Akatsuki no Sakura
Rating: R for violence, sexual implications and strong language in later chapters
Category: Romace/Angst/Action
Pairings: SasuSaku, ItaSaku
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Meow.
Chapter Nine: Fight and Flight
Neji's eyes narrowed as he heard a loud whistle, signaling that Tenten had successfully completed her task. He smirked as the kunoichi landed in front of him, the blue chakra around her hands fading from sight.
"Neji-kun, I'm finished. Nobody noticed me, and that little bitch won't be moving anytime soon."Tenten smiled darkly, her hair casting eerie shadows over her face in the late afternoon sun. Neji's smirk faded slightly as he looked up at the sky, lost in thought.
"Tenten… go home and check on Natsume. I'll be there shortly." Tenten nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Neji turned around and glared at the shadows being cast by the setting sun.
"What do you want, Uchiha?" Itachi's dark figure emerged from the shadows, the wind blowing his bangs across his left eye, making the Sharingan user look much darker and more sinister. His face twisted into a snarl, letting loose a small growl.
"Why the hell did you attack my blossom?" Neji's eyes narrowed.
"Answer my question first." Itachi glared dangerously at the Byakugan master.
"I'm here to avenge Sakura. Now tell me, why did you attack her!" Neji grinned.
"She was just asking for it, what with the way she murdered Hinata-sama… and why are you so concerned anyway?"
"She's my student, do I need any other reason for wanting to protect her?" Itachi rushed forward to cut off Neji's oncoming retort. He feinted like he was going to kick Neji's head, then swiftly brought his fist in an uppercut as Neji ducked. Neji's body went flying backwards into a nearby tree, where he quickly activated his Byakugan and sent several kunai flying in Itachi's direction. Itachi disappeared and reappeared underneath Neji, in the Byakugan's one blind spot. As Neji looked down, Itachi grabbed onto Neji's ankle, closing and re-opening his eyes to reveal his Mangekyou Sharingan, activating his Tsukiyomi jutsu.
"I wonder, Hyuuga….. how much could you take of this?" Itachi's black figure appeared before Neji, who was chained to the bottom of a large pool of water. Neji attempted to use his chakra to explode his shackles, but to no avail. He then tried desperately to fling a shuriken out of the water at Itachi, but it deflected off the water's surface, as if it were ice. Itachi smirked.
"It's no use… I control time, space, everything in this world. For the next forty-eight hours, you will drown repeatedly in this lake, and the fish will eat you slowly as you do so." Neji's shock was unmistakable; he looked down in panic as little fish began to nibble at his flesh.
In the visible world, Neji began to go into convulsions, falling form the branch he was on. Itachi took this opportunity to calmly stride forward and use a kunai to slit his throat. Now the deed was done, and Itachi knew that from here on out things were going to get chaotic.
Immediately, Itachi spun around and ran to the hospital, bursting through the front doors and bolting upstairs, catching the attention of his shark companion that was walking out of the bathroom, his chest wound from Sasuke's sword fully healed. Kisame quickly spun around and followed Itachi, and they both ran down the hall, sharply changing direction to burst into Sakura's room. Nobody else was in there, and Itachi stopped momentarily to scoop the unconscious Sakura into his arms, before leaping out of the window in the same fashion as Naruto and Sasuke had done earlier, paying no attention to Sakura's haywire hospital monitors. The forest was right next to the hospital, which, combined with the setting sun, gave the three running ninja good cover. Itachi spoke quickly to Kisame, explaining to him what had to be done.
"Kisame, the ANBU are going to come after us any moment, I need you to take Sakura back to the hideout and make sure nobody touches her. I'll catch up to you shortly."
"Itachi, what the hell did you do? Why are we running like the hounds of hell are after us?" Itachi snarled, passing Sakura's limp form over to an extremely confused Kisame as they ran.
"Just do it." Itachi stopped abruptly, turning on his heel and taking out his kunai, holding it in a defensive position as seven ANBU leapt in front of him.
Kisame continued to run, through the forest until it ended and he touched down on the sand, straightening up and running farther. Sakura stirred slightly in his arms, and Kisame looked down, concerned. She simply turned her face into his chest, gently taking hold of a handful of his cloak, mumbing something into the cloth.
"Itachi…….."
Kisame's eyes widened in shock, but he quickly realized what was going on and looked back up, a small smile on his face. As he continued to run, he glanced momentarily at the kunoichi in his arms.
"Ah, Itachi, it looks like you have a secret admirer….." Kisame's mouth turned upwards in the slightest of smiles, as his figure disappeared into the darkening night sky.