Chapter 13: Paradise Lost

"I hold a beast,

an angel

and a madman in me"

-Dylan Thomas

"Well, well, if it isn't Iwa's most famous missing nin. I didn't think you liked me enough to send me presents, Black Spider," Kakashi said, straightening out of his crouch.

Sakura's nerves burned through her adrenalin filled body as she watched the woman swing herself over to the next tree branch with feline like grace.

"Well normally I wouldn't, but an old mutual friend cashed in a favor..."

"I didn't think we had any mutual friends," Kakashi said, hands quickly forming signs.

She watched in awe as a hurricane of seemingly harmless leaves gusted towards the woman, the dainty green petals burning everything in their path.

'Black Spider' skirted away again, her laughter ringing around the secluded lot. It was beautiful, feminine, and absolutely sinister.

Sakura gripped her kunai tighter and out of the corner of her eye, noticed Sasuke discreetly slipping a hand into his weapon pouch.

"Why would you kill Yori-san, crazy lady?" Naruto shouted.

Her gut clenched in worry and she had to fight the impulse to cover Naruto's mouth. It was one thing for Naruto to bait Sasuke, but to harass this deadly woman who was clearly an enemy to Konoha was an entirely different situation.

Sakura's eyes flittered over to her sensei and watched as he scanned the forest. His lone eye narrowed as he carefully considered the woman. And as she took in Kakashi-sensei's almost confused demeanor, she too noticed something was off about the situation.

The woman was being too passive- yes she had tried to wound Kakashi-sensei, but that was all. Was she really here to kill their sensei… or was she just buying time for something else? Was an ambush on its way?

Her gaze shifted back to the woman and watched as her painted lips tipped up in a smirk.

The hair on the back of Sakura's neck stood straight as the whistle of a weapon pierced the air. Her hands shot out and grabbed both Sasuke and Naruto's shirt collars, pulling them to the ground. A barrage of shruiken pierced the air above their heads with deadly intent.

Sakura quickly jumped to her feet again and looked behind her to notice another version of Black Spider was lazily leaning against a tree trunk, her hand absently spinning another shrunken. A clone.

"Be careful you three, she's a genjutsu expert," Kakashi-sensei cautioned, but his voice sounded strangely slow.

Sakura blinked, but her movements felt oddly languorous, like she was fighting off a deep slumber that she wasn't sure she wanted to wake up from. Her body tipped over and slumped to the ground.

Her lazy gaze took in the night sky with its glittering stars- it was beautiful. The fragrance wafting off the forest of flowers dizzied her head in the best kind of way. The grass beneath her hand felt luxuriously soft, and Sakura felt her grip on her kunai loosen. The metal was cold and harsh and bit into her blisters. Besides, it wasn't like she needed it.

There was shouting, but it sounded strangely distant, and Sakura didn't want to listen to it. The lure of this newfound paradise was too strong, and she couldn't find it within herself to care about who was shouting.

She rolled over onto her back and turned her head to the side. Sasuke was lying beside her, with his face tilted towards her. And he was beautiful. Granted, Sakura had always known (in a purely platonic way) that her teammate was attractive, but she had never fully studied Sasuke's features until now.

Long dark lashes that would be the envy of half of the girls in their class at the Academy fanned over midnight eyes. His cheekbones were sharp and once they lost their child like roundness, they would be even more stunning. Thin lips were pulled in a half smirk, as he gazed back at her.

He was beautiful, this night was beautiful, the heady aroma of the garden was beautiful. Everything was absolutely perfect.

…But why were they here again? Something bad had happened? An image of blank eyes flashed through her mind, and Sakura shook her head. She didn't want to think about that.

Naruto's blissful laughter rang out into the night, sounding full and melodious. It was perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, not perfect

Another shout, followed by a pained groan overpowered Naruto's laughter. And Sakura found her carefree smile slip a little. Another image of thick congealing blood sliding down her kunai flashed across her mind, and Sakura shook her head more vigorously.

But she couldn't quite return to her previous euphoria.

Everything was slightly tainted with a sinister darkness now. The midnight sky wasn't quite as welcoming, the stars were slightly dimmer, the night air chilled, the grass stiff, and the clanging of weapons louder…

"Team Seven get up! Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura!"

