'thoughts'

"talking"

'inner Ryuu talking'

The next day Sakura woke up to the sound of birds. She slowly opened her eyes and looked behind her at Itachi, who was still sleeping peacefully with his arm wrapped around her waist. She kissed him lightly on the forehead before slipping out from underneath the covers and walking into the bathroom for a quick shower before dressing into her beige skirt, black shorts, brown shirt and combat boots. She let her hair hang loose around her shoulders, she only had a matching beige ribbon I her hair like a diadem. When she emerged from the bathroom she was immediately pulled into a kiss by Itachi who was fully dressed. When they broke apart Sakura looked at Itachi with a smile.

"Well good morning to you too."

"How's your sharingan?" She continued.

"I haven't tested it yet." Was Itachi's replay

"Could you do it now?" Sakura asked. She watched as his obsidian eyes bled into blood red. She placed to fingers on either sides of his temples and closed her eyes in concentration.

"Could you turn on your Mangekyou?"

Itachi did and after a while Sakura removed her hands and opened her eyes.

"Your eyes are now fully healed, but remember not to use the sharingan too much." She said before kissing him lightly on the lips then they just stood in each others embrace.

"Promise you'll never leave me." Itachi suddenly said. Sakura raised her head from his chest and looked at him confusedly for a second before she smiled.

"I promise." She said and kissed him.

"Come let's go get some breakfast." Sakura said when they broke apart.

"Aa." Was Itachi's short replay. Sakura shook her head at him before they left. When they entered the kitchen it was still empty.

"You can go sit down while I make some breakfast." Sakura said and walked over tot the fridge. The result of Sakura making breakfast was: scrambled eggs, toast, tea, pancakes and waffles. As she placed the last dish on the table Zetsu and Kisame entered the kitchen, Kisame looking half dead.

"Ohayo." Sakura greeted before looking at Kisame.

"Another drinking contest Kisame?" She asked. All she got was a 'grunt' in replay which meant 'yes' in response as Kisame sat down by the table. Sakura went over to him and placed two fingers on his forehead and got rid of the hangover.

"You shouldn't drink so much." Sakura scolded.

"I know, I know." Sakura shook her head while sighing.

Just then Hidan and Kakuzu entered.

"Ohayo." Sakura said. Hidan just nodded as he stretched while Kakuzu greeted her back.

"Hey, where have you two been? I haven't seen you for a couple of days?" Kisame asked.

"We've been on a mission in Earth country." Kakuzu said sitting down beside Kisame.

"Well help yourselves to some breakfast." Sakura said sitting down on her usual spot beside Zetsu and in front of Kisame. They all nodded and started eating. They were all surprised by the heavenly taste and started to show the food down their throats, well it was more Hidan and Kisame who did it but Zetsu, Kakuzu and Itachi ate faster than usual.

"This is great Sakura!!" Kisame said mouth full of food.

"It's truly delicious." Kakuzu commented.

"Arigato." Sakura said flashing them a smile.

Soon there wasn't any food left but one pancake. Everyone dug their fork into the pancake at the same time, they glared at each other and each one of them was determined to have the last piece. As Itachi glared at Kisame, Kisame only smirked.

"You don't have the sharingan now Itachi so you don't scare me." He replayed boldly and the others grinned confidently. Itachi activated his sharingan making all the others' eyes widened and gulp in fear

"You w-weren't supposed to be able to use the sharingan yet." Kisame gulped.

"Today he is allowed to use it again." Sakura said amused by their behaviour.

They quickly retrieve their forks and Itachi deactivated his sharingan and triumphantly started eating his pancake. Sakura laughed at their behaviour.

"Don't worry; I'll make more pancakes later." She said when she had stopped laughing.

∞Later that day.∞

When Sakura had finished training she decided to go for a walk. It was about five in the afternoon when she came to the ocean. She removed her boots and stepped into the cool water. The wind blew through her hair as she stood in the knee length water, eyes closed, just listening to the wind and the waves. Suddenly the water started whirling around her as if protecting her as the wind picked up. Sakura opened her eyes and turned around only to see Koichi on the beach staring at her. Sakura felt the elements and Ryuu become restless by his presence.

'They've never acted like this before.' Sakura thought.

