bows down japanese style Gomen Nasai Minasan(sorry everyone).I hope you enjoy this chappie.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. This is simply a fanfic.
nkitty29 - already updated,(this chap) enjoy!
Magicians of the Yami - I'm not that good at writing ftighting scenes but I hope you enjoy.
Shikage-Tsaya - Thanks! Yeah, the princess is a bit too much. I wanted to insult someone in here so I decided to insult her.
joann - Thanks for reviewing, I wanted to put in some memories that would make Itachi seem more lovable.
(not that he isn't already)
waterfox96 - It's a Sakura/Itachi so don't worry. Enjoy the chap!
sakura-angel113 - Thank! Enjoy the chap!
Dagorwen of Ithilien - Updated, enjoy this chap!
AijinMegami - Sorry about the cliffie, I just can't resist. I seem to like putting in clieffie's. Please enjoy!
emir - Thanks for reviewing, enjoy!
sakuya-chan - Thanks, sorry about the slow chappie. Enjoy!
Hao'sAnjul - bows down with head touching the floor japanese style I'm sorry, I can't resist making the chappie hanging.
xx-Tsumi-Chan-xx - I know I'm confusing everyone with who Sakura's gonna be with but I wanted to make this a love triangle. Sakura'll end up with Itachi in the end though.
Prissy - Thanks!
A/N This chap is mostly about Sakura and her teammates and a slight glimpse of Sasuke( literally). You'll see what I mean. Enjoy!
(space)(space)(space)
'Damn it!' thought Sakura as she dodged another five shurikens that the dark clad figure threw at her.
Sakura had been caught offguard. She didn't sense his chakura in time until he had thrown a kunai at
her earlier.
Sakura wasn't as careless as to let an enemy get to her before she could his chakura but this time, although she hated to admit it, she had been caught offguard.
'He isn't an ordinary ninja, if I couldn't even sense his chakura before he attacked,'she thought again as she dodged another three shurikens.
' Why is he only using these simple attacks? He could have finished me off, when he still had the element of suprise!
'He must be toying with me!'thought Sakura again.
Sakura landed on a branch of a tree, right above the figure.
She quickly slid into the tree's shadow and hid herself from view, to study the situation better.
(space)(space)(space)
' So, she's trying to play hide and seek', thought the figure as his lips curled into an amused smile.
' Well, then I guess I'll have to play along,'he thought again, his eyes dancing in amusement.
(space)(space)(space)
Sakura took a quick peek at the figure who was standing a few steps away.
She studied the figure, he was clad in black and he also wore a mask which almost covered his whole face.
The pale moon rays reflected his headband which showed that he was a Sound-nin.
Sakura shivered a litle as a chilling breeze swept by her.
Why would a Sound-nin attack her? Does Orochimaru want something?
'The princess!' thought Sakura in panic.
She had nearly forgotten about their mission, she had been too busy fighting the figure.
'But why does Orochimaru want her. Randsom?'thought Sakura again but thought better of it since Orochimaru doesn't seem to be the type of person to kidnap someone to ask for randsom money.
It had to be something else, but what?
(flashback)
Sakura and her teammates were about to leave the shrine when they heard the head priest calling out to them.
They stopped in their tracks and turned around to look at the priest.
" Shirika-hime, I hope you have a safe journey to your father's palace. Here, take this,"said the head priest as he handed
her a small parcel, wrapped in gold woven cloth.
"It's for good luck and prosperity for your father's country.Give it to your father when you arrive back home,"said the priest again.
Before heading on, Sakura had turned back to look at the priest.
He was still standind there, waving them off but now he had a doubtful look on his face as though he was arguing with
himself about something.
Sakura thought nothing of it and shrugged it off.
(end of flasback)
' The parcel, there must be somthing inside that Orochimaru wants,' Sakura thought to herself.
'I have to warn the others,' she thought again.
"AHH! " Sakura heard someone scream. It was coming from the camp, and it sounded like the princess.
'Shit! The others must have been attacked while I was fighting this Sound-nin,'thought Sakura in panic.
As though hearing what she said, the figure turned his head to look at the direction of the camp.
"Your friends are getting attacked. You don't have time to play hide and seek,"said the figure , his voice was almost
hidden along with the rest of his face but Sakura heard it.
'Damn it, I guess I'll have to use the traps,' she thought to herself as she jumped out of the shadow of a tree, right behind the figure.
She threw three shurikens at the figure who easily avoided it.
'Kuso!(shit!)he's good,' thought Sakura again as she threw ten kunais at him again.
The figure leapt onto the nearest treebranch, avoiding all ten of the kunais.
'Now!' thought Sakura as she activated the traps.
The tree burst into flames and the figure fell from the tree.
'It worked,'thought Sakura, the figure lay unconcious, a few steps away from her.
Sakura quickly left the figure and headed for the camp.
The first thing she saw was that Ino and Hinata were holding kunais in their hands, guarding the princess, back to back.
The princess was in tears while holding the parcel.
Their attackers were non other than the guards themselves.
"How could you betray me! My father will have your heads for this treatment,"the princess spat at them. The guards laughed and revealed their true iddentity.
They were all Sound-nins.
All five of them were chuunins, judging by the amount of chakura they had.
The first of the guards attacked Ino and Hinata while the others aimed for the princess.
Sakura leapt out of the tree she was hiding in and threw two kunais at the Sound-nins.
They avoided the kunais and Sakura used the sitution to her advantage to get inside the circle that made was up of Ino, Hinata and the princess.
She stood in battle position, with a kunai in her hand, back to back with Ino and Hinata, with the princess in the middle of the circle.