Sakura, Sakura, Sakura...

A queasy feeling twisted in her stomach- something wasn't quite right… the paradise was tinted with maliciousness now. And the woman- the terrible nin woman was charging at Kakashi-sensei…

No, no, the woman was good- she was so good. She created this utopia. Sakura wanted to stay in the utopia forever.

But the woman killed the man in the garden though- the man with the glass eyes. She threw shruiken at them. She was an enemy.

Sakura wrenched herself up from off the ground, breathing hard.

Kakashi was busy fighting off multiple clones of the woman, whilst trying to keep them safe.

Sakura looked over to see Sasuke's normally blank face being pulled into a multitude of expressions- peaceful, to worried, to angry, to bliss.

Naruto who was lying on the other side of him had the biggest grin Sakura had ever seen stretched across his cheeks.

None of Black Spider's clones had noticed her yet. And Sakura really couldn't blame the woman as several tree roots begun lashing out at her. But still, Sakura made sure to be discrete as she shook Sasuke's arm. His face pulled into another scowl.

"Sasuke," Sakura urgently whispered, "wake up!"

He wasn't exactly dreaming, but the genjutsu that the woman had obviously inflicted them with felt more potent than even the best dream.

The air whooshed as a kunai narrowly missed her cheek and Sakura ducked down- one of the clones had finally noticed her alertness.

Quickly rolling to her feet, Sakura grabbed her kunai, and moved away from her teammates. She didn't want them to get caught in the fray and wind up with a weapon stuck in their unresponsive chests.

"You must be a clever little thing to wake up once you were caught in the web," the clone crooned at her. "But if you were truly smart, you would have stayed down."

The woman lunged as the last word fell off her tongue. Sakura bowed her back as her kunai passed far too close to her throat. She kicked out with her leg, hoping to trip the woman, but she was too fast, dancing away.

Sakura inhaled shakily. This was nothing like training with the boys. This was real- this woman could kill her if she wasn't careful. If she wasn't ruthless.

Grasping the handle of the whip that was every-present at her waist, she loosened her preferred weapon and let it uncoil on the ground.

Black Spider's clone laughed in chilling delight as she spotted the weapon. "How cute."

But instead of lashing her whip out at the clone, Sakura flicked it out to a nearby tree branch and launched herself up. The moment her feet touched bark, she hastily masked her chakra. It was thankfully dark enough, especially with the foliage that her hair wouldn't be what gave her presence away.

Jumping from branch to branch, Sakura weaved her way deeper into the forest, praying that Black Spider would follow. A voice in the back of her mind also cautioned her that if she went too far, no sensei would be there to save her if things went badly.

Finally stopping in a large oak tree, Sakura crouched in silence, whip and kunai at the ready. Green eyes squinted through the darkness waiting for her prey. Much like a spider would wait for a fly. Her jittery nerves tempted her to snort at the irony, but she managed to hold herself together.

And it was worth it as she saw a black clad figure silently sleuthing through the night, more like a sleek jaguar than the arachnid she named herself after.

Holding her breath, Sakura steadied her hand and let her kunai fly towards the woman's jugular. And just before her weapon hit it's mark, Black Spider dipped out of the way.

Another chuckle left the woman's mouth, but this time it sounded less sensual, and more guttural.

"You have nice aim little girl."

Sakura quickly dropped down to a lower branch as two shruiken impaled themselves in the trunk above. They came at such speed that Sakura had almost missed seeing her throw them.

Grabbing a senbon from her weapon's pouch, she quickly jumped to another tree, throwing the needles at she leapt. And judging from the popping sound, this time they hit their mark.

But the moment her foot hit the tree branch, another Black Spider clone's hand was on her throat, slamming her back against the trunk. Sakura felt the air stutter out of her lungs.

"Such poor manners," the woman clucked, her talon like nails digging into the smooth flesh of her throat.

Sakura's feet kicked out, but the hand against her throat only tightened its grip. Her hands reached up in panic, trying to pry the clone's hand off of her, but they remained steady.

