(c) Shiori-chan gone crazy

Warning! AU, OOC charecters sometimes but for good reason, torture, mild language, not beta-ed, not much Naruto or Gaara in this one (sorry)

Disclaimer! Guess what?! I don't own Naruto! Nor will I ever! Darn!

action

"talking"

'thinking'

flashbacks

((author's notes))

Chapter 2: Fight or Flight

Kakashi knocked on the door and opened it quietly. Iruka looked up.

"So, they're here?" he asked. Kakashi nodded Iruka got up from his seat and walked over to the door where Kakashi still stood. "Do we run? Or do we fight?"

"Both," Kakashi answered. Iruka looked at him, slightly puzzled. "You take the boys and run from here," he began to explain. "You won't need to go far. We will have to use that plan. It's our only choice right now. Besides, the boys will be safest this way. We can take them back after the akatsuki have been destroyed for good!"

Iruka agreed. He walked across the room and picked up his bag and his mask. Kakashi was about to leave when Iruka stopped him.

"What about you?" he asked, not wanting his friend to put himself in needless danger.

"I'll take a team," Kakashi said firmly. "and we will fight Itachi." Before Iruka could say another word, the silver haired man turned and left to gather the ANBU. They would fight to hold back the Akatsuki while Iruka took Naruto and Gaara and ran. Their missions were clear. The battle had begun.

((The following sections of this chapter will be going back and forth from the fight and the flight. There will be a when there is a switch. You have been warned.))

Kakashi and four others left the ramen shop. They found a group of Itachi's men right away, waiting for them from across the street. They attacked. The men from Akatsuki were weak and in minutes, all seven were dead. Kakashi's left arm had a deep slash in it and there was a thin cut on his cheek, cutting his mask open slightly. The others had cuts and scratches but all were alive. They continued on, making sure no one passed until Iruka was safely away.

Iruka threw open the door to Gaara and Naruto's room. It was dark and their soft breathing made Iruka sad to wake them. It wasn't often that they got a chance to sleep peacefully, without fear of being killed or captured. Iruka quickly shook the feeling off, knowing that this was urgent!

"Get up!" he shouted at the boys while yanking off he blankets. They both yelled "HEY!" while trying to adjust their eyes to the light coming from the open door. Iruka made it worse by flipping on a light switch.

"Iruka, what's going on?" Naruto whined, rubbing his eyes. Gaara had his head buried in Naruto's back, probably already asleep again. Iruka didn't answer as he rushed around the room , picking up clothes and throwing them at the boys. Naruto and Gaara exchanged glances before taking the clothes and dressing, still on the bed. They both saw the scared and worried look in Iruka's eyes so did what he wanted without another word.

When they were dressed, Iruka threw them each a backpack and motioned for them to follow him. They obeyed right away. Naruto was starting to get worried, too, by the way Iruka was acting. He looked over at Gaara as they followed Iruka quickly and quietly through the halls of the house behind the shop. Gaara shrugged, giving Naruto an understanding look. He wasn't sure what was going on either.

Naruto hung back behind Iruka to help Gaara. He was having trouble keeping up because of his injuries. Naruto smiled at Gaara who returned with a small smile of his own. The were best friends for one simple reason. They knew each other better then anyone else. One could know what the other was thinking just by looking at him. The two had whole conversations without saying even one word. They had learned to do this a while ago when they would have to follow Kakashi and Iruka around all the time. The two would have to be totally silent, so they would talk to each other with facial expressions or hand motions.

Iruka stopped and stood waiting at the back door for the two to catch up. When they got to where he was standing, Iruka casually stepped outside, motioning for the two boys to stay inside. They knew what he was doing. He'd done it many times before. Iruka was checking if it was safe for them to go out.

Iruka walked out a few steps, hands at his sides, and turned around. He took a deep breath, looking like he was enjoy fresh air (to any one who happened to pass by). Actually, he was looking for anyone who might be hiding on the roof of the house. When he was sure there was no one on the roof, he walked a few more feet away, checking the trees around the yard. The man came to the end of his walk back at the door.

"It's safe," he whispered. "You can come now." The two boys followed Iruka hesitantly. They were both very much aware of the dangers that could be awaiting them. Gaara knew better then Naruto. He'd been caught many times before. The blonde hadn't, having been kept safe all his life by the mother hen Iruka.

Iruka walked behind them to the edge of the property, then began leading again. They walked behind him quietly. Naruto was scared and he could sense Gaara's fear as well, even though the red head was much better at hiding it. Naruto didn't think there was anything the two could keep secret from each other.

"Keep going!" Kakashi said over his shoulder. His team had fought and killed over half the men Itachi had brought with him. They were now faced with the best, including Itachi himself.

"Hello Kakashi," Itachi greeted, his voice dripping with venom. One could almost feel the hate in the air as the two men stood facing each other. They were alone now. The other men had taken the battle elsewhere, fearing the possibility of getting caught in the crossfire of Kakashi and Itachi's fight.

"Long time now see, eh, cousin?" Kakashi spat back, looking as if the words were a disgusting taste in his mouth. Itachi smirked.