'Ryuu what's troubling you?' Ryuu growled.

'That is not Koichi.'

∞Meanwhile with Itachi∞

Itachi was training when he suddenly felt the wind pick up.

'What's this?' He wondered. He searched for Sakura's chakra and found it by the beach, but she wasn't alone.

'Koichi's with her.' He gritted his teeth.

'That bastard.'

Suddenly the chakra started to steadily increase. Itachi's eyes widened slightly.

'Can it be?' He thought. Just then Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan, Zetsu and Leader came outside.

"Do you feel that chakra?" Hidan asked.

"Whose is it?" Zetsu asked.

"It seems familiar." Kisame said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Zetsu-san you said that you and Koichi had some complications on your mission, what exactly happened?" Itachi said, looking towards the direction of Sakura's and the unknown's chakra.

"Koichi and I were attacked by some nins, they wore no hitae-ataes (sp?), but we quickly took car of them."

"Did you, at any time, loose sight of Koichi?" Itachi continued.

"Once, he went after two nins and his chakra disappeared for a while but when I went to go look for him he returned like nothing had happened." Their eyes widened in realisation.

"Do you mean to say that someone killed Koichi and took his place, who?" Leader asked no one had the time to answer when they felt huge chakra approach the HQ and they all turned their attention towards the forest.

∞Meanwhile∞

Sakura now noticed the small difference in chakra between this guy and Koichi's.

'You're right.' Sakura said.

Suddenly the chakra started to increase and Sakura could feel the mark trying to make her move towards the man in front of her, but she just ignored the sudden urge.

"Who are you?" She demanded to know. 'Koichi' chuckled.

"Don't you recognize me Sakura-chan?" He asked his voice now different.

Sakura's eyes widened before she glared at him.

"Sasuke." She spoke with venom. Sasuke grinned like a madman and raised a hand to his face and ripped Koichi's face off and took of the brown hair.

'Shūshagan no Jutsu (Vanishing Facial Copy Technique).' Sakura thought.

Sasuke threw the Akatsuki cloak aside to revile his standard clothes.

"Hello Sakura-chan." He said still grinning while Sakura, who now stood on the water with her boots on, glared harder.

"What're you doing here?"

"Have you forgotten already?" Sasuke asked, eyebrow raised.

∞Flashback∞

…"I'll come for you and take you to Sound where I'll make you mine body, mind and soul…" He whispered…

∞Flashback∞

"I thought I made it clear that I won't come with you?" Sakura said.

"You don't have a choice my dear." Sasuke said, starting to close the distance between them. Sakura felt thousands of chakras outside the HQ.

'He must've brought company.' She thought eyes never leaving Sasuke's approaching figure.

'I hope the others are ok…'

∞Meanwhile with the Akatsuki∞

The whole Akatsuki stood looking at the thousands of Sound nins in front of them.

"So it was Sasuke." Leader said, eyes never leaving the enemy.

"So it seems." Itachi said coolly although he was boiling inside of the thought of Sasuke alone with Sakura.

"Hey where's Yuki?" Hidan suddenly asked.

"I haven't seen her all day." Zetsu said.

"I'm sure she'll be fine on her own, now let's get rid of this scum." Leader said and they all got into their fighting stances. Seconds later the first explosion of many to come shook the ground, the fight had begun.

∞Sasuke and Sakura∞

Sakura got into her fighting stance.

"Sakura-chan, why not just take the easier way and come with me peacefully?" Sasuke asked sighing.

"As long as I'm capable of throwing a kunai I will fight you."

"As you wish." Sasuke said, getting into his own fighting stance. In a flash they were both gone. The sound of Kusanagi and Seijyru clashing rang through the area. Sasuke did some seals.

'Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique).' He blew out a big fire dragon that attacked Sakura but she had done her own seals and a protective water wall rose from the water they were fighting on and stopped the dragon.

'Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Release: Water Encampment Wall).' Sasuke thought as his fire dragon turned into steam that covered the area like a thick mist. Sasuke's sharingan shone brightly in the blurred surroundings as he tried to locate Sakura's whereabouts.

'There!' He thought as he quickly jumped to the side to avoid a wave of shuriken thrown his way before he turned around and blocked a swing at his side.