"Now I have a few questions for you about your teammate. Tell me, little girl, has Uchiha Sasuke developed his sharingan yet?"

Sakura's brain whirled as she considered the implications of this woman's questions and the consequences if she didn't answer it. But the consequences didn't really matter. Because as much of a pain in the ass Sasuke was, he was her teammate.

"I'm not telling you anything!" she spat into the woman's painted face.

Black Spider's grip tightened and Sakura's view of the woman's hazel eyes dimmed as black spots danced in her vision.

"I suppose we'll have to do this the other way then," the clone said, quickly retracting her hands and forming signs.

Instead of gulping in much needed breaths, Sakura lashed out with her fists, attempting to strike her. But before she could hit her target, Sakura felt a dizzying wave descend upon her. The world tilted upon its side, spinning in nauseous way before settling.

Her mother was standing before her, her white blonde hair shining in the dark and a full smile stretched across her radiant face.

Her smile was the biggest clue that something wasn't right…this wasn't right. That smile didn't belong there. That smile was foreign and unseen. That smile was the smile of an imposter.

"How was training flower?" Not-Mebuki inquired. Curiosity alight in normally dead eyes.

But the lure was too strong. The impulse that was boarding on need was pushing her to answer.

"Training was fine."

The smile on her not mother's face widened, and Sakura felt a warmth settle in her chest at the sight of it.

"And how are your teammates?"

"Naruto is relentless, and Sasuke is determined," Sakura answered, lulled by the false sincerity.

"Has Sasuke unlocked his sharingan yet?" Mebuki questioned, voice carefully light.

Sakura's eyes snapped up to her mother, but the image blurred for a moment. Mebuki smiled again, but the shark-like quality lost its nurturing effect.

"I'm not going to answer that," Sakura slowly replied.

"Tell me about his sharingan!" Mebuki insisted, closing the distance between them.

And something within Sakura snapped. The chakra in her throat flared hotly, "No! Get out of my head!"

Sakura blinked and Black Spider was once again standing in front of her, a stunned look gracing her lovely features. Taking advantage of the woman's distraction, Sakura lashed out with her kunai, disbanding the clone.

And once the cloud of smoke disappeared, Sakura leaned back against the tree trunk, breathing heavily. Chakra was throbbing hotly in her throat matching the rapid pace of her pulse. Questions were exploding like fireworks in her mind, but she didn't have time to dwell on them. She needed to get back to her team.

Darting through the forest, propelled largely by her whip, as her chakra was still acting wild, Sakura broke through the trees to find both Sasuke and Naruto on their feet, taking down another Black Spider clone.

Kakashi-sensei was nowhere to be found, but four nin dogs seemed to be herding the only other clone present. Sakura halted and watched as the lethally large jaws of one of the dogs closed over the clone's throat. She almost wanted to flinch at the horrifying scene, but thankfully the clone smoked out of existence instead of splattering like a real human body would.

She uneasily slid past the dogs and refocused on her teammates. Naruto's clones kept caging the woman in, while Sasuke used nin wires to trap her in what looked ironically like a web. Just as she reached the two, Sasuke sunk a kunai into the clone's chest, disbanding it.

One of the Naruto clones spotted her and yelled, "Sakura-chan!"

Sakura barely managed to open her mouth before orange clad clones surrounded her. A hysterical laugh almost escaped her lips as she watched Sasuke elbow many of them out of existence to make his way over.

"Are you okay Sakura-chan? Where did you go? Did she kidnap you? Are there more clones where you came from?" Naruto frantically questioned.

"Quit harassing her dobe."

Sasuke's dark eyes did a quick scan of her body and Sakura thought of the way Black Spider questioned her about the sharingan.

"Are you hurt?" Sasuke finally asked, visual scan complete.

Sakura shook her head. "When I woke up she threw a kunai at me. I tried to wake you up," Sakura explained, meeting Sasuke's eye, "but you wouldn't. So I lead some clones into the forest hoping neither of you would get hit in the fray."

"Wow," Naruto breathed out, "that was so brave of you Sakura-chan!"

Sakura shrugged. She didn't feel particularly brave- more like terrified. But she did what she had to do.

