Nope still don't own Naruto

A/N: and again here i am back with another chapter... the plot for this story somewhat disintegrated so im tweaking it a bit to make it a little more stable... bear with me through this chapter... well review responses.

Nemuri Shi - you're lucky i play video games or i would not have the slightest idea what you were talking about... i suppose Darkness looks a bit like some of them... he's got the white hair like Sepiroth or Kadaj but its short and spiky on the top similar to what Cloud's looks like but you know how Yuna has that really freaking long braid in FFX-2? He's got one of those but it isn't quite as long... ya know i never realized until now how well he would fit into FF (sweatdrop) for body structure think Ichigo from Bleach... if you don't know who he is google image him, i can't think of a better way to describe him ... ok anyway... yes nukenin is missing-nin and i can't tell you why Sakura-chan is a nukenin cuz you gotta read the story to find that out not that it's THAT big a deal in the scheme of things (insert sickeningly sweet grin here) anywho here's your update

big thanky to all the people who review every chapter it's you people who keep me writing... and thanky to all others who review and remember if you have questions i would be more than happy to answer them...

READ ME! Nemuri Shi made a comment about a pic of Darkness... i talked to a friend of mine who drew a rough sketch for me... the colored pic is still in progress but if you would like to see the sketch there is a link in my profile to it...

"speech"

'thoughts'

(flashback)

Remember You, Remember Me
Chapter 3: Awakenings
By: trailsofblood666 aka Wizard

The first sensation to return to her upon awakening was the burning pain. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe, and it hurt to think. Her entire body was on fire from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. It was also how she knew she wasn't dead, and god wouldn't be so cruel as to make her hurt this much. Then again maybe she wasn't in heaven; that was always a very real possibility.

Slipping her eyes open slowly Sakura was met with deep nothingness. For one disoriented moment she thought she had gone blind but a sliver of light from under a door proved that assumption wrong. Turning her head sideways slightly she tried to make out anything distinctive in the place she was being held. No matter how much she strained her eyes she couldn't see beyond the darkend void. Positioning her elbows, she began to sit up.

"Keep still."

The strange voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. It bounced off the walls of the room and echoed back to her several times before falling silent again. Opening her senses, she scanned the room for the source only to be met with more nothingness. Shaking her head slightly she pushed herself up very slowly. The fire in her body flared and she was overcome with pain that made her arms collapse from under her. Her breaths came in short gasps and shaky moans as she tried to still the pain.

"I told you to keep still."

A small flame ignited to her right and cast a dancing light across the room. It was a room Sakura recognized; it was the room she often rented out at the inn she preferred. Turning her head to the far corner of her room, she looked at the man who sat there. His knees were propped up providing an arm rest for him. Short white spikes of hair fell over his eyes shading them from view while he chewed on the tip of his long white braid. He looked almost depressed.

"You took quite a beating Sakura." Gold pupiled violet eyes slammed against her own emerald ones and he let the braid drop from his mouth. Sakura just grunted her agreement and carefully positioned herself so she was more comfortable.

"What's the diagnosis Dr. Darkness?"

"You hit against the barrier those men erected when their attacked pushed you back. The left side of your body took the brunt of the impact so it's more banged up than the right. You have six broken ribs, there was a small shatter on the left side of your pelvic bone, your tibia was fractured and you left shoulder was completely crushed. Someone had to be brought in to repair the damage to your shoulder and you may never have a full range of motion in it again, even with extensive training on it. The kunai wound in your shoulder was infected for a few days but that seems to have cleared up. You lost a lot of blood from the katana you took the stomach so you may be weak for a while to come. To top it off you had a really bad concussion, im surprised you regained consciousness at all let alone this quickly. The long term effects have yet to be decided."

Sakura just listened to the damage report in silence, absorbing the information with a grim smile. All in all, she was fucked. She needed to be up and moving again in order to keep herself from being found, being bound to bed wasn't an option for her. Closing her eyes she let herself sink farther into the bed. There had to be some way to work around this.

"How long have i been out?"

"Two weeks."

Sakura's eyes snapped open. Two weeks was far too long to be in a single spot. She had no doubts that Konoha had sent their elites after them. They always did. Ignoring the pain she pushed herself back up into a sitting position. The world around her swam in circles and she put a hand to her forehead to ease the nausea. A soft hand on her shoulder pushed her back down onto the mat. She turned her head and met Darknessess' gaze. His eyes were sad and sympathetic with the undercurrent of anger that never seemed to fade.

"Keep still. You've healed remarkably fast given the injuries you took but it will still be some time before you're mobile again. I will have the healer come take another look at your injuries a little later in the morning. Rest for now."

"Where are Itachi and Kisame?"

"They said they had some things to take care of. I don't know anything beyond that. I don't think they trust me much."

Sakura smiled at her friend and tool. If she hadn't seen him in this form before then she wouldn't have exactly trusted him either. He was a frightening character in his own right. The fact that his eyes always portrayed anger didn't help him much but it wasn't something he could control; it was the way he was stuck for all eternity.

