Akatsuki no Sakura

Rating: PG-13 for language, sexual implications (later on) and graphic violence

Category: Romance/Angst/Action

Pairings: SasuSaku, ItaSaku, a little NaruHina

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Happy?

Chapter Three: Bloodlust

: Sakura's POV:

This will be good fun.
As my bloodlust slowly consumes my body, I wonder why there was something familiar about the Leaf Ninja that stood before me. They are unknowing that I am ready and willing to slowly tear them apart, to torture them until their souls are released from their bodies, when I shall perform the jutsu that will shatter their souls, their life force. Yet some part of me is pulling at me not to allow myself to destroy them yet, I don't know why but I kind of agree with it...

The Hokage is looking at me strangely... his eyes are beautiful. Something in them tells me he wants to avoid fighting me at all costs, but it does not matter. I have become too much like my mentors, and I have been like them for too long. Whether or not he will fight me is his decision. I will still kill them either way.

My blade was sharpened just last night, ready for the battle. By tonight it will be blunt again because of all the steel it will cut through to get to the body underneath the armor. Either way, if I can prove to Itachi-sensei that I can massacre a village all by myself, then he might even regard me as his equal. He already acknowledges the fact that I'm stronger than Kisame-sensei. I can hear the praise he will give me already...

I grin. This will be an awesome battle, one between the Hokage and a mere missing-nin. But this missing-nin will not settle for defeat. If I must, I will tear his body to shreds with my bare hands. And who the hell are the others that seem to know me as well? This girl with the sad white eyes... why is she looking at me like that? For some reason, I don't want to kill her now. The woman with the blonde hair, one of the Sennin, let me see... Tsunade? Yes, that was it. She seemed to be looking at me but very deep in thought as well. Hatake Kakashi seems familiar to me... his silver hair seems very odd. I snicker. He has one of the weirdest hairstyles I have ever seen. And that... old man... in the back, with the bleeding nose, he is also a Sennin. That must be Jiraiya; Orochimaru made up the last of the Sennin and he was long dead. I had heard about Jiraiya; not only was he rumored to be the strongest Sennin, he had trained the Fourth and Sixth Hokages, whereas the Fifth Hokage was Tsunade only because Jiraiya had refused the title. And Itachi-sensei... well he seems to be having a glaring contest with his younger brother. Hmph. How I would love to cut that beautiful Uchiha's body and feel his blood run through my hands... but that was Itachi-sensei's privilege. I know that interference with their battle will only lead to severe punishment after today. Those two pairs of Sharingan eyes... they are scary and powerful, but also graceful and beautiful, in a weird way...

I snap out of my musings. This is not the time to hesitate! But the Hokage's eyes... damn him. Why do those eyes have to be so calm and beautiful? The only way to stop them from staring at me will be to still them forever.

Suddenly I rush towards the Hokage, katana drawn, ready to begin my fierce battle. As strong as I may be, I cannot forget that Kage is the highest ninja rank there is, rivaled only by the other Kage's powers. This is the reason that I must not underestimate him, beautiful eyes or not.

He disappears suddenly, and I spin around to block his attack from behind. The other four ninja join the battle, so I run deeper into the forest, to give Itachi-sensei room to fight his own battle. I run, dodging kunai swiftly, but this is no problem after what Itachi-sensei and Kisame- sensei have put me through. Even though there are five ninja on my trail, swiftly throwing kunai and shuriken left and right, I am able to dodge every attack. My hard work is finally paying off. Leaping into a clearing, I quickly pull a Henge no Jutsu and transform into a leaf, hiding my chakra so I can't be sensed. Itachi-sensei had said before that they thought that I was a weak ninja, so to use small jutsus at first. As the Hokage and the others look around frantically, I wait so that my timing will be perfect. Unfortunately, as I transform quickly into my normal self and get ready to decapitate the Hokage, who is next to me, my timing is not perfect enough. The girl with the strange white eyes sees me first. "Naruto!" she shouts, frantically trying to get in the way of my slash to take the hit herself. Foolish girl! I miss my target on purpose just to get her out of the way. I change my stroke from straight across at the Hokage's neck height to downward across the girls' chest. She lets out a sharp "Oh!" and crumples to the ground. "HINATA!" The Hokage runs over to her limp body and disappears before I can plunge my sword into his chest. So, his name is Naruto, I think. Heh. And her name is Hinata...