"I'm not hurt, and I managed to get rid of the clones. Where is Kakashi-sensei?"

"The real Spider lady took off, so Kakashi chased her. He left his nin dogs behind to help us. Can you believe it, Kaka-sensei has nin dogs!" Naruto explained, his eyes darting over to the four in question.

"Now that we're together, we should go alert the Hokage that an enemy infiltrated Konoha boarders," Sasuke stated.

Sakura and Naruto agreed and the three took off towards Hokage Tower, the nin dogs trailing behind.

As they ran, Naruto explained how Sasuke woke up first and managed to wake Naruto out of the genjutsu with a swift thump on the head.

"And then the teme and I kicked some clone ass! Believe it!"

Sakura smiled in his direction, but her stride fell short as she spotted Kakashi just outside the Hokage Tower.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura called, and his masked face snapped up towards the three of them.

He was in front of them and inspecting them before any of them could blink.

"Are you three ok?" Kakashi-sensei asked, his lone eye meticulous in its perusal.

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine. We were seriously awesome," Naruto bragged. "But Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here, where is the Spider lady?"

Kakashi's masked pulled up in the surefire sign of a smirk. "I'm just a clone Naruto. I needed to alert the other nins about her. The real Kakashi went after her."

"He is already on his way back," the small pug said, trotting up to them. "She escaped once backup arrived."

"What do you want us to do now?" Sasuke questioned.

"You're sure you don't have any injuries? Even the smallest little cut could be deadly. Some of those shrunken she used were poisoned."

Everyone shook their heads no.

Cloned Kakashi let out a deep sigh, as if he knew that his original was going to deeply regret whatever came out of his mouth. "Wait for me at my place. Sakura can show you the way."

Sasuke's eyes widened and Naruto let out a cheer, but Sakura felt something uneasy coil within her. She didn't want to go back there.

But Naruto and Sasuke were looking at her expectantly and Sakura found her feet trailing a somewhat familiar path to Kakashi-sensei's apartment. Her gait was sluggish and it felt as though the exhaustion of a very long day coupled with chakra drainage was starting to slow her down. Neither of her teammates seemed to mind though.

When they reached Kakashi-sensei's door, the little pug from before unlocked the door for them. Sakura went straight to the couch that Genma-san had thrown himself on and slumped down on it. It was hardly lady like- but neither was the grass and dirt stains or the body odor she probably was giving off either.

"Kakashi-sensei is a clean freak," Naruto declared after nosing around a bit.

Sakura wanted to protest at his snooping, but decided not too. He did invite them there without supervision after all.

"Just because he isn't a slob like you doesn't make him a freak dobe," Sasuke countered.

"I am not a slob!"

"But you are a dobe!"

"You three better not be fighting in my house," a weary voice declared, from the doorframe.

Naruto yelped in surprise. "You have got to stop doing that," he grumbled.

Kakashi's clothing was torn and dirty, and his hair looked even wilder, but what stood out most of all was that his other eye was uncovered.

An eye so entirely different from its pair gazed at them. It was bright red, with black swirling patterns. Sakura knew about this kind of eye- read about it, heard whispers about it, but she had never seen it.

The sharingan.

She looked over to see Sasuke's jaw clenched tightly; eyes boring into Kakashi's newly exposed one.

"Kaka-sensei, the Spider lady did something freaky to your eye!" Naruto cried out.

Kakashi sighed before meeting Sasuke's devastated and accusing gaze.

"She didn't do anything to my eye Naruto. It is a dojutsu, called-"

"-the sharingan," Sasuke finished for him. "But that's impossible. You couldn't have that unless- I'm mean, you're not- are you?"

And Sakura felt both terribly uncomfortable and terribly sad for being here and witnessing her teammate's stoic mask crack. He sounded so desperate. Yet she knew he would be disappointed by their sensei's answers.

"What is 'the sharingan'?" Naruto questioned, his head whipping back and forth between Kakashi and Sasuke. The tension was so thick that even he couldn't miss it.

"The sharingan is a blood limit belonging to the Uchiha family," Kakashi explained. "It gives the wielder extreme perception and allows the user to copy almost any jutsu, amongst other things..."

