Ch: 4 The Strangers You Know


"Hold still," Sakura murmured. Her steady hands rested on either side of his head and her healing chakra soothed the discomfort in his eyes.

Over the last eighteen days, Itachi completed all phases of his jutsu. Sakura would remain under his spell for a long time; all the false memories and emotional detachments would last until he either deactivated the jutsu or died in battle.

But keeping the jutsu active required an enormous amount of energy. He would be in a weakened state until they successfully retrieved the Jinchuriki. When asked about his labored movements, Itachi explained that it was because of his overuse of Sharingan.

The little kunoichi couldn't help but put her expertise to use whenever she could. And he'd come to relish the added benefit of having a medic on his team.

"We're leaving!" he heard Kisame call from down the hall.

Itachi, on his back, felt Sakura pull away. Without a word, she grabbed her cloak to follow after Kisame's voice.

As far as any passer-by could see, she was among colleagues. It was paramount to make sure nothing would interfere with the warped reality in her mind. That meant keeping her by his side, as close as possible.

And that also meant keeping up appearances.


The smell of seafood and toasted sesame hovered in the air, and hundreds of unsuspecting civilian tourists talked excitedly on the nearby outer streets. The clinking and clanking sounds of workers did well to hide their conversation from any possible eavesdroppers.

They were discussing their next move over dinner at a hole-in-the wall place in Fire country, owned by one of Akatsuki's beneficiaries.

Itachi watched Sakura sip on her unsweetened hot tea. "I'm grateful to be back," she said. Her tone was perfectly cool and detached—just the way he made her to be. It was the first time they ventured into public, and he wondered—how would she act now?

Kisame nodded as he made eye contact with Sakura. "Our chance encounter with you was lucky," he replied.

Itachi sent his partner a private look that said, shut it. It was an unanticipated development of events to have captured Sakura instead of Princess Tsunade, and nothing short of a miracle. It was inappropriate to make ironic jokes about it.

Kisame continued chewing his food with a sly, jagged-toothed grin at the double meaning behind what he said.

x

"Whatever." Hidan chugged the rest of his tea and slammed the empty cup on the table, sourly. He didn't give a rat's ass about chance encounters, just like how nobody in this neck of the woods gave a rat's ass about Jashinism. His unmet needs for a human sacrifice left him feeling enthusiastic about little—even the steaming stack of spare ribs on his plate, which was usually his favorite.

"So what do we do? We can't go back without the Jinchuriki. Leader has already set the date four and a half months from now," said Fishface, putting a piece of charbroiled ayu in his mouth.

Hidan resisted an urge to gag. Fish eating fish—cannibalism was where he drew the line.

"Let's talk about the plan," Itachi agreed. "Sakura. What is your idea?"

Bastard acted as if he hadn't already subliminally implanted one into her mind. Prick.

"The nine-tails Jinchuriki is the bottleneck. We have no choice but to use our trump card," she said, referring to herself.

Genius was patient enough to explain the plan to Hidan, in terms he'd understand, unlike what Kakuzu would've done—that dead stinkhead. Their trump card represented the ultimate betrayal; using the Jinchuriki's friendship with this pink hellcat to eventually bait him to an open area and take him.

"But is this the right time?" Itachi asked.

"We can't forget what's at stake here. I burn my bridges when I take the Jinchuriki, but the outcome is all that matters. And the sooner, the better," she said. By now, the hellcat switched from her green tea to the dish in front of her. Hidan watched as she chewed in thought, unaware that her freedom of choice was only an illusion.

So far so good.

"You would not be able to regain your cover," Itachi challenged.

"They'd be foolish until the very end anyway," she said, shaking her head. "Konoha ninjas are naïve and stupid. They won't appreciate the gift of Akatsuki until they know true pain."

Hidan thought about all the times Leader had said the same thing—that Akatsuki was the savior of the world, who could bring peace to shinobi who desperately needed it.

Secondary in importance to Lord Jashin, of course.

"We are the only ones who can do this," Sakura said. "It won't be until all hidden villages are destroyed, and the world is in darkness, when they'll understand the gift of Akatsuki. They must learn pain so that they will cherish a world without it."

