Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters. All of it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter Three: The Revelation

"I... what?"

Sakura's composition fell entirely at that moment. There was no possible way she could hold a Bijuu within her. She had none of Naruto's immense strength or nearly limitless chakra reserves. The only thing possibly extraordinary about her was her promotion to ANBU captain at the age of eighteen and her cast knowledge of medical jutsus. Itachi merely chuckled at her, while Kisame began to laugh heartily.

"Didn't you ever think it was strange, that you became an excellent medic so fast? Didn't you feel that it was a little odd, that you were more drawn to my younger brother than was normal?" Itachi's words were mocking, amused, and he looked at her with cold eyes. There was no mirth in them.

"Yes, but... I... I mean..." Sakura stammered, her face flustered. Steeling herself, she glared up at the Uchiha.

"How is that any business of yours?" Itachi waved a dismissive hand at her, smirking.

"Let me explain. I have no interest whatsoever in your silly little relationships, but what I'm about to say is merely a statement of fact. We were able to track you down once we narrowed down the identity of your Bijuu to two candidates. Because there was no mention of Makumori in any of the village records, and we were able to find mention of Suzaku, the Seven-Tailed pheonix, it became rather easy to piece two and two together. It originated in the Land of Fire, and had been captured, not by the Hokage, but by the three strongest shinobi in Kusagakure. Because it is so small, Kusagakure has no Kage, as I'm sure you know. However, they managed to capture it as Konoha's focus was on Kyuubi, even though Kyuubi wasn't sealed until long after Suzaku, and remained fairly unnoticed. The Nanabi was sealed within Haruno Mokuto, your great-grandfather. Because he was not a shinobi, Mokuto never manifested Suzaku's powers, nor would any after him. Bijuu cannot prolong life, so when your grandmother was born, Suzaku was transferred to her through DNA; how, we're not entirely sure, but Suzaku has been passed down the bloodline to you. The chances of that happening were actually quite slim, so we had to narrow the candidates that could possibly hold Suzaku down to you."

Reeling at this enormous amount of information, Sakura found herself unable to speak. There was a long, drawn out silence, broken only by her timid voice as she finally ventured.

"That's not possible. I'm a shinobi, too; if Suzaku never manifested himself before because my family were not shinobi, why hasn't he revealed himself in me?" Itachi heaved a sigh, then gestured to Kisame, who spoke gruffly as if on cue.

"Because you've never been in a truly life-threatening situation. Suzaku doesn't like to fight; therefore, he will avoid manifestation unless he is absolutely certain his Jinchuuriki would be killed. This hasn't happened with you yet, but we don't need it to because we know you're the Jinchuuriki."

"And how do you know that? And how did I manage to get through with a normal life? Naruto never had one, and neither did Gaara." Itachi spoke again, his cold laughter now in his eyes.

"Because we've killed all the other descendents of Haruno Mokuto, and none of them had Nanabi. To answer your second question, your great-grandparents moved to Konohagakure. Suzaku had already been passed to Haruno Saya, and the ANBU didn't bother to check the child for anything suspicious."

"But why-"

"Enough!" Itachi cut Sakura's next question off, his words sharp like his katana.

"I grow tired of your questions. I thought that maybe you'd like to be filled in as to why you're going to die, as a sort of last courtesy, but I'm not answering anything more." With that, he stood and strode out of the room, with Kisame at his heels, while Sakura was left to digest this new revelation.

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"So she's been captured." The Hokage's voice was restrained, almost as if he were trying to hold back the sea with his thumb. Which, in a sense, he was doing. The six ANBU before him backed away in fear; Naruto yelling was far less fearsome than Naruto holding it back. Uchiha Sasuke stood next to the Hokage, his glare looking as if it could freeze Hell over as he stared the ANBU down. Having just returned from a mission, Sasuke was mentally tearing apart the office, blaming himself for not having stopped the Akatsuki that, for all he knew, were only yards away from him as he was dashing through the forest. Kakashi was doing the same, but he had long since returned home, exhausted.

"Leave us." Sasuke's command came short and cold, and the ANBU hastened to obey, sparing no time in their disappearance. Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other, mutual understanding and silent communication between them the kind only brotherly closeness could bring. Sakura was kidnapped by the Akatsuki, and there had to be a reason. What that was, they could only surmise as bait for Naruto, or even for Sasuke set by Itachi, or possibly both. But the both of them knew they couldn't leave the village; Naruto, as Hokage, had incredibly important business, such as meetings, and couldn't actively fight anybody except as sparring or when the village was directly threatened. Sasuke, as the head of the hunter-nin, had many missing-nin to kill and couldn't afford to leave the village (or any other village, for that matter) vulnerable to attack from any one of them, or leave them to give up their secrets.

"Bring Sai in here, and tell him to be ready for a mission. As much as I'd love to wring the Akatsuki myself, now isn't the time for that and we simply need to get Sakura-chan back." Naruto still called Sakura that, much to her disdain, but it had stuck for years and wasn't going away anytime soon, even though he was married to Hinata. Luckily for him, she didn't mind.

Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke, and moments later, returned with a very disgruntled ANBU member. Yanking off his mask, Sai stood with his arms crossed, furious about having been jolted from his nap.

"What now? I was trying to sleep... thanks to you, I haven't slept for days."

"Shove it up your ass, Sai. We need you to infiltrate the Akatsuki base in Kawa no Kuni. We don't know the exact position; you are to find the base, infiltrate it, and recover Haruno Sakura. She's unlikely to be watched, as we're sure she's only bait, but excercise caution anyways." Sai's eyebrows shot into the air, his demeanor changed entirely.

"So Sakura's kidnapped by the Akatsuki... something tells me it's more than bait. However, I'll be ready to leave as soon as dawn."

"Good. And Sai?"

"Yes?"

"Don't screw this up and get all lovey-dovey, alright? Sakura-chan is a pretty no-nonsense woman; try anything with her and you're a dead man." Sai merely chuckled as he smiled, disappearing without another word. Sighing, Naruto leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. Sasuke gave him a smirk, then snickered.

"You honestly think he'd try something?"

"I dunno. He might; Sakura-chan is a woman, after all, and a dangerous one at that. Even I know that."

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Author's Note: Thanks to Ziggy for pointing out my error with "Shachibi." In my defense, though, I did know this; however, as I was reading a Wikipedia article on the Bijuu, it called Nanabi Shachibi instead; at that point, I just figured 'Eh. Maybe it's seven in a different Japanese dialect or something?' Don't mind me, I'm stupid. But I've fixed it. Also, in response to ShadowSessMarlfox: Nanabi is the seven-tailed Bijuu; its identity is unknown as of yet. However, for my own purposes I've made the Nanabi into what it is now. Plus, the reason I chose Suzaku as the seven-tailed beast instead of the bat or the badger, is that the Jinchuuriki tend to look like their Bijuu (Naruto's fox whiskers, Gaara's tanuki eye circles, Yugito's slanted catlike eyes). So, I decided that if Sakura were a Jinchuuriki, that would be her Bijuu because of her overall appearance- slender, graceful, with pink hair like a softened flame. You know? Good.