The other three ninja rush at me. I easily dodge their attacks, leaping swiftly in the air. I land in a tree, then perform the Henge no Jutsu again and transform into a sparrow. I hide my chakra yet again. Any shinobi should be able to know how this battle tactic works. Even if the ninja only knows the most basic of skills, the Henge no Jutsu, if they hide their chakra well enough, they can be easily transformed into deadly assasins.

I sit in the tree nearest Naruto and Hinata, watching them. Naruto looks as if he's crying. Crying! Dear Lord, now that is pathetic. I listen to what Hinata was saying to him, but I can't understand what she means.

"N...Naru...to... she doesn't know... she doesn't understand... she wouldn't do this, not... not the Sakura I know... she must have lost her memory, Naruto... get it back for her... for me... I don't want you to be mad at her... I will keep watching over you, Naruto, so you had better promise..." Here she gave a weak grin. "Promise me that you will get her memory back... you don't need to punish her, she will punish herself for what she has done... Naruto..." Naruto kept crying softly. "Hinata, don't go, don't leave me..." "Naruto.. listen to me.." she said, her voice weak but commanding. "When this is over... go help Sakura, she will need it. And keep looking for miracles, Naruto... they're out there... I already found one..." And with that she closed her eyes, as I felt her chakra ebb away. Her blood was everywhere, over Naruto, the ground, and spattered around the trees near where I had slashed her. The gash in her chest was excruciatingly deep, and no human could have lived through that. I feel something tug at my chest, but I ignore it. No time to think. I have a test to pass...

I fly towards Kakashi. Heh, he is so clueless. He has no idea that he will feel pain beyond whatever he has felt before. Just as I fly over him, I perform the Henge no Jutsu again and land on top of him, driving my katana down through his right shoulder. He manages to reach up and throws me off of him, flipping me onto my back and spraining my ankle. Clever, I think. He timed the throw and used just the right movements and amount of force to twist my ankle. I quickly perform the seals to heal my ankle immediately, a medical skill that Itachi-sensei taught me. As I do so, Kakashi reaches up with his left hand and pulls my katana out of his shoulder, throwing it down to the ground. His blood is all over him and me, and I realize that this seems familiar. Itachi-sensei had warned me that this is what would have cost Zabuza-san his life when he battled Kakashi six years ago. Kakashi had allowed Zabuza to strike him enough to get his blood all over Zabuza's clothes, then used a summoning scroll to bring forth ninja tracking dogs. After he had immobilized Zabuza, he performed his own jutsu, Chidori, which was blocked by Haku-san; Kakashi's hand went straight through his heart and killed him, of course. I realize that this is what he must be planning, so I simply take out my kodachi and perform the seals for a jutsu with one hand. My chakra flows to my right hand, the one with the kodachi in it, and I make a slashing motion. Kakashi is in too much pain to be able to react fast enough. The chakra flies through the air like a blade, and slices all of his scrolls, summoning and otherwise, in half; it then sliced through the rest of his clothes and cut a gash into his chest, where his heart would be. Then I run to him and leap into the air. Landing behind him, I spin around and thrust my kodachi through his hand, destroying the summoning mark there. He has just lost all means of any summoning whatsoever. I smirk. Haku-san, though I did not know him, had learned his senbon skills from Itachi-sensei, which were later passed to me. I swiftly took out three senbon and thrust them into three pressure points, leaving Kakashi limp and immobile. As he slumps to the ground, I say "I will finish you later, but right now I have other pests to deal with..."

Three ninja left. Tsunade and Jiraiya rush at me, performing their own summoning techniques. Hah, I think, simple-minded idiots. As two huge figures loom in front of me, Gama-bunta and the Katsuyuu, I grin. "Useless!" I leap forward and perform the seals for one of Itachi- sensei's fire jutsus. "Katon, Housenka no Jutsu!" I shout, as a great flame shoots from my mouth towards the two summons. It splits up into more flames, also very large, in which I had hidden Fuuma Shuriken. Gama-bunta easily dodges it, but the slug and Tsunade are less fortunate. The slug tries to block it with a water jutsu, and it is partially successful; however, the Fuuma Shuriken were thrown with a lot of power behind them, so they pass through the water shield unabated. They lodge themselves into the soft body of the slug, and one hits Tsunade full in the stomach. As the summon disappears, Tsunade falls and Jiraiya and Gama-bunta rush to catch her. Two ninja left. I am surprised at myself actually; three powerful ninja down and hardly a scratch on me, and I am barely beginning to tap into my chakra.