"Tell me Sakura, why do you hate me so much? I thought you promised to love me forever by that bench five years ago?" Sasuke asked smirking.

"Tch, at that time I was a young and naïve girl who believed there was good in every human being and who didn't know the cruelty of life." She countered before jumping back while doing seals, too fast for the sharingan to see.

'Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Dragon Blast Technique).' And a big water dragon rose from the water and attacked. Sasuke easily avoided it by jumping to the side but he failed to notice the other dragon Sakura had made and was thrown back into a tree by the impact.

"Impressive…" Sasuke said pushing himself to stand while whipping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"As expected from the great ex first Anbu captain Sakura Haruno of Konohagakure (Village Hidden Among Leaves)."

Sakura didn't respond, instead she appeared in front of him and was inches from imbedding her katana into his heart when she was kicked in the side. She flew back onto the beach, losing her katana in the process. She sat up, bend on one knee and spat out some blood.

'Should've seen that one coming.' She scolded herself, looking for her katana. She spotted Seijyru a couple of feet away. Just then two Sasuke's walked onto the beach. One of them went to pick up her katana but when he touched it the katana was engulfed in flames and the water clone dissolved back into water. Sakura took the opportunity and picked it up.

'Convenient to have some jutsus on your katana.' She thought.

"Nice trick you've got there." Sasuke said. Sakura remained emotionless and instead started doing another jutsu.

'Doton: Doryūdan (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet).' A mud dragon's head appeared and started launching mud balls from its mouth at Sasuke. Sasuke barely avoided the mud balls and avoided a round house kick to his head by grabbing Sakura's leg and throwing her away from him. Sakura muttered something before an exploding tag she had placed on his back went off. When the smoke cleared Sasuke was gone.

'Left, right, above… bellow!' She slammed her hand into the sand and made it fly up into the air. She quickly blocked his Kusanagi aimed for her neck before making a clone and jumping into a tree, leaving the clone to fight.

'He sure hasn't been slacking of these past five years.' Sakura thought as she healed some scratches. Suddenly she ducked and thereby narrowly avoided seven kunai's that now instead were imbedded into the tree behind her.

'Found me already?' She thought as she jumped onto the ground and was immediately attacked by Sasuke. The mud clone she had made before she jumped down now attacked Sasuke from behind and managed to imbed a kunai in his shoulder.

"Now that's not a way to treat your husband." Sasuke mocked.

"Well you're not my husband so it doesn't matter." Sakura replayed coolly.

"Not yet at least." Sasuke said before attacking her again, this time managing to thrust his sword into her stomach. Sakura doubled over and spat out some blood. He lowered his mouth to her ear.

"I win." He said triumphantly but Sakura only smirked weakly before turning into a swirl of cherry blossoms.

'A clone.' He thought

'You continue to amaze me cherry blossom.' Sasuke thought smirking. He turned around when he heard foot steps approach, his eyes narrowed at the person before him.

"Itachi." He hissed.

"Oto-tou." Itachi said, staring emotionlessly at Sasuke.

"You have gotten stronger…" Itachi said not moving an inch.

"…but you're still too weak." He continued. Sasuke's grip on Kusanagi tightened so that his knuckles turned white, his bangs covering his eyes.

"I'll show you who's weak." He whispered venomously as he disappeared and reappeared behind Itachi and thrust his sword through Itachi's heart. Suddenly a sharp pain shot down his back and he could feel blood soak his haori, that's when realization dawned on him. He moved his hands into the dragon seal and whispered a small 'kai' and the dead Itachi disappeared.

'Genjutsu.' He thought as he saw Sakura stand a couple of feet in front of him with blood on her katana, his blood. He used a basic medical jutsu taught to him by Kabuto and stopped the bleeding on his back, but if it was not soon healed by a professional medic-nin it would become infected. He glared fiercely at Sakura.

"I planned on giving you a chance to come by your own free will but now you've pissed me off."

"I could've told you to stop playing from the beginning." Sakura snorted. Sasuke was now even more pissed as he made his chidori and charged at her. Sakura waited until the very last minute before powering her own chidori and used it to block his.

'Chidori? And the final stage?' Sasuke thought jumping backwards away from her.

"This has been very entertaining." Sasuke started as he bit his thumb and started doing some fast seals.

