Darkness Within

-Awaken-

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Sakura slowly opened her eyes, she was in pain, she felt like she'd been killed hundreds of times, like she'd be stabbed too many times to count. She had. At least, it had felt like it. She knew that she was fine, her body was in perfect health, except for having almost no chakra. But she felt like she was barely alive, it hurt to move, it was all in her mind she knew, but that didn't make the pain any more bearable or any less painful.

The door opened but Sakura couldn't find the energy to mover her head to see who it was. She realized belatedly that she was on her back and that her hands were untied, not that it mattered, she couldn't even move a finger let alone get up the energy to perform any kind of jutsu.

Deidara walked into her line of sight, he looked slightly shocked. Maybe she looked as terrible as she felt.

"You're awake yeah?" Was he stupid, she thought that the Akatsuki were smart, maybe it was just their leader and Itachi, that or he was messing with her already bruised mind. It wouldn't have surprise her. She nodded her head, barely, it would have hurt more to speak, so she went for the less painful rout. She probably could have done nothing, but in her condition the last thing she wanted was to piss him off.

"That's surprising, yeah. You weren't supposed to wake up for another four hours, yeah. Itachi won't be happy yeah." Sakura frowned, or, tired to, it probably came out as more of a grimace, at least moving her eyebrows didn't hurt. Why would it matter that she had woken up early? Her tired brain tried to work, tried to understand, she knew she should have understood but she couldn't, it took too much effort. Maybe Itachi had gone easy on her? No, he was a heartless killer, he wouldn't have gone easy on her, no, there had to be something she was missing.

But why would she have woken up four hours early? It had felt like years, but in reality she had only been out of it for four hours. Wait, four hours, four hours early waking up. The Mangekyo was supposed to give you pain for eight hours wasn't it? But she had woken up four hours early. She had only been tortured for half of the time. Had Itachi really gone easy on her for some reason? No, impossible, then why did it only affect her for half of the time? Sakura hurt, and she was tired, her brain couldn't form any more answers, instead she filled the information away and went to sleep, hoping to never have to see another red cloud on black again.

Itachi frowned at the knock on his door. Nobody knocked on his door unless it was an emergency. Sighing, he put the scroll he had been reading down and got up to answer it. Deidara stood on the other side, looking slightly apprehensive.

"What do you want Deidara?"

"Well, I just thought I'd tell you that the girl woke up already yeah. Maybe you're loosing your touch, yeah." Itachi just glared at his fellow Akatsuki member, but his thoughts were chaotic.

She had woken up? Impossible, she should have been out for another four hours, no one ever woke up early. Why had she woken up? Did she do something he didn't know about? No, he would have seen it, so why had she woken up? Did her temporary blindness affect his Mangekyo? No, it had only lasted for a few seconds. So why? Itachi grit his teeth, he would have to go and inspect her. He nodded to Deidara and swept out of his room, thankful for his thick Akatsuki cloak because the large house in Snow was daftly.

When he walked into the small room that he had put the girl -Sakura she had said?- into he saw that she wasn't awake. What had Deidara been on about? But upon closer investigation she looked rather peaceful, not in pain. Maybe she really had broken free somehow. But that was impossible, no one could break free, so why had she? She twitched in her sleep, muttering something, curious, Itachi leaned forward to hear better.

"…no, no more…red, bad clouds…" What on earth was wrong with her? She was dreaming about clouds? Itachi frowned, she shouldn't be dreaming about clouds, she should have been enduring endless pain for another four hours, not having fluffy dreams!

Itachi leaned forward, intent on shaking her awake and giving her nightmares, but suddenly she moved, her still booted foot came up and hit him. Itachi growled to himself, damn ANBU members and their intense self survival instincts. The girl was asleep and still she attacked him. There hadn't been any force behind it, she didn't have enough energy or chakra, and she probably wouldn't even have been able to move if she had been awake. But it had hurt. Itachi frowned and prodded his arm where her boot had struck, it was bleeding. A very shallow cut, but it was still a cut. A boot shouldn't have been able to make a cut, especially not with that kind of pathetic force behind it.

