Chapter 7: Liars

The stars shone down on the wonderful city of Tokyo while two teenagers walked happily hand in hand after seeing a movie. It was still a cold December night but being with each other kept them warm. They were alone, walking down a sidewalk along side huge buildings in western Tokyo. It was Christmas Eve so everyone was with their families on this night, leaving the streets empty of people.

Sakura and Gaara walked together looking at the Christmas lights on the streets and the billions of stars that peeked out from the clouds. "This day was great Gaara," Sakura began. "At least I got to spend Christmas Eve with someone I love." She smiled and hugged his arm.

"Sakura," a spine chilling voice said to the wind, echoing in the quiet night. Sakura heard and spun around quickly, not seeing any other human in sight. 'That was really weird, there's no one else here but us.' She brushed it off as she continued to talk to Gaara.

"Yeah I had fun today too. I mean, it's not like any other Christmas Eve with a Christmas tree and all that but it was the best one I've had." Gaara said proudly. He had just taken Sakura to watch a movie and he's glad he chose one she liked.

The voice said her name again but this time Gaara heard as well. "What was that? There's no one else here." He scanned the streets and the empty sidewalks. He was getting worried. Sakura had told him that there was someone after her, but he thought all the problems happened over in downtown Tokyo. He picked up the pace with Sakura in hand.

"Did you hear that Sakura? I thought I heard something," Sakura knew what he was talking about and nodded quickly trying to keep up with his pace. "Yeah I heard it," she began and then her voice became stern. "I think I know who that is."

Every time her name was said, there was a hint of sliminess in it, sort of snake-like. It kept getting louder and louder until Gaara couldn't take it. He spun around and didn't see anyone. He was getting very irritated. But when he turned around in the direction he and Sakura were walking in before, a man stood at the end of the sidewalk, eyes unseen.

"Wait, that doesn't look like that creep that always showed up before," Sakura said eyeing the mysterious figure. "He's a bit paler but I still can't see his eyes. The creep that was after me had glasses." Before she could continue telling Gaara about her attacker, the figure began to walk towards them.

His crooked smile repeated the name again. "Sakura," he walked a bit faster, but kept his pace. Gaara freaked and then pulled Sakura as they ran back the way they came.

"That is not a good sign Sakura." He said, point his thumb back at the man who was slowly chasing them. "Okay, I don't think he has glasses, so who else could it be?"

When they got to an intersection, he looked back and saw nothing but when he looked across the street, that same man stood, staring at them. They took a right and continued to run.

"What, how did he get there!" Gaara asked running with Sakura at his side. "Wait okay what? You don't know who that is?" Gaara said between pants.

They took another turn. "No, I have no clue who that could be. I swear." She basically screamed out that line. She never felt so freaked in her life. She was scared half to death. "It could be that sand user guy that Sasuke told me about yesterday. But so far he hasn't used his powers." She continued. They took a turn again. "Or, it could be," Sakura felt something sink in her stomach at the thought of that man being who she thought it was. "The boss."

This chase went on for about a few more minutes until Gaara and Sakura found themselves at a dead end. The same man appeared before them yet again.

Gaara and Sakura were trapped like two mice in a maze. Orochimaru approached slowly with a sly grin. "Good work Gaara, I knew you could do it." They were all in a dead end alley way with no way out but up. It was dark with barely any light, there were dirty puddles everywhere, pipes came down huge brick walls and there were rats here and there dashing from on side of the alley to the other.

"I don't know you! What the hell are you talking about?" Gaara screamed stepping in front of Sakura protectively. "Step back, don't come any closer." Gaara gritted his teeth.

Orochimaru let out an evil chuckle and looked Gaara straight in the eye. "You may not know me but the one inside you knows me very well." Orochimaru began to glow black as he chanted something under his breath.

Gaara suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. "Gaara!" Sakura screamed.

Sasuke was still chasing Orochimaru. He didn't know where he was going, but he had to get to him, to end all of the insanity. 'That better be Orochimaru. I don't want to be wasting my time chasing some normal criminal.' He chased him up to an intersection. He saw someone he wouldn't have believed to be there.

"No, Sakura!" he yelled. She didn't seem to notice but instead ran in a different direction, Gaara along with her. He turned and saw that Orochimaru was already on the other side of the street. He sprinted for it.

"Damn, what's she doing here? It's already way past dark." He then took Gaara in account. "Well, she was with that red head. Maybe that's why," he tightened his fist just thinking of them being together again. "I really have to get a hold of myself."