Jiraiya is pissed, I can tell. He is so easy to read, it is quite humorous actually. I laugh. "You look like such a fool, Sennin," I say, looking at his red face. Then I noticed his nosebleed. I feel the blood rush to my cheeks, and I take out a scroll. "Pervert! You're going to pay!" I quickly slice open my hand and spread my blood on the scroll. I then let it roll closed and snap into place, and I grab it and perform the seals. I keep a careful eye on Jiraiya because Itachi-sensei said it was dangerous to put all your focus away from your opponent. He's not moving though, I think he wants to wait and see what I summon. Heh, poor fool, I think, as I finish the last seal and push my hand to the ground. What he doesn't know is that this is no ordinary summoning jutsu, it is a jutsu that fuses the summon with the ninja. As I am engulfed in smoke, I focus my chakra to speed up the fusion. Jiraiya could take this opportunity to attack me from behind.

I can feel the power of the summon rush through my body like adrenaline. Then, slowly, I begin to change shape. My hands are weapons now, as the fingernails turn into claws. I feel my teeth lengthening and sharpening in my mouth, and my canines protrude from my mouth now. I feel my eyes narrow and my braid turns crimson. My nose is becoming super sensitive to my surroundings, and I feel my eyesight dimming. This is the only defect this summon has; it is blind. However, all my other senses are boosted incredibly, and I can feel my muscles tense up. My voice changes into that of a spirit, or rather, of several. My wolf instincts begin to kick in. Yes, my summon was a wolf, and a very ancient one at that. But this doesn't mean she moves like a 1,000 year old creature, no, she moves as swiftly and gracefully as the wind. I grin darkly, there is no way Jiraiya can defeat me now.

I swiftly leap straight into the air to dodge the rain of kunai sent by Jiraiya through the smoke. I land on a branch, then swing down, and launch myself off the side of the trunk. I miss him, but I land on another branch to attack from behind. I launch off of this one as well, and I ram into Jiraiya full-on, knocking him off of Gama-bunta. As we fall, with me on top, I pull him closer. Just before we hit, I push him forward with my arms and push off of him at the same time. He is slammed into the ground with a sickening CRUNCH, and I flip in the air to land gracefully on my feet. As the smoke clears, I walk to where Jiraiya lay, moaning and gritting his teeth in pain. He loses consciousness, and I bend forward and move him gently onto his side a bit. He cries out, and I grin. "So, you old pervert, this is what you get for interfering, and for looking at me like that... all you got in the end was a broken back."

I turn to see Naruto finally stand up, his fists clenched, his head bowed. "Sakura-chan..." he says, fury in his every word. I look at him curiosly. "You killed my wife... you rammed Jiraiya into the ground and broke his back... you almost murdered Tsunade... and you have incapacitated your sensei! I cannot forgive you, not yet!" I growl, and my lips curve into a snarl. "Sensei?" I spat, disgusted. "Itachi is my sensei, do I have to write it on your forehead? That weakling Kakashi was never my sensei, nor will he ever be!" Naruto laughs coldly at me. "You really have lost your memory, haven't you, Sakura-chan?" he says. "You were a ninja before Itachi ever found you; Kakashi was your sensei, and Sasuke and I were your teammates!" I take a step back and my summon suddenly leaves me, leaving my chakra almost exhausted. It takes a lot to fuse with a summon, and to maintain that fusion. "I... no... you're lying!" I shriek, glaring at him. "Liar! Itachi-sensei and Kisame-sensei are my only teachers!" Naruto looks at me, his eyes suddenly sad. Goddammit, those eyes again... they are so gorgeous. No, no! I can't think that! I have to kill him, fight, prove my strength! "You want proof? Here it is." He holds up a little square of paper. "What is that?" I say, as I cautiously edge forward to get a better look at it. I gasp. "That.. that girl.. that can't be me!" But deep down I know it is me, in a group portrait with two boys, one with blonde hair and the other with black hair, and a man standing over us, his one visible eye closed in a smile. I begin to step backwards. "No! I am Itachi-sensei's student, he is my teacher, he is my whole life!" Naruto snaps his head up to look at my eyes when I say those last words. My hand claps over my mouth. Oh, my god, did I really say that! I can feel the heat rise furiously into my cheeks again. "No..."

I slump to the ground, my hands pressed against the ground, my eyes wide open. I am breathing hard, my chakra is too weak, I can't keep my eyes open...