"Kakashi," Obito said, straining for breath. The young soldier rushed to his dying friend.

"What it is, Obito? What's wrong?" Kakashi knelt down, picking up his friends head and resting it in his lap.

"I want you to take the Sharingan." Obito whispered, lifting his hand and running his fingers over the bandage on the other boy's left eye. "With it, you can regain your sight, as well as, take my inheritance and my name." Kakashi looked horrified.

"What? No, Obito! What are you talking about. It's just...it's just a bullet, right? We can take it out, patch you up." Tears were beginning to form in his light blue eyes.

"Kakashi," Obito put his fingers against Kakashi's lips. "Please, do this for me. I want you to carry on my family. Please." Kakashi saw the pleading in the eyes of his best friend. He saw love, kindness, fear. But, he realized, Obito was begging him to take up his family name and carry it's pride instead of the shame his father had brought upon the Hatake name.

"I will," Kakashi barely whispered, surprised he had said it at all. Tears streamed down the 16-year-old's cheeks.

"Promise?" Obito looked up at his best friend. With every move, his body screamed in pain and his soul clinging to the last bit of life it had left. He ignored it all, wanting to do this last thing for Kakashi, who to him was more than a friend. He was a brother. "Please!"

"I promise," Kakashi confirmed. Obito smiled. It was all he could do now. His lips formed the words "good-bye, brother" before his eyes closed for the last time and soul left his body, his cares, and his pain behind. The boy's body turned cold and breathing had stopped, but the smiled remain. The Uchiha heir was dead, but Kakashi knew Obito was happy, and that made him feel just a little better.

"Just because you're my cousin by name does not mean I have to give you mercy like a blood relative - not that I would give you any even if you were." Itachi said arrogantly.

"Oh, don't worry," Kakashi countered. "I'm not the one who's going to need mercy!" Kakashi pulled the mask off his face and revealed the sharingan in his left eye. Itachi's eyes flickered red also. There was no movement from either of them. They were so still, any one would have thought they were wax statues. Kakashi's hand moved quickly back. Itachi caught the movement. His eyes saw every movement.

Kakashi now avoided looking at Itachi's eyes and instead concentrated on his feet to predicted his movements. His left foot moved slightly forward. Kakashi moved his body to the side, just in time to dodge a shuriken. He threw three of his own. Itachi easily dodged them.

"You can't beat me with such basic skills," Itachi said smugly. He made a few hand signs and breathed fire in Kakashi's direction. The Anbu captain was faster. He countered it with a water dragon of his own.

Kakashi looked up briefly to check it there was anything else coming. It was the biggest mistake he could have made. In that second, everything turned red. Kakashi heard a demonic voice saying, "Mangekyu Sharingan." It echoed through the room and surrounded him like a thick fog.

The surroundings changed. Kakashi found himself hanging from something. 'A cross?' His arms were tied to a long plank the went horizontal across his back. A second plank was running down his back. His legs and waist were tied to it. There was a dark cloth wrapped around his eyes so he couldn't see anything, but he was sure he heard someone else with him.

He was right.

The blindfold was removed. The first thing he saw was Itachi's smirk as the raven hairdo man stood below him. He looked up at Kakashi, his eyes mocking. There was a long sword in his right hand and a short sword in his left. The short sword, Kakashi recognized, was a special sword used for torture. It was blunt but affective. The edges weren't sharp, but they didn't need to be. The sword wasn't made to cut flesh, but the blood veins underneath the skin. It literally cut it's victim apart from the inside.

Kakashi tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. He knew this was all an illusion and he knew it was all in his head, but he also knew that the pain, and possible some of the damage done, was very real!

Itachi stepped forward. He raised the long sword and Kakashi's thick, protective clothing like butter. The shirt fell to the floor, the semi-soft sound echoing, making it sound ten times louder. Kakashi's bare chest was exposed and Itachi took full advantage. He raised his left hand and pressed the edge of the short sword to Kakashi's shoulder. The cold metal felt harmless. Itachi pulled the sword down across Kakashi's chest, from his left shoulder to his right hip.

The pain was indescribable. Kakashi screamed. The sound filled the area they were in and hung in the air long Kakashi had stopped. The man looked down at the large red lined going down across his skin. It hurt like hell. Kakashi winced. Itachi chuckled, making the other man look down at him.

"Again?" the raven asked. Kakashi closed his eyes. But when he looked down at his chest again, the red mark from the short sword was gone! Itachi raised his left hand again.

'Kami, help me!'

They walked down alleyways and back roads until the trio reached the city limits. Konoha was named so because it was engulfed in forest. At the edge of said forest is where the boys stood now. Iruka walked slowly, cautiously into the forest. After deathly quiet minutes of waiting, the boys were motioned to follow. They walked slowly through dense forest for two hours. The whole time, it felt to Naruto like they were being enclosed by walls of trees!

They followed a path almost invisible if you didn't know where you were going! It stretched for miles ahead, but Iruka didn't follow it all the way. Soon, he lead Naruto and Gaara off the path into the wall of trees. Again, the was a small, almost invisible path. They followed this until they began to see light on the ground shining from between the leaves on the trees. Iruka looked around him. He seemed to locate whatever it was he was looking for because he soon lead them towards the mouth of a large, dark cave.

