Beginning notes: Finally updated! It's winter break for us, and I was taking a break from writing a huge research paper. Please enjoy this chapter. It's actually decent.
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.
Pianissimo—Act V
Scene I: Unbearable
She had chickened out, and now there would be hell to pay. Tsunade would not let this go.
Her apartment was empty but the signs of their earlier struggle still evident. Sakura was slumped on the couch, unmoving, her hands limply grasping a kunai. A ball of smoke appeared in front of her, but her green eyes focused on something distant, and paid no attention to Kakashi standing before her.
He looked around in shock. "What happened, Sakura?"
Sakura looked up dully. "I messed up." Her voice was a quiet, defeated whisper.
"What's going on? Did someone attack you?" He asked.
Sakura did not answer him. "I have to go, sensei." She got up, her eyes unmoving from where they stared at the distant part of the floor.
"You can't keep avoiding me, Sakura. Tell me what is going on!" He snapped, his gray eye darkening with anger.
The kunoichi kept walking while slowly gripping the kunai in her hand and Kakashi stared at her back before suddenly appearing in front of her. She did not fight when he kissed her with a violent passion through his mask. When he pulled away, Sakura's eyes were now focused at the floor.
"How long?" She asked softly.
"Too long." He replied.
She lifted her eyes to stare into his face and she attempted a brave smile, only to have it unnaturally contort her beautiful face. "I'm sorry, sensei."
"It's alright. There is nothing to be sorry for." He said.
Sakura shook her head and gazed to her right, her window revealing a dreary morning. "There are a lot of reasons that I have to be sorry. I'm sorry I let you down."
Kakashi gazed at her sadly and with pity. "You can't let me down."
"But I'm afraid even you can't forgive me this time, sensei."
"What are you going to do?"
She gave him a weak smile while holding back tears. "I have to see Naruto."
Kakashi sighed and he rubbed his hand over his face. "There is nothing that I can do for you now."
The air whistled past her as she sped over to the hiding place of the Uzumaki couple, her hair whipping against her face and partially blinding her as she leapt out of the woods into the clearing. Rain began to drizzle.
As she approached the clearing, the trees around her were felled as if hit by a gigantic force, the ground torn up and a huge crater rest in the middle. The forest seemed to sigh with melancholy, the atmosphere oppressive and foreboding. Sakura became breathless, her lungs refusing to work as she advanced towards the destroyed front porch. Her stomach was like a rock. The eerie quiet was broken by the sudden flight of ravens and their startled cries. Her heart pounded like the drums as she slid open what remained of the door.
She vomited.
Just like in her dream, Uzumaki Hinata lay on the floor with a gash along her pale throat, her white eyes sightless and the traces of her precious tears remnant on her face. Her blood was splayed on the floor and the walls which told a clear story of where and how she was attacked. Her fingers were broken—the Hyuuga clan's specialty of the Gentle Fist apparently was ineffective in this case—and her kimono was torn revealing massive bruising on her arms and legs. Sakura vomited again.
When she took a shaky step forward, she saw that Naruto was huddled in the corner, rocking like a pendulum back and forth…back and forth…back and forth… His eyes, normally lit with passion like a pair of fiery sapphires, were now dull and lost. His clothes were rags and blood covered his body like paint, some belonging to him and others belonging to Hinata.
She rushed to him and hugged him to her chest to reassure him that she was there for him. Naruto did not resist but remained in his curled position against her. Sakura pulled away and tried to smooth away his blood-caked blonde hair from his face.
"Are you okay?"
He looked at her with his beautiful orbs and he tried to speak. When no sound came out, he cleared his throat and tried again.
"Who are you?"
And the world seemed to crash around her.
Scene II: The Wait
"That genjutsu must have taken a lot out of you. What the hell did you do?" Kisame asked as they stopped to rest for the third time in an hour. Itachi was sitting down on a stump, meditating to regain some of his strength, and he answered calmly with his eyes closed.
"I erased his memories. The jutsu usually take more than this, but the shock of seeing his wife getting killed made it easier."
The shark man spat on the ground as he dropped his burden on the ground. "He's heavy."