Well Hidan be damned.

Looked like Genius was adept in the art of manipulation. To really lock-in their success, they needed to make sure their new little teammate truly believed in their cause, so they all had to hear it straight from her mouth.

Hidan just didn't know how far Itachi went.

He looked over at said mastermind, who had a blank expression on his face. The prick scrambled her brain good. The shit she was saying was damned sexy too. If Hidan knew that she'd suddenly become much more interesting, he wouldn't have wasted all those precious days ignoring her until now.

No longer did Sakura cling to the helpless dream of protecting her village and all the people in it. She was so desperate to keep her precious little Genin runts safe. Now, she was willing to betray her village and sacrifice her so-called 'teammate' for the greater cause? She was an entirely different person.

"It's been almost three weeks since I've returned to Akatsuki," the hellcat continued, pulling a hidden fish bone from her mouth. "It would be realistic for me to go back now and feign an escape."

With this plan, Akatsuki could stay posted at a nearby hideout and wait.

Itachi really had thought of everything.


After they returned, the four of them quietly retreated into their individual rooms in the farmhouse.

Sakura had nothing to do until she headed out the next morning. It wasn't like hostages could pack things. All she had on her body when she was taken would be brought back to Konoha with her—the shuriken and kunai in her pouch, soldier pills, medic scrolls, energy bars, and some cash.

Scratch that. She'd leave the consumables. It was more realistic of her to have eaten them by now.

She plopped onto her back on the old mattress with her head dangling off the edge. She couldn't recall ever being friends with her comrades, but recently she noticed they always stuck to themselves. Nobody ever talked to each other unless it was absolutely necessary.

Had it always been this boring in Akatsuki?

Just then—an abrupt and forceful knock at her door.

"Ay Sakura, we're going to spar outside."

It was Hidan.

With nothing better to do, she leaped off the bed and went to the backyard, which was a spacious lot of bare dirt. Beyond the scantily fenced-in area, their house was surrounded by a field of tall grass on all sides.

She looked around for her comrades. Mainly Itachi, who she felt she'd gotten closer to recently.

Who was "we"?

All she saw was Hidan standing shirtless in the dirt. Sakura rolled her eyes at his blatant lack of modesty.

"We can't have you looking that good when you go back."

Hidan licked his lips with a grin oozing of self-importance and devoured her with his overactive eyes. She forced a shudder from surfacing on her body—something like that would only encourage him more.

He didn't give her a chance to respond.

She was up in the air before her mind could register what was happening, dodging his favorite weapon that he hadn't even warned her he'd use.

Rude!

The late sun reflected off the shiny metal as he snaked it around once again, forcing her off the ground as soon as she landed.

He wouldn't get her a third time.

She prepared chakra in her fist and drove it into the earth, thousands of rocks and debris from the broken ground sky-rocketed into the air. She took advantage of Hidan's temporary preoccupation to land a few punches.

As the rocks and debris fell into disarray, so did Hidan's body.

"It would've hurt a lot more if I had used chakra," she said flatly.

Instead of the reaction she expected, Hidan sat up and grinned wildly.

"—but this is going to hurt you like a bitch."

His entire body went black. He picked himself off the ground in his transformed state, hovering over a sacrificial symbol that she hadn't seen him draw.

When did he—

She clenched her teeth together to suppress a scream. Pain stabbed through her right arm. It was a little much for a sparring session.

Her mind raced with confusion. Hadn't she dodged his blade?

"Cut it out, Hidan," she said.

She brought a hand to her injury—

"Tsk, tsk, I wouldn't do that," warned Hidan, as he held a kunai up to his face tauntingly.

She looked at him in disbelief. In his transformed state, she'd feel everything.

"I'm your teammate," she spat. "You can't just—"

Hidan's pupils dilated as he lodged the kunai into his arm, in the same spot that matched Sakura's painful wound.

"Stop it!" she shouted. "What the fuck, Hidan!"

Unwilling to let herself be tortured, she ran to where he stood and tackled his body with one hand in an attempt to have him step outside of his symbol.

She almost succeeded.

He was stronger than her right now. She was soon flipped onto her back, pinned underneath Hidan's bodyweight.