"It's been a long time since you were last in that form. I think the last time i saw you like this was during that assassination mission in Kirigakure a little over two years ago and neither Itachi nor Kisame was around to see you. Why are you transformed now?"

"Someone had to get you away from Konoha, the Akatsuki had their hands full so it was the only way. Unfortunately i used the last of my strength getting you away from that village safely."

"So you're stuck?"

Darkness shrugged. "For the time being. My strength returns slower in this form than my other one. I should only be stuck for a day or two, a week tops. I think i prefer this body anyway."

The door chose that moment to open. Two very muddy, very angry, Akatsuki walked in. Their clothes were slightly torn and a little blood oozed from a nick on Itachi's cheek. Chocking her head sideways she stared at the odd pair, not quite sure if she should ask.

"His fault." Pointing at each other the two spoke in unison. Sakura couldn't help but smile. Itachi and Kisame were worse that children sometimes but they never failed to provide entertainment.

"Was not. If you would have just given me the..." Kisame began but Itachi had to interrupt.

"Don't finish that sentence." Grabbing a change of clothes the Uchiha slunk to the door. "Im going to bathe." Slamming the door behind him Sakura and Darkness were left with one shark man grinning like an idiot.

"If he would have just given me the damned du..."

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO FINISH THAT SENTENCE!"

Nearly jumping through the roof Kisame just grabbed his change of clothes and flew out the door after Itachi, leaving a very confused kunoichi and an amused humanoid sword behind. She tried, but Sakura couldn't keep the chuckle down, she truly loved those boys. They saved her life when she ran away from Konoha and they protected her for the next four years to come, helping her grow along the way. Someday she would repay them for everything they had done, Darkness too.

She would find a way.

By the time Kisame and Itachi had come back from the bath house the medic/healer type person had come and gone leaving Sakura in almost unbearable pain and pissy mood. Darkness took the arrival of the Akatsuki as his cue to run away very quickly with his tail between his legs while rubbing the goose egg on his forehead. Give an angry girl the skills of an assassin and it was a scary scary thing. The two returning men just watched in confusion as a black and white blur whizzed by then out the door screaming something along the lines of 'have fun'.

Then they turned to Sakura.

Steam was practically rising off of her she was so angry. Her face was tinted red in frustration and her eyes held a highly dangerous glint to them. Without stopping or a moments pause Kisame spun on his heel and went right back out the door leaving Itachi to deal with the scary female. After a few minute staring contest the Uchiha carefully made his way over to Sakura catching the kunai that was aimed at his head.

"Stay away from me asshole." Ignoring her Itachi plopped down next to her on the futon. Grabbing the blanket he pulled it up to his chest and gently guided to raving girl to a laying position next to him. Wrapping his arms around Sakura's torso he allowed her to wiggle around for a bit before finally settling down half laying on him with her head on his shoulder hands playing idly with his fishnet shirt. (a/n: ok say it with me... AWWWWW)

"How long?"

Sakura sighed, "Dr.Crazy says i need to stay put for at the very least three more days, he recommends a week."

The Akatsuki dog just nodded and tightened his grip around the kunoichi a bit. He knew he shouldn't be holding her like this, holding her so close to his body, arms wrapped so comfortably around her. It was wrong. He didn't love Sakura, he cared for her, sometimes lusted after her, but he didn't love her. Love was something you had to believe in before it could happen and the only thing he believed in was that everything eventually died. He was just around to speed up the dying process, a tool of death.

But she was so damn soft and warm, and too damn trusting...

He waited until she was asleep before he stealthily slid from her hold carefully untangling her fingers from his shirt. Three days and she would be mobile again which meant he had three days to get things in order. This was the calm before the storm that would destroy everything. He could feel it coming, lunging towards them like a chained dog and he had no way to stop it. There was a time many moons ago when he could have taken measures to prevent it but he let it draw closer to its goal.

Taking one last look at the sleeping girl that was his friend, teammate and sometimes lover he slipped silently out the door. He had to find Kisame.

It was almost time.

Tsunade fell heavily into her chair. As if the day to day dealings of a Hokage weren't enough for her now she had to deal with the whole 'Sakura escaped' thing. Just to add insult to injury three of her Jounins were stuck in the hospital in comatose states and no one had any idea how the hell they landed there. Two weeks of ANBU squads scouring the area and no one had found the pink hair kunoichi yet. From what she had been told by Sasuke and Naruto, Sakura had been unconscious and on the brink of death before some man came and took her away, unless she was Naruto there was no way she would heal that quickly and how far could someone run with a nearly dead ninja? I mean come on the conditions were in their favor!

According to her reports her squads had checked every nook, cranny, house and inn within a 600km radius of the village and there was no sign of Sakura, the Akatsuki, or the unknown man. Tsunade refused the believe that they just disappeared off the planet but it seemed they had. Dropping her head to the desk she sighed, she didn't want to hurt her former student but the girl was leaving her few other options. If only she would just explain what had happened perhaps this whole mess could be cleared up.