Itachi looked at Naruto unconscious on the forest floor. He was covered in blood and wounds; he'd fought them tooth and nail to protect his wife until the very end. Even the Uchiha had to admit that the Kyuubi was by far the most powerful of them all. The two of them were gravely injured but when they killed the Hyuuga heiress, he had momentarily dropped his guard, allowing Itachi to perform a forbidden genjutsu of the Sharingan. "Sakura should be at the house by now with the clone."
"Let's go. They will be after us soon." Kisame threw Naruto's limp body over his shoulder. "The sooner we get the Kyuubi to the Akatsuki, the sooner we get paid."
The last Uchiha tossed a glance up at the gray sky. "And we shall wait there for her."
Scene III: The Fool
Sakura's eyes filled with tears as unspeakable agony waved over her heart as she took a step back from Naruto. She wildly looked around with panic, suppressing her sobs as she tried to make sense of the situation. Hinata's hollow eyes seemed to follow her, haunting her conscience and blaming her for what had happened.
She stumbled about the room—Naruto had returned to rocking in the corner—and tripped on a loose board from the floor, sending her sprawling face forward. It was then that her tears exploded from her eyes and she sobbed while lying on her stomach, her heart wrenching from its place as she realized the dire consequences she was about to pay. Through her tears, she saw a familiar object near her arm, its limp body barely supporting itself as it sat innocently, its red buttoned eye hanging from a thread.
Gasping for air, the kunoichi picked up her doll and stared at it in disbelief. Then, everything clicked. Itachi.
Her hand gripped her little doll and roughly wiped away her tears. She tossed it aside, abandoning it on the broken floor, and she respectfully approached Hinata's body to wash her and cover her with a cloth. It was the least she could do before she could inform the village of what occurred to the Uzumaki couple. Sakura scrawled a brief letter addressing the Hokage and sent it by a messenger hawk.
Sakura checked her weapon pouch for adequate supplies and she padded her jounin vest for more. Her rosy bangs brushed against Naruto's face as she leaned close to his huddled body, incessantly rocking back and forth like a troubled child.
"Naruto, I'll kill Itachi for you. Stay put and don't go anywhere; people are coming to get you and Hinata." She whispered as if speaking any louder would break his fragile mind. "I love you, Naruto."
She steeled her nerves and faced the north; she had found tracks heading that way in the surrounding area. Haruno Sakura cast a final glare at the disowned doll on the floor.
"I am such a fool."
On her way north, she found that the Akatsuki pair was being careless in hiding their tracks…either that, or they were purposely leading her in their direction for a trap. She would choose the latter: Itachi was not stupid, and she had learned that the hard way. Deceiving him once was hard enough, and now he was out with a vengeance to make her suffer for her sin. He enough pride to make a country jealous.
She would have to play it smart, or she would die. The latter option wasn't so bad right now. Even if she somehow managed to return alive, the Village would disown her forever and the title of "traitor" would be added instead of "head ANBU medic." Sakura did not expect any more. She would not be surprised if she was exiled into Water Country or the far away Stone Country.
Sakura shook her head to clear her head of the thoughts. She had to focus on the task at hand. Her mistake had cost the precious life of the Hyuuga heiress and the future hokage's mind. There would be no turning back. If it could satisfy her, she would die to rectify what she had done. Not even Kakashi could stop her…
I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei. You deserve someone better than your Sakura.
She darted across the thick tree branches, her pink hair flying back and her hands turning cold due to the drizzle. There was blood on some of the branches, perhaps indicating that they were heavily injured in their fight with Naruto. Good, it would make things easier.
The tracks suddenly turned west and the rosette had to calculate how far ahead they were from her position. She guessed not far. They were slower than usual; something was holding them back, like a burden. Sakura continued with renewed hope in catching up with them in a day, and she would travel as long as need be. Meanwhile, she would have to exercise her mind to at least have some chance against Itachi's Sharingan.
Scene IV: Message Received
No one really paid any attention to the screeching hawk that soared over the Hidden Village of the Leaf. Everyone was oblivious to the horrible message that it carried as the messenger of bad omens. It flew directly towards the Hokage Tower and landed on the widow sill, screeching to inform its arrival. Tsunade startled awake from her nap and glared at the bird with an intense abhorrence before wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. She went to the bird as it held out its leg with the message tied to it, and the Hokage instantly recognized the pink ribbon with which Sakura usually tied her most urgent messages.