From afar, Sasuke could see that Orochimaru turned into an alley. Then Sasuke's ears perked up as he heard painful screams. Sasuke began to panic. "Come on, come on!" Sasuke ran as fast as he could.

A few more steps away, Sasuke was nearing his destination. When he turned the corner, he saw Sakura crying with her back against a wall, the man with the hooded cape who was supposedly Orochimaru standing still, watching. Finally there was Gaara walking slowly towards Sakura, in a dangerous kind of way.

He soon saw Gaara surrounded by sand, as if controlling it. 'It was him! It was Gaara I saw that night.' Without anymore hesitation, Sasuke ran for it, charging towards Gaara.

Sakura had just seen her boyfriend scream in agony, along with his tattoo glowing red. She couldn't do anything but let the tears drop from her eyes. She was so confused and scared for herself and Gaara. This man in the cape was very dangerous, she coud finally tell.

"Sakura, why don't we get out of here now, hmm?" Gaara asked unemotionally as both his eyes and his tattoo glowed red.

"Gaara, what's wrong with you? A minute ago you were," she was cut off. "I am not the boy you knew. He is no longer here; I have taken his place." The crimsoned-haired boy said in a monotone voice.

"What are you talking about? All I see is Gaara before me." She said rather nervously. 'What has he done to Gaara?' Gaara didn't give an answer but instead showed it. Sand began to surround Gaara from head to toe. He walked slowly, closer to Sakura.

Sakura couldn't scream or do anything. She was frozen on the spot. She just stared into the red eyes of the boy she once knew. "No, what have you done to him!" that was her final attempt to get her attacker to stop walking. It didn't work.

Before Gaara could do anything, he was pushed hard to the side by a strong force. He was sent flying over to Orochimaru's feet.

"Sakura, are you alright? Did he do anything to you?" Sasuke knelt down and shook Sakura's shoulders trying to get her to snap out of her feared state. He looked around and saw that Orochimaru just watched the scene with an evil smile bound to his face. He stood there treacherously, giving off a strong black glow.

Then Gaara got up and shot sand out at Sasuke who didn't know what was coming. He was shoved to the side easily, thenGaara approached Sakura once more. This time though, Sakura ran for it.

"Get away from me! You're not my boyfriend you monster!" she said not looking over her shoulder as she ran. She only got as far as Sasuke did as she tripped on Gaara's sand.

Sasuke couldn't take much more of it. He knew he couldn't win against someone as powerful as Gaara but he had to try. He pulled off his jacket leaving his black shirt and navy blue pants and grabbed onto the chip behind his head. "Here goes nothing." He ripped the chip off as hard as he could, screaming in the process.

'I know having Sakura see this isn't a very good idea but I have no choice.' As he regained his composure, he flared both of his arms on fire, his eyes filled with pure rage as he glared at Orochimaru then at Gaara with his red eyes. Now both eyes had three black commas on them, spinning rapidly.

Sakura saw this and couldn't believe any of it. First her boyfriend goes crazy and now Sasuke has fire flaring out of his arms. All she could do was watch. It was like her eyes were glued to the scene, unable to control any of her body functions. 'This is just a dream, a bad dream on Christmas Eve.' She told herself, trying to absorb everything that she was seeing.

"So you think you can beat me? To me, you're just a candle waiting to be blown out." Gaara said staring down his opponent.

"Beat is a bit of a minor definition of what I'm going to do to you." Sasuke spat back. Then he began to loose control of his powers again. His eyes were driving him crazy as his fire power began to blaze more intensely. He clenched his fists tightly, trying to regain control but to no success.

Sasuke had to let his powers out, his rage out. He couldn't hold it in. He let out a loud yell and then slumped over panting. When he looked up, his eyes both had three black stripes and his voice changed, it got lower.

"Die, Beach Boy." Said the Uchiha dangerously before they both exchanged blows.

In the headquarters lab, Kakashi was drinking his coffee and reading his usual book when suddenly, something began to beep annoyingly on the big screen before him. "What?" he whispered as he took a closer look at what was going on.

It was Sasuke. He had taken off the chip that contained his powers. That was also a tracking device so that the people at headquarters would know where the person was, in this case, Sasuke.

"I'll go and get him." Kakashi volunteered as he dropped his book and coffee and sped out the door. 'Why would he release his powers now?'

Both warriors were standing far apart, not even breaking a sweat. They both looked at each otherdangerously as they let the battle rage on.