Naruto's face became solemn as he took in the implications what exactly Kakashi was saying.

"Then why do you have it?" Sakura finally asked.

It was something that she had wondered since she had read about it in the bingo book. She knew his family history, and there was no way he was born with the gene.

Kakashi sighed and scrubbed a hand over his masked face. He looked directly at Sasuke as he began, "My teammate was a Uchiha- Uchiha Obito. There was a mission where I lost my eye, and my teammate, my best friend was dying. And before he- before he died, he gave me his eye."

Sasuke slowly nodded.

"But the sharingan was not meant for people outside of your clan. I can never turn it off and it drains a good portion of my chakra. So I keep it covered," Kakashi explained, once again moving his forehead protector over it.

"So Sasuke-teme is going to have eyes like yours?" Naruto questioned.

Kakashi slowly nodded, "Its more than likely. When you develop your sharingan, I will be there to help you."

Sasuke's eyes were a swirl of emotion and Sakura could only guess at how he was feeling.

"But for now it's late. You three should go home and get some rest. You can have the day off tomorrow. I think you've done more than enough to deserve it."

Naruto jumped out of his chair and headed towards the door, his energy boundless. His round of goodnights probably woke the neighbors. Sasuke was much slower to his feet. He mumbled his goodnight and disappeared with haunted eyes. Sakura remained rooted in her seat.

"As much as I don't mind you staying Sakura-chan, won't your parents be worried? It is nearly two am. Unless- unless you have something you want to tell me?" Kakashi slowly said, his voice tired, but eye alert.

A frowned tugged at Sakura's lips- of course he would want to bring that up again.

"Actually sensei there is something I want to tell you."

Kakashi leaned forward in his chair, his hands moving forward as if to comfort her, before they fell to his lap once again.

"When I lured one of Black Spider's clones into the forest, she trapped me in a genjutsu. And then she started questioning me about whether or not Sasuke had developed his sharingan."

Kakashi leaned back in surprise, but his voice was urgent as he questioned her, "What did you tell her?"

"I didn't tell her anything."

His voice lowered into something that Sakura thought was supposed to resemble soothing. "Its ok if you did Sakura-chan, you were under a genjustu."

Her affronted frown definitely made an appearance on her face, "I'm not lying sensei- I didn't tell her anything."

"Sakura, the woman known as 'Black Spider' is one of the world's best genjutsu masters. She weaves her illusions so well that most people either don't know they're in them, or don't want to get out of them. And you are a very bright girl, but I find it a little hard to believe you could escape one on your own." He sat up a little straighter, "Was someone else out there with you?"

"No, no one was out there but me and her. She crafted the illusion into my mother, but she got the image all wrong and I knew it. So I told her to get out of my head and she did!"

"You told her to get out of your head, and she just did?" Kakashi asked, and Sakura was angry at the disbelief that still trickled into his words.

"The point I'm trying to make, sensei, is that she was obviously there today to gather information about Sasuke."

"Why would she wait until I had arrived to attack you then?" Kakashi questioned, almost to himself.

Sakura shrugged, "I don't know. We didn't discover Yori-san's body until right before you arrived. But maybe she wanted you to know she was after Sasuke. She did say you had a mutual friend after all."

Kakashi frowned. "Thank you for telling me."

Sakura took that as her queue to leave and slowly stood. Her weary feet trailed over to the door, but before she could slip out of it, Kakashi stopped her.

"You're positive that you just told her to stop her illusion and she did? She is not known for having mercy- even with children."

Sakura fought the urge to thump her head against the doorframe. She thought back to the incident instead.

"My chakra flared and I told her to 'get out of my head' and she did. She was pretty surprised that I managed to actually escape the illusion though. I used her surprise to destroy her clone," Sakura said and quickly slipped out the door.

If she had stayed she would have noticed her sensei's eye comically widen, and the portion of his exposed face go white.

A/N: Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Writing action scenes is always a little tricky for me. Whatever I'm picturing in my head never transfers quite as well to paper. But I actually think I did all right this time. Please let me know what you think!

Also I am in the process of moving house! So if my next few updates are a little erratic that's why! I apologize in advance!

Please review!