She almost tore it off and snapped it open, her golden eyes darting over the words that spelled out disaster. The ANBU would have to be called in, the Hyuuga clan informed, and the Village would have to be notified that their future Hokage now had the mind of an eight year old.
"Sakura, I trusted you." She sighed.
Kakashi stepped out of the shadows of her office. "Maybe you put too much on her shoulders."
Tsunade was not surprised by his presence. "No, I overestimated her mental strength. I should have known better. She would have found resemblance between the two Uchiha brothers. It is human nature to feel the same kind of emotions regarding similar people. She was still hurting about Sasuke, and assigning her to kill Itachi would have been like killing her old love."
"Sasuke and Itachi aren't the same person." Kakashi growled.
"Not to you, perhaps, Kakashi. Either way, the psychology behind this is screwed up anyway. I need the ANBU here in an hour." The Godaime swept across the floor to the double doors.
The Copy Ninja stopped her. "Where are you going?"
"To the Hyuuga House," she replied curtly, "to inform them that Hinata is dead."
Kakashi's visible eye grew in diameter in shock. "What about Naruto?"
Tsunade quickly concealed her tears at the mention of Naruto. "Read the letter on the desk. You will understand."
The veteran shinobi picked up the small scroll and recognized Sakura's neat handwriting. It said:
Shishou,
I am sorry to disappoint you. I know I have failed in every possible way. Hinata is dead. Naruto has lost his memories. Uchiha Itachi must have cast a strong genjutsu on him. I am leaving him to you. Take care of him and I'm afraid that I have to ask you to tell the Hyuuga clan about Hinata. Please send the ANBU to Naruto's hiding refuge.
I will miss you and Konoha.
Your devoted student.
Kakashi tucked the letter in his pocket and leapt out of the window. He would have to track her from Naruto's place.
"The things you make me do, Haruno Sakura."
Scene V: Night and Nightmares
Kisame and Itachi quickly made their way toward the Akatsuki headquarters. Night was falling, dimming the sky into black as they traveled through the trees without rest. Itachi had to rest but the duty to deliver the Jinchuuriki to the Akatsuki was far more pressing than stopping to rest his body and mind. The genjutsu that he had cast on Naruto had depleted his chakra to the point where he could hardly see where he was going. His Sharingan had receded into his regular obsidian color but they still burned from the inside. Each time he blinked, he had to force them back open. If he continued this kind of constant genjutsu, he would go blind, but by then, he would know his full potential and so there would be no need for him to carry on in the Akatsuki anyway.
Kisame glanced at his tired comrade and shifted Naruto's body more comfortably on his aching shoulder. "Let's find an inn for the night. I'm tired as hell."
"There is no time. We must get there by tomorrow."
The shark man sniffed the air. "We aren't far. If we rest tonight, we can still get there by noon tomorrow. You're not the one carrying this thing."
Itachi looked at him and sighed. "We will leave before dawn then."
They changed courses and Itachi checked all of his wounds as they made their way to a small town on the outskirts of the forest. They had stopped bleeding but if he did not get them bandaged, some had great risk of getting infected.
The Akatsuki pair arrived at a quaint inn ironically called the Sakura House which made Itachi's lips quiver into a small smirk. They paid for a room—it couldn't be helped that the landlady stared at Naruto's unconscious body as the transaction took place—and retired for the night. They decided to take turns in watching after Naruto, just in case he decided to wake, and Kisame took the first watch. Itachi was admittedly grateful for the rest as he propped himself comfortably against the wall to close his painful eyes.
Sakura gasped for breath as she rested against a tree trunk, exhausted from the all day pursuit of Itachi. It was getting too dark to track and she didn't have Byakugan abilities like Hyuuga Neji. Frustrated, she slammed her fist into the tree and growled impatiently since the Akatsuki was probably a good half a day ahead of her. It appeared that she would have to find shelter somewhere for the night.
