasn't this. At least not to him.

He sent furious glares fuming with Kyuubi's essence at Itachi, but he too was falling from his branch unconscious.

"What the hell?"

Sasuke, however, didn't stay still with confusion, "Chidori!"

His followed Itachi to the ground with an outstretched hand that was eager to pierce his heart, but before he could Kisame interrupted.

"I think not kid," he said grinning before throwing him hard face-first in the ground. Kisame grabbed Itachi by his robes before landing on his feet effortlessly.

"Hey, wake up," he demanded shaking him a little, but there was no response, "Damnit. What's wrong with you?"

He faced Naruto; "You have the best luck I've ever seen kid."

With that he lifted Itachi on one shoulder, his sword on the next, and dashed off. Sasuke was seething at his last chance, ready to break something but Kisame was already gone.

"He... got away," he said gritting his teeth.

"We've got other things to worry about," Naruto called out to him. He shifted Sakura gently into a cradle position in his arms, "Something's wrong with Sakura-chan."

Sasuke finally tore his eyes from where his enemies retreated and looked at the two. Upon closer inspection of her lifeless body he swore.

"We have to take her to Hokage-sama."

"Yeah."

Naruto and Sasuke simultaneously jumped onto the nearby tree limbs ready to take off when they heard the elite anbu reinforcements Sakura called for arrive. A little late but better then never since who happened to accompany them was...

"Old hag?" Naruto cried out in surprise as Tsunade appeared before them, "Why are you here?"

"Do you think a few anbu could have taken out Itachi?" she asked him irritably, shaking her blond head, "We don't have the numbers in the village to challenge him. So where is he?"

"The bastard ran," Sasuke spat, "And Sakura is hurt."

"Sakura," she remembered the pink haired girl that visited Sasuke often when Naruto brought him back. She took the girl from the arms of Naruto inspecting her.

"I'll take a better look at her after we get back," she promised him, "I don't like leaving the village unprotected."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded in understanding before the group vanished.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Sitting in the midst of the flower speckled meadow, Itachi decided he didn't like how bright it was; he always enjoyed the night more. Even when he was a child. It didn't help the fact that the field was covered with white flowers, the only other color he could see is purple, but that was way in the distance.

"Aren't you... going to tell me your name?" the younger version of Sakura asked.

Itachi didn't answer, he didn't even look at the roseate haired girl.

"Oh," she said softly, "It's ok... you don't have to."

Something about her timid voice was so pitiful that it stirred something inside him. He didn't like the feeling he had, whatever it was, not at all.

He busied himself with some hand seals, "Katon Housenka." Nothing, Itachi frowned and tried again. "Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu."

Itachi couldn't even feel his chakra. He tried activating his sharingan but that was no use.

"Are you trying to do ninjutsu?"

No reply.

"Is it because... you want to hurt me?"

Itachi finally looked at the small girl, "Yeah."

"You don't like me much?" he stared at her crestfallen face, "Nobody really likes me much. Except for Ino, but I was so mean to her. I even gave her ribbon back, and now I can hardly see through my bangs."

"I," he paused. He didn't really want to talk but he couldn't ignore her, she just kept talking- and he had a feeling she was going to cry. If he couldn't kill her then he didn't want to see her cry, that would just be... annoying.

"I just don't like anybody."

"Oh," she said calming down a little. Then, "...why?"

"Because."

Itachi hated conversation, he stood up and walked quickly away towards the purple flowers. He could feel the flowers and grass under his feet as he trampled them, but once he lifted his foot he noticed that they sprung back to life as if nothing happened. He dug his feet harder into the ground as he walked but it still did nothing.

The Sakura girl mutely followed him within earshot distance but shy enough not to follow too closely. When he looked back at her she quickly looked away but didn't stop following him.

They had walked a long time before he decided to stop, not because he was tired, since it was most likely impossible to in this world, but because it was pointless. He was still in a field of white flowers, the same distance away from the purple flowers since when he first started.

"Those flowers out there are pretty, but I can never get them; they're always so far away. The flowers are called cosmos. There's none around here... the only ones here are fujibakama."

Itachi turned to face the girl, "Is there anyone else here but us?"

Se lowered her eyes from him; he felt that she didn't like eye contact of confrontation.