"I've been meaning to pay you back," he said.

She tried to inch herself outside of the symbol, sliding against the ground like a worm, ignoring the burning sensation of the gravel scraping against the skin of her back. "What are you talking abou—"

He plunged his kunai into his own shoulder and she screamed out again, writhing underneath him. She could smell the iron in her blood pooling beneath her, wetting her back with warm stickiness.

Hidan threw his head to the sky with his eyes rolled to the back of his head, as if he was getting off on her pain. The whole thing was disgustingly fetishized and not at all what she'd signed up for—this went beyond just a friendly sparring session between two teammates. She wanted to spit in his face, wished to knock him so hard in the head that he'd need six months in bed.

Sakura tried to use her feet to kick him, but the angle made it impossible. He was sitting on her stomach and her bleeding arms were useless at her sides.

"This is what I've fuckin' needed," breathed Hidan, eyes glazed over like he was in a trance. He then lowered his upper body until he was practically laying on top of her, with his face close to hers. He steadied himself with a forearm on the ground above her shoulder, his hand loosely clutching the kunai drenched in his blood.

She felt its moist edge dirtying her hair.

With his other hand, he grabbed her face and forced her to look at him.

She glared with her cheeks squished between his fingers.

His hair, usually slicked back neatly, hung loosely above her nose. She could feel his hot breath on her—metallic and stale smelling, like he hadn't eaten in more than a few hours. This time she couldn't hold back a shudder when she realized that Hidan was only a shell of someone who was mentally gone a long time ago.

She writhed underneath him some more, in a last-ditch effort to prevent whatever was coming next. The situation was dangerous, she knew, but if he meant to kill her, he would've done so already. So what gave?

Suddenly, his hand around her tightened.

Sakura watched in horror as his face began its descent.

"No— Wait—"

And Hidan violently crashed his lips into hers.

Her stomach churned. She didn't—couldn't—breathe. She was going to be sick. She tried to yell, but it was a wasted effort as she learned the sound of a strangled cry, her voice a muffled, helpless, mess. She squeezed her eyes shut to block the image of him out of her head.

She couldn't.

His tongue invaded her mouth, forcing her eyes to open in revulsion and shock.

"…Hidan, have you finished yet?"

Itachi?

Hidan froze above her. With a hand still on her face, he glowered in the direction of their intruders.

Kisame stood in the doorway with Samesada leaning against its frame, and Itachi stood behind him.

She'd been rescued.

"Shitheads," muttered Hidan as he pushed himself up and swiveled his legs off to the side. "I guess I have to be."

A liberating breeze replaced the weight of his body, and Sakura found the courage to breathe again.

Without looking back at her, Hidan made his way towards their other two teammates by the door, reverting back into his mortal form. He maintained cold eye contact with Kisame, aggressively bumping the sharks' shoulder on the way inside.

Her nausea faded as he left her view, and she began to collect herself. She tried not to shrink under Itachi's gaze but it was getting more difficult to hide the stinging tears in her eyes.

It was commonplace in the shinobi world, she tried to tell herself. A kunoichi's sexuality was first and foremost a tool, to be used and abused to make ends meet. It was all the more reason for Akatsuki to succeed, to put an end to the unjust system and eradicate the world of any pain and suffering.

But no matter how indifferent she tried to tell herself to feel, she was glad that they came when they did. It was stupid, she knew, but she didn't want to find out how far Hidan would have gone otherwise.

"Sakura."

At the sound of his voice, she automatically searched Itachi's face for a sign of comfort—

And then shoved that reflex back to where it came from.

Yes, they'd recently spent a lot of time together, but that didn't mean he cared for her well-being. They were professionals and had a job to do. They weren't friends.

"Yes?" She asked.

But what if a small part of Itachi really cared? What if he realized the value of their healing sessions and—

"You're leaving tonight," he stated.

Her stomach dropped at the flat tone in his voice. He had no concern. No worry.

Sakura nodded her understanding. She walked up to the door and politely slid by Kisame with her eyes focused on the floor.

"Oh and Sakura…"

She looked up to Itachi once more, searching for a reaction in his eyes.

Anything.

If not for her, he was at the very least supposed to be a team leader. He couldn't just let that slide, could he?