A knock at the door brought Tsunade out of her thoughts. She barked a harsh 'enter' and didn't bother raising her head as the person stepped into the office. She didn't much care.

"Hokage-sama, Hatake Kakashi has awoken and is requesting an audience with you."

Now she cared. Snapping her head up she smile at the Jounin in front of her. At the wave of her hand he disappeared and Tsunade took off as fast as she could towards the hospital. Well as fast as she could without looking like a madwoman.

Kakashi looked like hell for having slept for two weeks. For once the copy-nin actually looked his age; deep lines from years of worrying fanned out from both visible eyes. His mask was still in place as always but his forehead protector that covered his Sharingan eye had been removed for better access. He was tired, thin, and obviously depressed. She would be too if she had to spend so much time in a hospital bed, but his reasons were different. He focused both eyes on her when she entered, and flashed her a quick, sad smile under his mask.

"How are you feeling?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Been better i suppose."

"You wanted to see me Kakashi?"

The elite ninja nodded slowly and dropped his head while a million memories flooded his mind. Sorting through them he chose the most recent of them and sighed. "I need to see Sakura's file, most likely the rest of the Rookie Nine and Gai's team too."

Tsunade arched a delicately curved eyebrow. "Why?"

"Just something that was said during the battle that put me here. Something doesn't feel right about the situation. We have to be missing something."

Tsunade thought for a moment. She had gone over Sakura's file countless times in the past four years and nothing seemed odd or misplaced about it. She had regularly read it to try to figure out what was going through the kunoichi's head. It was as thick as someone her age would normally have and the girl was only 19. She liked to get into trouble all over the continent.

"On condition." At Kakashi's nod Tsunade continued. "I will give you full access to those files for a period of time if you tell me exactly what happened out there to put you and Neji into two week coma's. Consider it your mission report, no formalities, just the story."

For a few minutes Kakashi seemed to be lost inside his head. He stared blankly at his hands and didn't move, barely took breaths. His eyes portrayed emotions that were rare for the stoic man. For the first time Tsunade could remember he actually looked completely and utterly sad. It wouldn't have surprised her a bit if tears had started rolling from his eyes, though he kept his emotions more in check than that.

"My squad caught up with Sakura five blocks from the main gates and she stopped. Neji was the first to attack beyond that it was chaos for a few minutes. A smoke bomb was thrown, some kunai, things like that. When she jumped clear of the smoke she drew that damned sword. I attacked from the left and she swung her katana towards me, i barely had to time jump back she was so quick. She still ended up slicing my shirt. Neji threw a kunai from behind her at she parried it with her katana and i continued my attack but she moved out of the way. We exchanged a few words but that's when her Akatsuki escorts showed up."

"Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame?" Tsunade interrupted.

"Yes. Sakura is easily Jounin level, if not higher, alone but when they showed up they told her to take off. Which she did of course and i sent Sasuke and Naruto after her. Neji and i dealt with Kisame and Itachi for awhile and it seemed like we were getting a little closer to winning when this man showed up with Sakura in his arms."

"Short white hair, long white braid, violet eyes, gold pupils?"

Kakashi nodded.

"Sasuke and Naruto gave me his description, according to them Sakura was hanging on to life by a thread and he took her away."

"They're ok then?" Tsunade nodded and Kakashi continued. "When he showed up he ordered the Akatsuki to leave. They didn't move so he passed Sakura to Itachi and told them to go ahead and that he would catch up. Itachi asked his name and he just said about Darkness which got them moving. He turned to us and said something about introducing us to the end. I asked him to just hand Sakura over and he said this: There are greater things in store for her than being a Konoha dog, she's too important to us to just feed her to the sharks. The next thing i know im waking up here."

Tsunade absorbed the information calmly. The way it sounded was that Itachi, Kisame, and this mystery man were protecting Sakura more than necessary, or normal. Kakashi was right, something was not quite right here. Itachi killed his entire clan, attempted to kill his brother, tries to kill Naruto, kills countless other, and it doesn't even faze him, yet he protects and shelters Sakura at the cost of his own life? It didn't add up, even if he had feelings for her, which was highly unlikely in Tsunade's book, he was the kind of person to just allow them to die anyways. The way he saw it if they weren't strong enough to survive they weren't worth the time.

"You're right something just doesn't add up. This mystery man, Darkness, are you thinking her sword or a freak coincidence?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I don't know. What i do know is this: Sakura is in trouble and she doesn't even realize it."

E/N: well there ya go everyone you're one more chapter closer to the end. How does it feel? Well it feels good to have another chapter out. Ya know i average about 3,000 words per chapter... not including authors note, review responses or ending notes... heh oh well some chapters will be longer but i promise not to make them shorter...

So want a happy ending to this story or no?

Review!