Aurthor's notes: Sorry for the late update. With Christmas and New Years, things have been hectic. Soo, I know Itachi was a little OOC when he told her he loved her but I mean C'mon, it would be a pretty boring story if that never happened. This is a SakuraXItachi fan fic afterall. This chapter will be the first of three parts. ENJOY. I appreciate all the CONSTRUCTIVE CRTISICM. Thank you to my constant readers and my constsant reviewers. This one goes out to you guys ! THANKS EVERYONE, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Chapter 8:

An Old Friend : A new Enemy. Pt 1

It had been three days.

Three days since that night when he told her he loved her. When they shared each others love.

He was gone on a mission, she was worried. She was told it wasn't a big deal, that it was a minor mission. They said that about Kakuzu and Hidan's mission as well. Sakura sighed and finished cleaning the dishes. She wiped her hands and made her way to the training ground. Once she stepped ouside she squinted at the bright sun. She looked around and saw the new training dummies put up, considering she tears them apart each time she trains.

She sighed as walked to the middle of the training ground and looked around in a 360 degree angle. She closed her eyes and when she opened them they were glowing green, no pupil was visible. She stared at one of the training drummies as the arms began pulling away from the body. Sakura focused to control her chakra and as she did they pulled further and further until finally they ripped off of the body and flew across the training ground. Sakura closed her eyes as she began breathing heavily, she wasn't used to it yet and it took a lot out of her.

She opened her eyes and they had returned to her normal jade colour. She looked at what she had done to the dummy. She sighed. "Not good enough." she said as she rose to her feet and closed her eyes, upon opening them again they were glowing green with no pupil. She focused on the dummy, and gathered all her chakra to power the bloodline. A few seconds passed and the dummy began to shake, finally without warning it exploded. Sakura closed her eyes and covered her face from flying debre.

"Easy there Pinkie, you'll kill someone." she heard someone say from behind her. She recognized the voice and turned around to see the sharkman himself. It was weird that Itachi was sent on a mission without his partner, they were told that the mission only required one person. But why him, why her Itachi. Sakura glared at the man for a moment before sitting on the ground. "What do you want? Come to bug me." she said looking up at him. Kisame had his usual grin on. "No, I came to train but seeing as how you tore up the place last time I think I'll wait my turn." he said looking down at her.

A moment of silence passed and he leaned on his samehada and looked up at where a practice dummy once was and was now replaced with the remenents of one. "What did he ever do to you." he said jokingly trying to lighten the mood. "He annoyed me, kinda like what you're doing." she said as she smirked and looked up at him. Kisame laughed a bit. "Oh great, another Itachi." he said looking down at her. "So how did you do that, keke genkai? (sp) " Sakura looked over at where she had destroyed the dummy and simply nodded.

"Hmm.. so what exactly does it do. All I know is that it's an eye technique." Kisame said interested. He had heard about her having a unique eye bloodline, but for so long he didn't know what it was capable of. He finally sat on the ground to listen, his legs were getting tired. He set the Samehada down beside him as he looked at her anxious. He was like a little kid in kindergarden waiting for storytime.

Sakura watched as he sat down and wanted to know about her bloodline. "Well," she started looking over to him briefly before looking back at the dummy laying in pieces on the ground. "When activated, my eyes will turn and glow a pure green colour. My whole eye, you can't even see a pupil or anything. I pick a target. Once I chose my target I gather my chakra and focus it onto that target. Then, I think about what I want done. For example, if I want to break there arm, I invision myself breaking there arm and as I invision it, it's done. However, it's done without me moving and in mere seconds, well if I get good enough. Basically, it's like an invisible me going up to my enemy and hurting them. If you understood any of that." she said scratching the back of her head.

Kisame looked at her and nodded slowly. "No.. I think I get it. It's like a telekenetic power that allows you to do something by just pictureing yourself doing it. " He asked re-wording it. Sakura nodded. "Yah, something like that." she answered. "So how do you explain that." he said pointing to the dummie's pieces. "He exploded.. I don't think you could explode someone even if you tried." he said with a smirk. Sakura thought for a minute and simply shrugged. "Itachi-san said that if I don't have good enough control over it, or im too exhausted then it could backfire or go terribly wrong. Exhibit A." she said pointing to the demolished dummy.

A few minutes of silence passed by and Sakura sighed as she rose to her feet. "Well, I better start on dinner." she said turning to enter the hideout. " What are we having?" Kisame called after her. Sakura stopped and smirked as she looked over her shoulder at him. "Sushi." she said as she continued towards the hideout. Kisame cringed as she said that. "That little.." he said as he rose to his feet. He began walking away mumbling something under his breath.

----

They travelled for a few days. The dark haired man stepped forward and looked around as he continued on, three following behind him. "Wait up!" one of them yelled. The dark haired man stopped and looked at him. "What is it now." he said almost coldly. "We're tired and hungry. We've been on the move non-stop for four days. Can't we just rest for a bit." he complained leaning on his big, yet familiar, sword.