"No, but there use to be. She was a lot like me, but she was angrier and stronger. She didn't like it here much, she called it a weak prison. She didn't like me much either, said I was weak for letting it imprison me here."

It confirmed his hypothesis; he knew where he was. This was inside the Sakura girl's head. The angry version of herself must be keeping him here. It explained why he couldn't used jutsus. He also knew the atmosphere was affecting him in a negative way, mentally that is. It was forcing him to go through his own emotions; it would explain why he reverted back to his thirteen year old self- before he had complete control of his emotions. And why he was so willing to talk.

He needed out, he needed out fast.

"You can't leave, not until the other Sakura lets you," she said as if she could read his mind, "But if you want you can rest a bit."

Sakura sat down carefully, as in invitation for him to settle down. Itachi didn't accept it.

"Those are some funny clothes," she said trying to start conversation, "What are they for."

Itachi looked down and knot in his stomach tied, "It's an anbu costume."

"What's an anbu? They sound familiar," the little girl said tilting her head.

"They're shinobi that specialize in military missions and killing their friends," he said coldly.

"Oh," Sakura looked at him with pity, "That doesn't sound fun."

"It's not fun."

There was a long silence, "Do you want to know what my name means?"

"What does it matter, a name," he said shortly.

Little Sakura gave him a sad a look, "You can tell a lot from a name."

"..." this world was making him open up a little, dwelling too much into people's minds.

"It means black child cherry blossom. Kind of silly huh? My mommy gave me that name, because I wilt very quickly. Ino told me that I bloomed and I was very pretty, but it doesn't matter anymore because I'm dead already."

There was nothing else to say, and they stood very still for a long time, in the field of white flowers.

"My name, is Uchiha Itachi."

"That's a nice name."

"Not it's not. Do you know what Itachi means? It means weasel."

"Really?" a small smile formed on her lips; "It's a funny name."

"Uchiha means fan. A pointless name."

"Nothing in a name is pointless."

"Why do you care so much about names?"

"Because..." there was a loss of words in her eyes. She didn't know why. It just was important.

"There's a tree over there," he added when she said nothing, sounding slight interested.

"It's a cherry blossom tree. But don't bother, it's not blooming. It's dead."

Itachi didn't reply but he started to track towards the tree, finally something to do.

x-x-x-x-x-x

"Hey, hey!" Naruto said loudly, getting on Tsunade's nerves. She loved the boy but right now she had to concentrate on her jutsu.

Tsunade was hovering over the unconscious Sakura with her hands just above Sakura's head, silent in her concentration.

"H-e-y!" he said drawling out the syllables until Sasuke smacked the back of his head.

"Ow," he rubbed his bump, "What was that for?"

"Just let her do what she's doing," he said irritated. Sasuke wanted to see Sakura back just as much as Naruto and he wanted, needed, to know what she did to Itachi.

"This is really weird," she finally said, "You said Itachi was unconscious too?"

"Who cares about him- can't you heal her?" Naruto asked her anxiously.

"It's not a matter of healing, she's fine. It's her consciousness that's the problem, it's not responding."

"Can't you do anything? You're the Hokage!"

"I could, but it seems that something else is in her head."

"Eh?"

Sasuke seemed to understand, "Itachi..."

"Your perceptive kid."

"What? How does that work?"

"Well from what I can understand from her mind, she's got another consciousness there, maybe two."

"Huh?" Naruto was confused.

"It's sort of like a split personality, something that Itachi's Tsukuyomi wasn't ready for. His ability allows him to draw someone's consciousness into his own, different from the usual when the user casts himself in the target. The Tsukuyomi allows total control."

"How was she able to counter it?" Sasuke asked eagerly.

"I don't think she did," Tsunade said, "he captured one consciousness, but not her other one. The actual jutsu work is pulling her mind into his own, a difficult feat, and then keeping it linked there for as long as he wants. Not only that but keeping the person's mental pain linked to the physical body."

Naruto nodded as if he understood. Tsunade rolled her eyed but continued.

"When he drew Sakura in, he leaves a small opening between the two minds so that their mental state will affect their physical state. The other Sakura was able to access his mind, and because she was still connected to her mind and not tied down like the 'real' Sakura she could fight back. From there on it isn't about his jutsu or chakra, just a battle of wills and souls."