"Yes?" she asked, hopeful again.

She was met with cold and inexpressive eyes.

"Don't heal yourself."


They were running through Fire Country and close to Konoha when she sensed them.

"Sasuke," Karin hissed, "I can't fight."

Fuck.

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows and closed his eyes, willing himself to keep his patience and think. He could still feel her looking at him, with the reflection from her fogged up glasses glued to the side of his head like usual.

She didn't want to risk losing the child, and that's why she couldn't fight. But that only made it harder for Sasuke—to fight, keep a low profile, and defend somebody all at the same time.

"Trouble in paradise?" One of their pursuers jumped ahead of them, blocking their path forward.

Sasuke saw that they weren't up against Leaf, which was good. Killing the shinobi of the village he wanted to enter would not be a great start.

The vertical scar running down the man's cheek moved with his lips when he shot them a nasty yellow-toothed grin, calculating how much he could get for their heads. Hunter-nin.

Actually, Sasuke'd seen this guy before. He thought they'd lost the group from a couple weeks back, but someone must've seen them in the last town. Word got around fast. And that meant more were coming.

The hunter-nin addressed Karin. "Maybe I'll get rid of you first."

She laid a hand over her stomach and backed away. Sasuke instinctively stepped in front of her, shielding her from the vile stare.

"You're trespassing," Sasuke warned. The group pursuing them didn't have the right to hunt in Fire Country. It was illegal.

The hunter-nin grinned. "So are you."

It seemed he would not take no for an answer.

Sasuke turned to Karin and he nodded his head towards one of the trees in his peripheral vision. "Wait for me there. Watch your back."

"As if I'd let you—"

"Your opponent is me," Sasuke said with one hand on his sword. "Karin. Go."

It started to rain.

Sasuke unsheathed Kusanagi and bolted towards the hunter-nin.

X

Karin closed her eyes to sense chakra movements much faster than she would have been able to follow with just her eyes. Her wet hair clung to her skin as cold droplets rolled off tree leaves and branches, onto her head and shoulders.

She got a feel for two more hunter-nin approaching quickly, and her eyes snapped open to warn Sasuke. "Above you!"

Sasuke was already on top of it.

Now four against one, he held his own as Karin nervously watched from the sidelines with a kunai held defensively across her chest. Her antsy fingers glided along the ridges of the loop on the end of her weapon, fidgeting as she closed her eyes again to follow their movements nervously.

Her chakra control was off balance.

One consequence of not knowing her lineage was that she couldn't just visit her grandparents and ask why the unborn child was affecting her body this way. She couldn't trust herself in battle and it was like her body had completely dedicated itself to nurturing the life growing inside of her.

She eventually became more comfortable with it, and Sasuke never noticed. It was fine, or so she thought—she didn't think she'd be forced to tell him in such an inconvenient way, and it hadn't really impeded on their movements until now.

Someone appeared in front of her.

It wasn't Sasuke.

The hunter-nin's massive form shocked her into consciousness, making apparent that her own instincts had no doubt betrayed her, maybe even fatally this time. She had nothing up her sleeve—no tricks or substitution jutsu that she could do that would go unnoticed by him.

He wielded a strangely-shaped dagger with a thick metal base that tapered off at the top. It was probably custom-made. And laced with poison.

One cut and she'd be done for.

She met his dagger with her own kunai, cursing that she was less quick as she would've liked. She wasn't the combat type to begin with, but this was just pathetic. She jumped in the air to get enough momentum to knock him onto the floor from above, but instead he blocked her attack, caught her leg, pulled her entire body with it, and slammed her against the tree.

Hard wood knocked the wind out of her. Pain ripped through her body.

She couldn't hold back a loud yelp.

"Karin!"

Sasuke reappeared in front of her, securing her between him and the tree behind them.

"I'm— I'm fine, Sasuke…" she said weakly.

X

They were surrounded.

In any regular battle, Sasuke could have easily taken them. But Karin wasn't able, and he didn't want to use any jutsu or techniques that would put his name on the board. Even if he used chakra, someone with good tracking could easily identify him with just the lingering remnants of battle.