The dark haired man face forward. "No." he answered as he continued to walk. The man with the sword glared at him. "Hey! If you want our help, we need to rest." he said looking up at him. The dark haired man stopped once more as he didn't move or say anything. The three behind him all looked at each other then back at the man in front of them. "Fine." he said. The manwith the sword sighed as he plopped down on the ground and layed back.

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Sakura made her way down the large hallway towards his room. What does he want now. She thought to herself as she approached the door and slowly opening it. She entered the dark room. The only light comming from the middle showing a chair and someone sitting in it. She stopped, closing the door behind her. She looked to her left and noticed Kisame was there as well. She looked back up at the middle of the room.

"Ah Sakura, glad you could make it." the spikey haired man said turning around and facing her. Sakura could sense the obvious sarcasim. You didn't have to wash everyones dishes she thought to herself as he continued to talk. " One of our informants in the earth country are in trouble. It is rumoured that four unknown travellers are on their way to kill him. He is a valuable informant to us. Keeping him alive is in our best interest. Sakura, Kisame. I will be sending you two to protect him and take care of the four strangers. I hope this mission will be completed in a maximum of four days." Obito explained.

Sakura and Kisame both nodded and then looked at each other with a sigh. "Hai." she said as she turned to leave and stopped. "Oh and Sakura. Don't hold back." he said walking into the darkness. Sakura smirked as her and Kisame exited the room and prepared to leave.

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They ran through the tree's as they headed for the Earth country. It was silent. They didn't talk about much. Just usual conversation here and there. Pointless things like " Do you wanna eat now?" or " We'll rest here tonight."

Two days passed and they reached the Earth country. Sakura landed on a tree branch and Kisame landed on one not too far from her. They overlooked a small village where the Akatsuki's contact was. They looked at each other before nodding and dissapearing re-appearing in front of the gates. They walked into the village and through the streets. The villagers saw there cloak's, the red and black cloud design and they knew right away who they were.

They ran into their homes and shut the blinds. The mother's grabbed their children and went indoors closing the blinds and turning off the lights. Kisame looked over at Sakura a smirked. "Such a warm welcome." he said as Sakura smirked as well.

They walked down the street and finally reached the informants home. It was the biggest one. They approached the front door and opened it. They took two steps in and looked around. "Hiroshi !" Kisame yelled into the seemingly empty home. Silence was the answer. "Hm, guess he's not home." Kisame said looking at Sakura. Sakura tipped her hat up and looked over at him. "Something's wrong.." she said taking another step into the home.

She heard footsteps and looked up at the staircase. Suddenly, something fell, or was thrown down the stairs. As it fell into the light Sakura saw it. It was a body, a corpse. It was the informant, the very dead informant. His neck was slashed and his mouth remained open from screaming. Sakura looked up the stairs as she saw the silloute of someoen, a man.

She then heard screams comming from outside. She turned her head slightly and watched as three strangers began terroizing the villagers. She looked up at Kisame as he shook his head. " It's not our problem." he said. Sakura sighed and peered up at him from under her hat. "They could become a problem for us after." she stated only loud enough for him to hear. Kisame remained quiet for a bit as he looked up at the figure of the man standing atop the stairs and back at her. "I'll take care of them, you can handle this one.. can't you?" he said with a smirk as he exited the house and headed towards the three strangers.

Sakura smirked back as she looked up at the man. "Oh, I'll take real good care of him." she said as she got that bloodlust feeling again. It was then that a kunai came whizzing out of the darkness towards her. She shifted her foot moving to the side s she stuck out her finger and caught the kunai, her finger through the hole and it spun around until it finally came to a stop. She looked up at the man, her face and hair concealed. She turned suddenly throwing it back at him, she then heard it fall to the ground.

"Hm.." she said as she dissapeared reappearing on the stairs in front of the man with her fist pulled back. She thrusted it forward but he was fast and he dodged it. Her fist collided with the wall creating a huge gap. She turned as the man was now on the second floor, still covered by darkness. She ran up the wall and landed in front of him, she then began executing a number of different tai jutsu moves. The man dodged and countered most of them however her was unlucky a few times, and payed for it ... hard.

The man reached for his Katana but Sakura wouldn't let him. She threw several shurikan and the man had no choice but to block them. This aggrivated him. Finally, he was able to draw his katana and he slashed at her. She dodged the slashes, unfortunatly not all of them and she suffered a few minor cuts. He swung at her and she ducked, his katana got stuck in the wall. She then stood and gave him an uppercut making him stumble back a few feet and giving enough force freeing his katana. He triped, almost falling over the railing and down the stairs. However, Sakura grabbed his leg and spun throwing him with such force that she threw him right through the wall and he landed out in the street. She jumped out the hole after him and landed on her feet, her hat had blown off by now and when she looked up she looked into the eyes of her enemy. Her eyes widened as she stood up straight as she yelled out a name, "Sasuke !"

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Author's notes: Well, there you go. Hope you enjoyed it. I know it's not that long of a chapter but remember it's the first of three parts. You know what to do, REVIEW ! REVIEW ! REVIEW ! thanks lovves. ( L )