Hinata tried attacking the first sound-nin but she was caught off when another sound-nin threw a kunai at her.
Blood spluttered on the ground as Hinata fell to her knees.
With what sounded like a desperate cry, Hinata activated her byaakugan.
Accurately using her gentle-fist, Hinata managed to knock her two attackers unconcious.
More blood spilled unto the ground as Hinata collapsed.
"Hinata!" cried Ino who ran to Hinata, seeing her on the ground with blood covering her left shoulder.
'Hinata-chan!" thought Sakura in panic as she avoided an attack from a tall Sound-nin in front of her.
Since Ino was attending to Hinata, Sakura was the only one left guarding the princess.It was one Gennin against three Chuunin Sound-nins.
She knew she was outnumbered.
Even with Ino's help, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
She knew that it would be useless to fight.
Her attempts would be futile.
"Hinata, hang on, don't pass out on me!" Sakura heard Ino shouting at Hinata.
(space)(space)(space)
A dark clad figure hid behind a shadow of a tree while watching the events that were happening to Sakura and her teammates.
'Not bad, she managed to outsmart my kage-bunshin(shadow replica) with a mere trap,'thought a figure who smirked inwardly.
'I wonder how she'll get out of this,' he thought again.
With a sigh, he realised that he was thinking of her again.
' Damn, why does she do this to me?' he thought to himself.
The figure knew that he had to follow Orochimaru's ordres to retrieve the parcel and kill anyone who gets in the way but, would he be able to?
Against her?
Against his Sakura?
(space)(space)(space)
Sakura ran towards the princess as she tried to grab the parcel.
" What are you doing? Let go of MY parcel!"said the princess still refusing to let go.
"Trust me, it's for your own good,"said Sakura as the princess reluctantly let go.
Sakura turned around to face the three remaining Sound-nins.
"Hand us the parcel and you won't get hurt,"said one of the Sound-nins.
"If I hand you the parcel then I won't get harmed?"asked Sakura.
"Yes, but your friends will be a different issue,"said the Sound-nin with a cruel smile.
After what seemed to be a long pause, Sakura finally broke the silence.
"I'll hand to you, if you let me live. I don't care about the others. I just want to know that you will keep your promise"
said Sakura to the Sound-nin.
"WHAT! Sakura what are you doing? You can't..."trailed off Ino when Sakura yelled at her.
"Shut up Ino-pig. I have the parcel, so if I get to live then it's my choice!"said Sakura as she stared hard at Ino.
' Oh, please let her get what I'm trying to do,' Sakura prayed inwardly.
Ino glared at Sakura, unable to believe that Sakura would betray them.
' Wait, this sounds familiar. This reminds me of...Shikamaru. He used this scheme once when we were on a mission'
thought Ino to herself.
Finally getting the plan, Ino yelled back in Sakura with fake tears in her eyes.
"How could you Sakura! After all this time we've been friends,I can't belive that you would stoop so low as to betray us.
Big-forehead!"yelled Ino at Sakura, inwardly telling her that she got the plan.
"Who cares about frienship! I just want to live!"yelled Sakura again getting the message.
" What?"yelled the princess obviously not getting a clue.
Sakura ignored the princess and threw the parcel at the Sound-nins.
"Now! Ino take the princess and Hinata and run,"said Sakura to Ino.
Ino nodded in agreement and grabbed whole of both of them as she raced away from the camp site.
' Sakura, thank you. Please come back safely, I can't bear to lose you,' Ino thought as she headed West to the
palace.
(space)(space)(space)
The parcel dissappered in a slight 'poof.
"A kage-bunshin(shadow replica)! How dare you!" said the ninjas as they attacked Sakura.
Sakura was carrying the parcel in her left secret vest.
No one knew she had one except her teammates (old and new).
Sakura's right hand was covered in blue chakura as she activated the justu(technique) that Tsunade had thought her.
She moved with the agility of a fox and managed to attack the Sound-nins.
Two parties were injured very badly.
Even though Sakura was a Gennin, she knew that she had gotten stronger since she was still in team seven.
She was weak then, but now, she wasn't going to be the weak one anymore.
Sakura kicked the remaining Sound-nins away with a final kick in which she used the last of her chakura.
Her right arm and leg were bleeding but she didn't care.
Once the Sound-nins were at last wounded seriously and lying unconcious on the floor, she made a dash for the palace.
It was two hours away if she traveled with the speed of a shinobi.
Her eyes were blurring and pain was intoxicating her.
She finally made a stop, after tripping on another branch.
By then she was half way there but she had also lost a lot of blood.
' I have to take the parcel to the palace...'thought Sakura as she fought to mantain conciousness.
(space)(space)(space)
A dark clad figure watched as she tripped on another branch.
' She lost a lot of blood,'he thought to himself.
He had been following her since she left.
He finally saw that she couldn't continue.
The figure leapt from the tree and landed beside her.
(space)(space)(space)
Sakura looked to her right to see the dark clad figure she had fought with earlier.
She could barely make out that it was him.
The pale moon rays shone onto his face, reflecting his dark piercing eyes that stared at her.
Her world faded into darkness as she collapsed to the ground.
'Sasuke...'
It was the last thing she remembered before dakness engulfed her.
A/N Sorry that I left it hanging. So what did you think? Please review to let me know. Oh, and the figure is definitely
Sasuke. If he is or gets a little OOC in the story, sorry but I can't help it. I need him to be like that.
sigh My exams are coming up, I HATE exams! I guess I won't be updating for sometime until my exams are over.
Ja ne, until next time. ( which I hope won't be too long)