Just so you people know: The 'little talk' with Leader took fifteen minutes. For Sakura to come back to reality and leave took ten minutes. On her way to Konoha, flashbacks occured. Well...enjoy.


Itachi went up the stairs of the Akatsuki building to find Sakura. To his inner horror, he sensed a faint trace of femenine chakra that led to a small chamber. He quickly ran into the small room and found the jar empty. Damn! She found it! He ran back down the stairs and told Kisame the news, calmly though. Afterwards, the two of them dashed out of the door.

Sakura was only a mile away from Konoha. In her speed, she'd get there in only five or six minutes. She entered the forest, jumping from tree branch to tree branch. After her fouth jump, she masked her chakra completely.

"What?" the hospital room boomed with loud shouts and gasps.

Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Rock Lee, Neji, Tenten, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ino all stared at Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke in disbelief. The three males had told the big group the whole story about their encounter with Sakura and now the whole room was loud and chaotic.

"Sakura did this?" Ino asked loudly, pointing at Sasuke's bandaged body, "But why?"

"Sakura would never do this," Hinata insisted. She refused to give in to the fact.

"Hinata's right," Tenten remarked, "She has no reason to."

"Unless she decided to turn on us," Neji snorted.

"Sakura-chan would never do that!" Lee shouted.

"That's right," a voice came from behind the arguing group.

Everyone looked towards the door to see Sakura standing by it with a smile. "I would never turn on you guys," she informed, "For me, that's worse than scuicide and murder combined." She looked at Sasuke. "Gomen, Sasuke-kun. But I had to do it. Itachi and Kisame would start to suspect things."

Ino ran to her best friend and hugged her tight. "Oh Sakura!" she cried, "We missed you! What happened to you?"

To Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke's relief, Sakura answered playfully, "You'd better let go of me, Ino-pig!"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered, "You're memories! They're back?"

Sakura lit up a smile and said, "Yep. But I still have the ones of the previous two weeks." The whole group surrounded her and and showered her with all sorts of questions. It's good to be back.

Itachi and Kisame were leaping great distances at high speed. "We have to kill her," Itachi mumbled beneath his collar, "She still keeps the knowledge of the location of our headquarters."

"This is all your fault," Kisame whined.

"Shut your mouth and jump!" Itachi ordered. They were closing in on Konoha, and he wanted to finish off Sakura as quickly as possible. You're dead, kunoichi.

After a good ten minutes of answering questions, Sakura finally declared, "Itachi's coming!"

Silence.

"He's coming and we need to finish him off right here and now!" Sakura continued bravely, "If we all work together and cooperate...we have a good chance in beating him!" She then spoke in a softer tone with her head down. "He's been a merciless man with sinful intentions for everyone. We need to stop him. If we don't...many innocent lives could be lost." She looked up at them with a stone hard stare. "I'll die fighting if I have to!"

One by one, the teenagers of the group stepped up and went with Sakura's plan. Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke joined up with her as well. "Hai!" they all responded sharply.

Sakura smiled and then frowned slightly. "In my estimation, he should be here in about twenty minutes. But since his speed is twice more superior than mine...then make it ten or twelve minutes."

Everyone started to murmur.

Sakura walked up to Sasuke and gently placed a hand on his chest. She closed her eyes and focused her chakra. Within a few seconds, a green glow emerged from her hand and surrounded an awe-struck Sasuke.

Sasuke looked at her. She's...healing my wounds! After two minutes, he felt his pain disappear, and all of his tightened joints loosen for more flexibility. He sighed in pleasure.

Sakura removed her hand and shook off her dizzy feeling. "There," she sighed, "Good thing the Suna medics were good ones, or that would've taken hours to do." She stood up annd stretched. "Well then... Lets go to the Hokage to inform her about the plans."

Everyone nodded and went off to the hokage tower.

"You what?" Tsunade popped.

"We have to finish off Itachi once and for all. This is our chance. Please, Tsunade-sama. Many people need us to win this fight!" Sakura begged.

Tsunade gave an exasperated sigh and looked up at the pink-haired kunoichi. Even though only a few weeks had passed, you've grown up dramatically. As she opened her mouth, everyone leaned forward to listen. "Alright," she answered with a smile.

Everyone cheered, except Sasuke just flashed a quick smile. Sakura squealed and hugged herself in happiness.

Tsunade kept her smile on. "Now," she chided, silencing everybody in the room, "We have to make our plan. And here it is." Everybody leaned closer to the Hokage as she explained the ambush plans.

Ten minutes later, Itachi and Kisame darted into Konoha looking around intensely. They wandered further inside, where they found civilians running around and screaming when they were seen. The whole place was clear within just a minute. Itachi glared at every building. Where is that annoying little-

"Itachi!" Sakura's voice boomed from a nearby building.

Itachi and Kisame turned around. "Kunoichi!"they hissed.

"It's time to end this madness!" Sakura exclaimed. As she said those words, the group appeared on various Konoha buildings, along with many jounins and ANBUs. Tsunade appeared next to Sakura.

Itachi and Kisame both smirked. "Then so be it," Itachi declared, "I'll still kill you, kunoichi."

"Bring it on," Sakura taunted.

Sasuke appeared next to Sakura as well. "I'll finally have my goal fulfilled," he informed with a smirk, "The goal in killing my big brother, that is."


This is getting sssoooo interesting! I hate my own cliffy! XO