14 : Sasuke

By: Kokoro Kakera HP ^^

Disclaimer: Naruto, (Manga, anime, products, etc.), belongs to Kishimoto Masashi

Author's Notes:
=_= Summer has arrived. That much is obvious. Ice cream sounds good right about now...

I pushed Sakura's chapter and replaced it with Sasuke's this time. Nothing I could do about it though. Sorry. Nope. Sorry about how short it is... It's shorter than chapter 1!!!

Oh... and I'll be moving soon, so there might be a small period of time where I don't update... Actually, that's not unusual for me...

What would my notes be without me gushing about great music once in a while? (A lot shorter). Ahem... Putting that aside, the next few chapters will be written listening to tracks from the Witch Hunter Robin OST Tracks - beautiful music, (*_* Yes it is), by Taku Iwasaki himself.

"You've just given up your life." Sasuke stated it as if it were a fact.

"What? You-" The ninja wasn't given a chance to finish. In that same second, Sasuke's fist crashed against his jaw. Spinning, he clawed the air, blindly searching for an object to steady him. At the last minute he remembered that he was in a clearing and threw out his leg behind him. He staggered and tried to recover from the hit. Wiping his mouth, he looked around angrily, spitting up blood and curses.

"I'm right here, bastard." Sasuke drove his fist into the man's sternum and slammed him into a tree. Quickly yanking out a pair of kunai from his back pocket, Sasuke drove one into the man's shoulder and the other through his thigh, pinning him to the tree. A wrenched scream tore the still atmosphere of the forest.

Drawing back his hand again, which was equipped with another dagger, Sasuke prepared to give the final blow.

"Wait! I can tell you about your friend!" Sasuke halted his attack, but kept his weapon in front of the man's heart incase he tried anything.

"Talk."

"You shouldn't be so worried about your friend. He'll be kept alive and in perfect condition until the end of this week."

"What will happen then?"

"I don't know. I'm not important enough to be told that." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He was lying. It didn't matter. A week was enough time to find Naruto. Whatever was planned for him would be prevented. There were other, more pressing matters.

"What about the girl who was with me?"

"Toru probably already killed her." Sasuke's grip on his kunai tightened.

'Protect Sakura.'

"I'm counting on you, Sasuke!"

"No." Sasuke murmured. "Sakura... is stronger than that. She..."

Sakura clutched her bleeding arm tightly while Naruto and Kakashi were distracted. She was scared, but was trying to hide it.

She was trying to be strong for them.

"She's different." He plunged the kunai into the ninja's heart. He stared at him in disbelief.

"Y-you... but I..." Blood streamed from his mouth in branching trails. Sasuke pulled the kunai out, allowing blood to flow freely from the cut. Large spurts of the red liquid spilled from the hole in the ninja's chest in time with his slowing heartbeat. He slumped forward.

"You gave up your life the minute you made it clear it would be in my way. ...A talkative and obvious ninja like you wouldn't have lived much longer anyway."

Sasuke turned from the dead man. The genjutsu had faded. He broke into a hard sprint into the now familiar wood, only one thing dominating his mind amidst the panic he felt.

'Sakura!'

He didn't even realize how strange it was that a genjutsu had actually fooled his Sharingan.