The area was remote but there was clearing where she decided to sleep. Luckily, the night was not cold and she mostly stayed awake reminiscing about the old days past when Team 7 had been together. Sakura could still imagine Sasuke and Naruto bickering about who got to sleep where and who would get the last piece of cooked fish. Kakashi-sensei would be reading his perverted book while holding back Naruto from getting his ass kicked by Sasuke yet again.
Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she thought about them. Konoha was no longer that way. Only war, destruction, news of ninja lives being sacrificed for the selfishness of a few people, and terrible casualties of the innocent existed now. The carefree days of Team 7 and the other genin were gone. How many of her friends were dead and what of the precious ones they left behind?
Asuma-sensei…Shikamaru even took up smoking to deal with the loss of his beloved sensei.
Kiba…Akamaru had grown sick with grief and followed soon after.
Hinata…Her clan was now leaderless and an ambitious Hanabi would take her place. Hope to reunite the Main and Branch Houses were now lost forever.
Tenten…It was weird to label Neji as a widower.
Choji…He had lost his life to save Ino from a horrendous jutsu. His remains were never found. Both Ino and Shikamaru slipped in and out of depression for four long years.
There were so many others, but some simply stuck out as huge blows upon Sakura's heart. She sighed and rolled over on her side. The tired kunoichi closed her heavy eyes and it was a while before she could fall into a restless sleep.
"Let's dance, Sakura." Itachi softly breathed into her ear. The drums began to pounded in a rapid rhythm.
Sakura whirled around to slash the vacant air with a kunai, her kimono flaring in a brilliant array of gold and silver. Itachi gracefully dodged a few paces back. His black eyes encased in beautiful eyelashes mesmerized her every being. She attacked again but failed to touch him.
"You're slower than usual, kunoichi. Perhaps you are still tied down by your life?" His ever impassive face seemed to radiate coldness. The indifferent countenance did not change as he continued to taunt her in his unique way. "Held by the Godaime, the village, your friends, your duty as a Leaf shinobi, and of course, my foolish little brother. Even still, you possess far too many burdens to kill me."
"This is what makes me human, Itachi." She snarled back as she slipped out another kunai.
"You cannot dream of killing me with those kinds of emotions still within you. Sasuke also believed that he had emptied himself, but he still had the remnants of Team 7 in his heart. If you cannot throw these useless things away, you will never know your full potential."
Sakura felt anger overpower her senses. "You are a deformed human being."
The Uchiha undid his Akatsuki robe and let it fall to the floor. "Soon, you shall be so."
"Never."
He stepped closer and closer until he was pressing his own firm body against her slender one, and he did not have to make her drop her kunai. Itachi was a good head taller than her and he looked down before dipping his face to kiss her quietly. Sakura could not resist as his hand slid down her thigh underneath her loose kimono to lift it level against his hip. Her instinctive reaction was to wrap her leg around his as his kisses moved down her neck.
Itachi noiselessly slipped out a kunai of his own and rammed it into her stomach. Sakura gasped at the shock of pain and surprise. Blood dribbled down from the corner of her mouth as she tried to intake air. She stared up at Itachi's horribly empty eyes as he stared back in passive observance, chilling her to the very bone.
"This is how you play the game, Sakura."
And the drums faded away in a pianissimo.
The rosette jerked awake and cold sweat dripped down her face. The first thing she did was to touch her stomach to see if anything had happened to it. It had felt so unbelievably real. Sakura looked around and it was still early in the morning, but there was a full moon shining. The light brightened the forest and she could see much easier. She could continue tracking them.
She shakily got up from her sleeping position and stretched out her muscles as much as she could before continuing west. Broken leaves, small amounts of blood splatter, and scratched bark were among the common things that she could see and track easily in the moonlight.
The leaves shimmered silver as she carefully trekked across the forest, her hope returning and gaining strength as more signs of the Akatsuki became visible. She would catch up to them by morning.
In their room of the Sakura House, Itachi's eyes snapped open.
Ending notes:I hope it wasn't a total bore. It's a little shorter than usual, but it's better than nothing! And I know I'm being a biatch when I end with evil cliff hangers, but you'll have to wait the next installment.
Thank you for your continuous support through all of this. I love you all.