"But it's time to end this now."

He slammed his hand onto the ground.

"Kochiyose no Jutsu." A smoke cloud covered the area and when it cleared Sakura saw Sasuke on Mando.

"A kunochi?" Mando said.

"Don't let her looks deceive you, she is an ex Anbu captain and hokages apprentice." Sasuke warned. Mando looked back at the kunochi with hungry eyes.

"If she entertains me I'll kill her for free." Mando hissed.

"You're not to kill her." Sasuke told him firmly but Mando gave no indication of having heard him.

Sakura smirked.

"You just made your biggest mistake." She said. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Pray tell, what have I done wrong?" He asked. Sakura remained silent as she talked to Ryuu.

'Ready?'

'Hai.'

Sakura went through the same routine Sasuke did and slammed her hand onto the ground. Sasuke curiously watched as the skies darkened and thunder roared in the distance. Lighting stroke the place where Sakura's hand had been only moments before and smoke covered the area once more. Sasuke watched wide eyed as the silhouette of a dragon dove into the sky. When the smoke cleared he saw Sakura stand on the head of a mighty dragon that was looking menacingly at him. Flashbacks of the night at the manor filled his mind and he narrowed his eyes.

'I'll see to that he suffers for stopping me from taking Sakura.' Sasuke thought

∞Back with Itachi and the other Akatsuki ∞

Itachi and the other Akatsuki had killed almost all of the Sound-nins when Itachi felt a huge chakra. He turned towards the source and saw Mando and Ryuu. He quickly dodged another attack by a Sound-nin while in the back of his mind he hoped that Sakura would be ok.

∞Sasuke and Sakura∞

'Let's get it over with.' Ryuu said, charging at Sasuke at lighting speed. Mando managed to dodge his deadly claws and aimed his sharp and poisonous fangs at Ryuu's neck, but Ryuu hit Mando with his tail making Mando fly backwards into the water, Sasuke quickly jumped off Mando before he hit the water. Mando quickly recovered and charged at Ryuu.

'Go after Sasuke, I'll take care of his summoning.' Ryuu said.

'Hai.' Sakura answered before jumping of off Ryuu's head, moments before the two summonings made impact. Rasengan formed in her hand and she aimed it at Sasuke, but he managed to avoid it but Sakura landed a kick to his chest instead, breaking a couple of ribs.

Ryuu bit into Mando's neck and twisted it; a sickening 'crack' was heard as Mando's neck broke.

Sakura ran at Sasuke again with Seijyru in her hand. She raised it and was about to cut of his head when she felt a sudden pain in her neck. She heard Ryuu roar as she fell and saw Sasuke smirk before everything went black.

(A/N: I thought about ending it here but I'll be nice…)

The Akatsuki looked at the bloodbath in front of them. Sound-nins and Akatsuki slaughtered among each other, lying in each others blood. Akatsuki had come out the victor in this battle but not without losses. Itachi was just about to go find Sakura when a roar filled the sky. His head snapped towards the beach just in time to see Ryuu start to fall to the ground before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

'Sakura!' He thought. He felt fear grip his heart as to what might have happened to her as he ran through the trees, the rest of the Akatsuki close behind.

When he arrived he saw Sakura's unconscious form in Sasuke's arms, both badly beaten.

"Sakura!" The other Akatsuki called. Sasuke looked at them and smirked.

"Hello aniki. Long time no see, no? I see that quite many of you are still alive." He said. Itachi narrowed his eyes.

"Sasuke let Sakura go right now." Itachi said emotionlessly but with a warning undertone. Sasuke looked down at Sakura's unconscious face.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, she has been away from me far to long it's time I take her to whereto she belongs; in Sound by my side as my wife."

Sasuke looked back up and smirked when he saw the fuming Akatsuki members.

"Let her go you sick bastard!!" Hidan screamed.

"Now that I have her I'll never let her go." Sasuke replayed with only added gas to the fire.

"But enough chit-chat, I better take her home before she wakes up." Sasuke continued. He tilted his backwards to the left.

"Kill them."

"Hai." A light voice answered. Everyone turned to their attention to this person he was talking to.

'Could that be?' Leader thought, eyebrows furrowed. The mystery person stepped out from the shadows to revile white hair and cerulean eyes.