Sasuke couldn't believe he wasn't tired yet. It had been quite some time since they started the battle. "Tired yet, Beach Boy?" Sasuke asked tauntingly as he threw a huge fireball at Gaara.

"How could a birthday candle like you get me tired?" Gaara said plainly as he blocked the fireball with a sand wall.

Then someone dove down from the skies and struck Gaara square in the face. That same person threw three kunai at Orochimaru, causing him to jump back.

Sasuke saw this and immediately turned to Sakura. "Run," he said in a hoarse voice. He didn't want his powers to hurt her. She was standing now for a while as she screamed during the battle trying to make them both stop.

She stared at Sasuke with watery eyes. Then her eyes fell upon his arms which were ignited with blazing fire. She knew this wasn't a dream anymore. Before her eyes, the two men she loved the most battled it out. She didn't know what she could do.

"Run! Get away from me before I lose it." Sasuke said a bit more firmly but she didn't move. "If you are the real Sasuke," she began softly as things between them silenced. "I'm not going to leave you here like this." She ended sincerely looking into his red eyes. "My knight is shining armour." She whispered.

By now Kakashi had driven Orochimaru away. "I will be back to get the girl Kakashi. You know me better than anyone, so you'll know that I don't give up on my prey that easily." Orochimaru grinned and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, bringing Gaara with him.

Kakashi went over to the two teens. "Sakura let us explain this to you, not here though." Then Sasuke began to scream holding his head.

"Sasuke? Sasuke!" Sakura screamed. She was about to walk up to him when Kakashi stopped her. "No it's too dangerous in his state. We need to bring him back to headquarters." Kakashi dashed behind the Uchiha who was wildly shaking and struck him behind the neck, causing him to black out.

"Sakura, let's go. I know this is weird," Kakashi said after looking at her confused face. "You only knew me as your teacher right? Well things are going to get even more confusing from this point on." His eyes were telling Sakura that he was telling the truth. She just nodded and went with Kakashi to head quarters, with Sasuke on his back, unconscious.

Naruto was at home in his comfy bed with tissues covering the floor. His nose was red from all of the sneezing and wiping. He was about to go to sleep when his phone rang. He had put the phone from downstairs into his room because he didn't want to keep going up and down just to get it.

He picked it up and couldn't believe it was Kakashi. "Kakashi! Just let me sleep, I'm sick remember? I don't wanna get up!" he whined. But Kakashi wasn't finished. "It's about Sasuke, and Sakura," he didn't even finish when Naruto cut in. "What! What about Sasuke? Sakura too? What happened?" he was frantically asking questions now and sitting up in his bed. "Just come here Naruto. I'll arrange a ride for you." Then the line ended leaving a long buzz behind.

Naruto got up as fast as he could in his state. He ran to the closet, recklessly trying to find his jacket. 'What could Sasuke seriously get Sakura into? He's not the type to let things like this happen. What's going on in this world! It's like I'm the only sane one left!' when Naruto didn't find his jacket in the closet, he ran back into his room. 'Geez, when are things going to go back to normal! I knew taking this stupid assassin job was a bad idea. I told Sasuke that but he wouldn't listen!' he ran over all of the tissues and when to his bedroom closet. 'Where is that freaking jacket?' he just forgot about the jacket and grabbed a sweater and ran out the door.

At headquarters, everyone was in a panic because of the new discovery of Sasuke loosing his powers again. Everyone ran from one place to another getting this in order for the arrival of the assassin.

Sakura followed behind Kakashi as he walked through the mess and towards a sort of glass cage or prison. When they walked into the room through the sliding door, it was completely white with a small bed in the middle. Kakashi carefully lay the sleeping boy down and walked out, dragging Sakura with him.

She didn't really have any idea what was going on. Since the first step into the building, she just stared at everything, finding everything rather strange. It was an ordinary looking building from the outside but when entered into, there were so many gadgets and machines that were ever made by man and everyone seemed to obey Kakashi's every will.

They had now just entered Kakashi's office. Kakashi sat in his large rotating armchair and invited Sakura to sit. "Now Sakura, I need to explain this to you clearly," he began. "And nothing must leave this room ever. What I'm going to say is strictly top secret." He stared at her with both his eyes. Now that Sakura thought of it, he never took off the bandana that covered his left eye. Now she was staring at a dangerous red eye with three black stripes on it.