Moving to the foot of the bed Itachi took a careful look at her boots. Clever. Either ANBU had changed their outfits since he had left or she had customized her own boots. Probably the later of the two. Cleaver little kunoichi. She had embedded a small blade in her boot. It curved around the entire toe of her boot and barely stuck out so that it wouldn't be detected until she used it. Itachi guessed that it had more power when she used a chakra empowered kick, that or she put poison on it before a battle.

Lucky for him there had been no poison on it, but Itachi wasn't about to leave any kind of weapon in her care. He carefully removed her boots, inspecting them for more hidden surprises, when he found no more he set her boots down, wondering if the girl had any more hidden weapons. His vision caught on her claves. The ANBU pants stopped at mid-calf, so that they just went into her boots. Her legs were shapely and subtly muscled, there was also the odd scar, but that wasn't what had caught his attention.

Cherry blossom trees, one on each leg. The trunk started at her outside ankle and then the tree grew from there, it's branches slowly wrapping around her leg, the tree stopped around mid-calf. One tattooed Sakura tree on each leg, both in black. Itachi looked up to her shoulder where a cherry blossom was tattooed onto her skin. Did the tattoos have some meaning to her or where they just for decoration? Itachi had to admit, they suited her, made her look exotic in a sense, ot to mention the tattoos drew the eye, and they seemed to be made just for her.

Itachi shook his head, he had come into her room to see if what Deidara had said was true, not to check out the captive. What was wrong with him? Maybe he was more tired than he though, maybe that was why his Mangekyo had only worked for half of the time, perhaps he was just too tired. Frowning once again Itachi grabbed the boots he had taken off the girl and left the room, forcing himself to not look back at her. Once in his own room Itachi threw the boots in a corner and decided to turn in early, hating the fact that his thoughts kept on circling back to black cherry blossom trees.

Sasuke glowered at the guard that passed by his cell. He had been imprisoned! Everyone in Konoha was against him, they were all on Itachi's side. No matter, he didn't need them. His only goal was to kill Itachi and then re-establish his clan. He didn't need Konoha for either. Sure, he had planned to raise his children in Konoha, but he probably still could. Once he killed Itachi and brought Sakura back the Hokage would be so overjoyed to have her apprentice back that she'd let him stay.

Sasuke smirked. People were so easy to twist around his finger, they were just so easy to manipulate. And even if the Hokage had worries about him, he could get Sakura to plead for him. Sasuke doubted that the Hokage could deny Sakura anything. Sakura would be the easiest to twine around his finger, all he had to do was say he needed her and he had no doubt that she'd once again become that weak little girl that hung off his every word. It would be so easy, just like getting out of is cell could be easy.

He only had to wait until the guards changed shifts and he'd be gone. He didn't really want to kill anyone, coming back to Konoha after that would be impossible, which was why he was waiting to go. In the few second window that no one was patrolling outside of his cell he would escape, and then Itachi would pay.

Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Akamaru, Naruto and Shikamaru and his team were running through the forest. Running to the spot that they had last seen Sakura. Running against time, hoping that she was still alive.

Naruto was running ahead of the rest, speeding towards their destination. The others had stopped trying to keep up with him or slow him down near the beginning. He was past distraught, even Hinata was wary around him. Kiba almost felt sorry for the Akatsuki, Naruto was going to rip them apart, he'd never seen Naruto so angry.

Naruto was angry at himself for not protecting Sakura, he was angry at Akatsuki for taking his friends. But most of all he was angry at Sasuke. Sasuke's need for revenge had led to the whole disaster, Naruto was pissed. That Sasuke could just forget about everyone else and go straight for Itachi bothered him.

When he had gotten him back from Orochimaru Naruto had been so sure that he cared more about friendship than Itachi's death. Damn Sasuke and his revenge. And damn Itachi for causing Sasuke to be so cold, and then for taking Sakura. And damn himself for listening to Sakura and leaving, for not helping her.

Okay, so this chapter was shorter than the first one but what can I saw, I hope you liked it just the same! Thanks for reading, reviews appreciated!

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