"Yuki-san?" Zetsu said questionably.

"Hello." Yuki said smirking.

"I'll leave you alone, I'm sure you have a lot to talk about." Sasuke said, with a satisfied smirk on his face before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and left a tenfold of Sound Anbu.

"Why?" Leader asked, breaking the silence that had settled over them.

"Why I join Sasuke-sama?" Yuki laughed.

"Because I wanted to have fun again, reckless killing and such, do things we used to before that slut came." She finished with an angry and disgusted look on her face. The Akatsuki opened their mouths to retort to her insult when Itachi spoke:

"What'd you do to Sakura?" Yuki's face turned to that of delight.

"Ah it was so fun to see the confused look on her face when I inserted the same drug she used on Koichi, didn't know it'd be this useful when I stole some." She laughed.

"That bitch didn't even know what hit her." Yuki said between laughs. They all (aka the real Akatsuki, the others are still at the HQ.) emitted murderous auras, but the strongest one was Itachi's by far. He looked emotionless but his sharingan was spinning dangerously.

"But enough with the fun, I was left here to do a job so better get it over with." She said before she did the signal and she Anbu attacked. They had barely begun to fight when Yuki found herself pinned to a tree by her throat and two angry sharingan's boring a whole into her head. She tried to remove his hands and squirm away but Itachi's hold on her neck didn't waver. Itachi placed his mouth to her ear.

"You signed your death when you betrayed Akatsuki, but now that you've helped take something that belongs to me you're going to die slowly and painfully, I'll personally see to it." He then looked at her face and although she had her eyes clothes, in an attempt not to be brought into a genjutsu, he could still see how she shook slightly. She was afraid, and she had good reason to, an angry Uchiha was not funny. Itachi took out a kunai and used it to slice her abdomen open. This made her open her eyes in pain and shock and let out a scream.

Now that she had her eyes open Itachi used his Mangekyou on her. The next thing Yuki knew the sky had turned crimson red and a black moon shone over the red surroundings. She was bound to a cross and suddenly hundreds of Itachi's appeared around her.

"You will now be tortured for 120 hours (six days)." He said and then the torture began…

In the real world the Akatsuki had killed the counted 34 Anbu, leaving only one alive and he would be used for interrogation. They watched in satisfaction as Yuki gave a blood curling scream before she went limp in Itachi's hold. Itachi let go of her neck and she slumped against the tree eyes wide in horror, she was dead. He then turned to the Anbu who looked at him with fear.

"Where is she?" He demanded coldly.

"I-I d-don't know." The scared Anbu choked out. He screamed and looked to the source of the pain and saw a kunai imbedded in his shoulder. Hidan, who had thrown the kunai, walked over to him and twisted the kunai deeper into his shoulder earning yet another pained cry.

"You're playing with fire; I'll ask you once more before I see to that you die a painful death." Hidan hissed.

"I don't know, I s-swear!" He said.

"Well then you're of no use to us." Hidan said and stepped aside allowing Zetsu to walk up to him.

"Shall I start with your tongue or your eyes?" He mused aloud as he licked his lips.

"I think I'll take the tongue, that way you can watch as I eat you, limb by limb."

The Anbu gulped.

"W-wait!!" He called.

"For what?" Kisame asked annoyed as he stood leaning against a tree.

"I-I'll tell you…" Zetsu stepped aside a little.

"He took her to the new Sound hide-out, twenty three miles west from here."

"You better be telling the truth buddy or else-"Kakuzu said in a warning tone.

"NO I promise!!"

"Good." Leader said before he sliced his head off. The beheaded body slumped together to the ground.

"If we run we'll arrive at the hide-out in ten hours." Kakuzu said. Leader wrote a message and summoned a falcon.

"Take this to Sasori and Deidara." He ordered before the bird flew away. When the bird disappeared out of sight they ran off into the woods, towards Sound and Sakura.

A/N: Chapter 13 is up! Finally the long awaited fight between Sasuke and Sakura came and the spy was reviled. I hope you like the chappie!! I have the next chappie ready I just have to type it into the computer, so if you review diligently I might add the next chappie this week or the next, so review, review, review!! XD

Omg ppl, another amazing 29 reviews!! Thank you, thank you, thank you XD

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