Then something clicked in her mind. "What do you mean 'strictly top secret!' You couldn't even tell me that I was being chased by a freaky snake man?" she raged on. "That's just great. I always wanted a stalker." she said sarcastically. "And what the hell is with you? First I thought you were just a teacher but now you have to be a leader of some society? I came to Tokyo to live a normal life, not to be used as bait for that freak that calls himself a human." She said angrily. She couldn't take it.

'How could Sasuke do this to me? I had trusted him with all of my secrets and I even loved him. Now I'm not so sure. If he lied about this, what else had he lied about?' she fought the tears that threatened to spill out at any moment. Then the door swung open. A sick Naruto came ran in and began to ask about Sasuke.

"Where's Sasuke, Kakashi? Where is he? Is he hurt? What about Sakura? Did anything happen to them?" Naruto stopped his frenzy when he saw Sakura sitting in the chair in front of Kakashi. "Oh Sakura, you're okay! You are, aren't you?" Naruto went up to her and looked at her straight in the eye. "Tell me you're okay." He commanded.

"He's in this too? Great who else has lied to me these past months, hmm?" She pointed the question at Kakashi. "You know what? You make me seem like an idiot walking around not knowing anything about this stalker that's trying to kill me!" she struggled to keep the tears back.

"Some normal life this turned out to be." Those were her last words before they heard slamming. All of their heads turned towards the glasses room that they put Sasuke into. He was standing right next to the glass, slamming his fist trying to get their attention. "Sakura! Naruto! Kakashi! What the hell's going on with me?" Indeed, his eyes were red once again and his arms wouldn't stop flickering on and off with fire. His voice was the same though, it didn't stay the way it did back in the alley. "Help me!"

Sakura went up to the glass and stared into her saviour's eyes. "How could you lie to me Sasuke." Tears began to flow down her cheeks. "I trusted you with everything." She was now furiously speaking, but not screaming. It was compressed as she angrily stared into Sasuke's eyes. "I let you stay in my apartment, I let you sleep in the same bed, I even watched when you didn't know it. I had thought you were just a normal teenage boy, and not a killer." She didn't even bother to wipe the tears off her face. "I even loved you." With that and one last look at Sasuke, she walked out of the office.

Sasuke couldn't do anything. He couldn't even say a single word to her. He just stared at the spot where Sakura stood before. 'She loved me?' he was now on his knees looking at his hands. 'Loved? Meaning, she doesn't love me anymore?' he clenched his fists and yelled and punched the floor as hard as he could. Even though his punch made a dent in the floor, his anger and sadness weren't satisfied. He was filled with rage, anger, anger for the whole stupid society for allowing him to become an assassin; anger for the whole stupid mission.

'Why couldn't I be a normal teenager like she thought I was?' His eyes filled with tears but he didn't dare let them fall. He slowly put his head up to look at Kakashi who was staring at him sadly along with Naruto. They knew what had happened between them and they didn't want to see him like this.

He just sat there on his knees and stared down at the floor thinking over everything. He doesn't want to lose her; he won't lose her. His eyes filled with determination. 'I'm going to get her to understand me. I will.' Then the screen began to alarm again.

"What's that?" Kakashi yelled out to one of the workers. "I think it's Sakura sir. One of our workers stuck a tracking device on her, you know for safety reasons." The worker never looked away from the screen in which he was looking at. They saw that she was apparently moving at high speed. "She's in a car." Kakashi said confidently but worriedly at the same time.

He looked back to Sasuke. "I'm sorry Sasuke, but you have to stay here. Naruto and I will go get her." His right eye glimmered, promising that he would do anything in his power to get her back for him.

"Get her? From who? What happened to her?" Sasuke asked anxiously, fear blinding all of his senses.

"Orochimaru," was all Kakashi said before he lifted the bandana off his left eye once again and ran out the door with Naruto.

'No wait! Damn!' Sasuke yelled in his head punching the floor. 'First she's mad at me and now she's kidnapped by that freak of nature!' He got up trying hard to calm his powers down. His eyes shut tightly from the effort as energy seeped through him. 'Come on, get a hold of your powers Uchiha! You can't let her go that easily.' He began to yell as he tried to control his powers. He gripped his fists tightly.

'I love her and that's all that matters to me.'

I'm sooooo sorry that it took me so long! I had so many parties to go to during the weekend and I had to visit the doctors a lot because of my knee. Just difficulties with sports that's all. But anyway at least I got this one up. Please give reviews and I hope I get to update soon. Hahah you guys aren't the only ones waiting for an update on this story; I am too.

- --writingzeaL