"Oh! I get it!" Naruto said recalling the memory when he met Itachi, " And because Sakura has a lot of fighting spirit, and Itachi has the personality of gnat, she won!"

Tsunade's lips twitched, "She must have tried to fight him, and ended up dragging him into her own mind."

"So, why can't you heal her?"

"Because she's the one keeping Itachi at bay. If she wakes up, then so does he."

"So we're going to just to keep her as a vegetable!?" Naruto raged angrily.

"No, Sakura probably can't keep him forever, she'll let him go eventually. But she gave us time, he's vulnerable."

Tsunade motioned for her assistant to come over, "I want you to alert all the jounins and chuunins not on a mission as well as the anbu, they are to report immediately."

The assistant nodded before doing a "summoning no jutsu". Immediately, signal birds appeared and the assistant gave them quick commands before they flew past the group through the door.

"You two should leave," Tsunade said, before settling behind her desk and mounds of paperwork, "Get some rest. With everyone gone only the genins are here to protect the village."

Naruto didn't like the idea of leaving Sakura, but the prospect of defending the village from a less-than-probable attack somewhat excited him. He nodded and quickly left the room, ready to tell his friends what was happening.

"Sasuke, aren't you going to follow him?" she asked him.

"Hokage-sama. What would happen if we killed his body?"

"Without a physical body, his soul would have nowhere to go and he will die."

"Hokage-sama, what would happen if we killed Sakura?"

Tsunade paused, narrowing her eyes at the avenger, "Both her mind and Itachi's would die."

"..."

She took a good look at Sasuke's eyes, at first they seemed determined and angry, then they seemed to be in conflict, and then he looked away in shame at the very suggestion.

"Never mind what I said," he said curtly before leaving the room.

Tsunade, however, could not.

"Haruno Sakura... as Hokage of this village it would be irresponsible of me not to kill you now. As person... I don't know if I could kill someone innocent with my own hands. What should I do... only thirteen years old..."

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The little Sakura looked up to the blank sky, "Do you hear it?"

"Hear what?"

"It sounded like... a person crying."

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[AN] It's not very interesting right now. I'm not sure if it will ever be, because this is more of a character development thing than anything else. I could, you know, throw in an invasion of the village, but that would be more like a pointless distraction.

I just realized how hard it is to write Itachi, at least without him ranting on about Sasuke getting stronger or him trying to kill someone. So I sort of made the excu- I mean reason due to the fact that because they are in each others minds that their true personality comes out. Anyway, before anyone gets angry- there is no bashing in this fic. The Uchiha's are not my favorites but in no means I hate them- I love all the characters from Naruto and I find bashing idiotic. I just try to write the characters as they would react.

So this little Sakura was just a thought of mine. If she has Inner Sakura that represents her fighting spirit, how about a younger Sakura that represents her doubts and sorrow. I mean, the reason why we don't see her pop up like Inner Sakura is because she's quieter and Inner Sakura is more obnoxious and loud.

So yeah, right now they are in the deepest part of Sakura's mind, I hope I made it believable. It made sense in my own head but it's hard writing it down, hence the slightly painful end scene that really makes no sense.

Girl-chamaI hope my explanation makes it more believeable. Thank you for reviewing, it means a lot. I have a lot of resepct for your work since your one of my favorite Naruto writers.

animEvivvErz: Yes, Inner Sakura does rock. Thank you for your compliments.

Maya AmanoThank you! Truth be told, I did play with the idea f ItachixSakura, but I figured this story didn't need it, there will be plenty of interaction and I'm not sure I could write it very well.

Youkai Ryuu: Thank you so much!

Dargon Sheinto: Well I hope I didn't disappoint you!

agent vash I'm glad you liked it.

EmptySanity: Yeah.. it happens to the best of us. But I'm happy you like the new story.

LoUiSsE: Thank you, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Oh and nunya, the cowardly reviewer... I have to say thank you. Your pitiful attempt of a flame made my friends and I laugh. Seriously, if you have some criticism, just say it without using your imaginary body parts.

I have to delete your review because this a PG-13 story and I don't want little kids to accidentally click the reviews, but truth be told- I didn't want to. I had entirely too much fun laughing at you.