Sasuke's best bet would be to get Karin even more distance, so that he could go on the offensive.

The four hunter-nin closed in with a semicircle formation, backing them up against the massive tree. They all wore the same grins on their faces, which suggested they thought they had the upper hand.

Screw it. He didn't have the patience to deal with this shit. The rain would help wash some of the evidence away anyway.

"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!"

Fire and chakra-infused shuriken flew from where Sasuke stood, and the hunter-nin leaped backwards to dodge the wide-range attack.

Without giving any of them a chance to recover, the sound of a thousand birds cried into the air as Sasuke activated chidori and infused it with his sword. With speed to match lightning, he sent the largest of the hunter-nin spinning.

A body thudded to the floor. By the time the three hunter-nin registered what happened, one of their teammates was dead.

"Sasuke…" said Karin from behind him. "I don't feel so good."

He looked at her. She couldn't move, and it looked like she was getting weaker by the second. He would have to end this quickly.

Sasuke went after the next closest hunter-nin, but his sword was only met with a replacement log. This one was quicker than his teammate, it seemed.

But not quick enough.

He followed the hunter-nin with ease, having the unfair advantage of his eyes. Their enemy was able to counter a couple of the sword's attacks, but on the third impact, Sasuke activated his lightning element again. The hunter-nin's dagger broke and Sasuke's chidori had impaled him.

That left two.

He heard Karin scream.

Sasuke transported himself to her side, but this time he was too late to dodge what was coming.

Sasuke was met face to face with another hunter-nin as he shielded Karin and bore the brunt of the attack on his right flank. Their enemy managed to tear through his white shirt, slicing him clean. He tensed as he used both arms to enforce his defense, the only thing preventing the hunter-nin from slicing Sasuke in half.

He had no time to think as the last remaining hunter-nin lunged at Karin.

No—He wouldn't let him.

Damn it—

"Jagei Jubaku!"

—make it in time!

Two great white snakes shot out of Sasuke's sleeves, one instantly coiling around the hunter-nin in front of Sasuke. The other slithered away.

"Save Karin," he commanded.

X

She closed her eyes. A wet dagger make contact with her skin. It was so close that she could smell the poison laced on the edge—synthetic purple dye that burned in her nostrils.

At any second she expected to meet her death.

She held her breath. Her heart raced.

...

Nothing came except the sound of a gasp from the enemy in front of her. "What the fuck—"

"It's over for you two."

Sasuke?

Karin opened her eyes to see both the hunter-nin suspended in the air and their movements restricted. They kicked and clawed violently at the snakes, their long bodies fully coiled around the enemies' arms, legs, and necks.

It went on for about fifteen more seconds.

They kicked more forcefully, thrashing in resistance to the snake's tightening holds. Their faces became red as their resilience began to wane.

In their last moments of life, their hands weakly tried to pull free. They wheezed from the lack of oxygen.

And then their mouths fell agape as their heads hung over their lifeless bodies.

The snakes eagerly loosened their coil around the corpses, grinning as they stretched their jaws wide to take in their freshly caught prey. Their slimy juices could be heard melting the hunter-nins' clothing first, as their muscles contracted and convulsed to slide the bodies headfirst through the jaws and into their stomachs.

The stench of burnt human flesh lingered even after the snakes disappeared back into Sasuke's sleeves.

He bent down next to Karin, and lifted her arm over his shoulder. She saw him flinch.

"Sasuke, you're hurt. Let me—"

"Can you walk?" he interrupted.

As soon as she stood, Karin's legs lost their grounding and Sasuke had to brace himself against the tree to avoid being pulled down with her. She very clearly couldn't.

They were in such a sorry state.

"You shouldn't have used that jutsu," she said weakly.

She knew the real Sasuke, but that didn't mean others could see past their own misunderstanding of him. With every conflict, every fight, especially when he used those snakes, he strengthened his association with Orochimaru and his reputation sank even further.

"It's fine," he said. "Let's get you some help."

He swooped one arm beneath the bend in her knees and brought her body up to his chest with both arms. Her head rested sideways on the crevice of his arm.

She looked up at him with her last breath and muttered, "this is too pathetic…" before she lost consciousness.


To be continued...