"Wait here for us," he told them. "I swear we will come back for you, but trust me. For now, this is the best and only was to keep you boys safe." Iruka began walking backwards, watching the boys until he was a few yards away. He turned away from them before whispering, "I'm sorry," and leaving.

Naruto and Gaara looked at each other. Neither of them knew what was going on. Gaara made a motion with his head. Naruto nodded. They walked into the cave and looked around. It was empty, but both boys had a strange feeling that there was something, or someone, watching them from deeper in the cave. The began to walk farther into the darkness, hoping to find whatever it was that was making them feel so uneasy, but also praying that the feeling was wrong and the would find nothing but darkness.

Kakashi breathed hard. His body showed no injuries but the pain was still there. He wished he could loose consciousness but knew he couldn't. Itachi smirked, positioned to slash again at Kakashi's flesh.

"Four more hours, Kakashi. Can you handle it?" he asked, almost laughed evilly at the pain he was causing his 'cousin.'

"It's only the sharingan, Itachi." Kakashi said casually, despite the fact that he could barely breath. "It's not real."

"Not real, huh?" Itachi pulled the short sword across Kakashi's skin again. Kakashi screamed louder than he had any of the times before.

"This pain is not real? Then why do you scream?" Itachi chuckled darkly. "Kakashi. Poor confused Kakashi. Only a true Uchiha could ever hope to understand or counter my simple attacks on you. This pain you feel, it will stay with you. Even if these two days is only an hour at most in reality, you will keep this terrible pain with you." Itachi laughed again.

I do pity you, 'cousin.' You are almost as foolish as my little brother." Itachi stabbed Kakashi with the long sword, letting the blade sink in slowly. He let it stay in Kakashi's body for a few seconds before yanking it out. Kakashi squirmed to try and remove his arms from the ropes that held his arms to the post. He wanted to curl up and cradle his screaming, tortured body.

Tears flowed freely down his cheeks. The pain was too much! Hours passed like weeks! The torture was so slow! The time was almost over. The torture would end soon!

'It's almost over!!'

The red sky shook suddenly. Black lines crawled across it, leaving huge cracks. It was breaking up. Itachi stood frozen in mid-motion. Kakashi watched in awe as the world around him shattered.

The real world came back in a rush. He stood there for a moment, paralyzed by pain and the sudden change. Then he fell. Kakashi dropped to his knees. He tried to get up again but could only manage to look up enough to see a masked man standing over Itachi's body. The man looked over to Kakashi.

"Don't worry," the man said. "You'll be fine."

"Is he..." Kakashi struggled with getting the words out of his mouth.

"No, he's not dead, only stunned. The kunai I used to step him was poisoned but it won't kill him," the man explained. He walked slowly over to Kakashi. The man put a hand on Kakashi's shoulder and began removing his mask with his other hand.

Kakashi blacked out. He didn't get to see who it was that had saved him but was sure he recognized the voice.

'How strange.'

Naruto sat on the floor with his back against the wall of the cave. He pulled his knees up to his chest, his arms hanging lazily on either side of his body. He rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Gaara sat beside him, hugging his legs to his chest and resting his forehead on his knees. They sat in comfortable silence. The two had gone deeper into the cave, until it was impossible to see anything. Then they had walked back to the entrance. That is where they were now.

"Do you think Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei are alright?" Naruto asked, worried.

"Iruka was fighting alongside Kakashi," Gaara said in a low, calm tone, not directly answering the question.

"What do you mean? Wasn't Iruka-sensei with us?" Naruto opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Gaara.

"No," Gaara looked up, extending his legs and putting his palms to the cave floor. "It was a different member of the Anbu. Probably Hayashi. He has a shape shifting power." Naruto stared blankly at Gaara. He didn't get it.

"Didn't you notice, Naruto?" Gaara turned to look at the blonde. "I thought you of all people would have seen it first. Iruka wasn't as protective as usual." Naruto thought about this for a minute.

"He was acting more rushed than normal." Naruto thought aloud.

"Plus, the man who gave us Iruka's message didn't leave as Iruka. As soon as he turned, I could see it was someone else. Even his voice was slightly different."

"You don't think it's a trap, do you?" Naruto started getting worried for his and Gaara's safety.

"No," Gaara said, placing a reassuring hand on Naruto's knee. "I just think Iruka knew we would be alright, so he went to help Kakashi." Naruto and Gaara locked eyes for a while. Naruto understood what Gaara was saying. They had each other and the man Iruka chose must have been good. Come on, this was Iruka they were talking about!

"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked, breaking the silence. Gaara thought about it for a minute. He put his head on the wall and stared at the rock ceiling of the cave.

"Wait," he said finally.

"Wait?" Naruto scoffed. "Wait for what? For all we know, both Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei are dead!" Gaara turned a warning glare onto his friend.

"The message was that they would come back, and whether the man that brought us was Iruka or not doesn't change the fact that he is part of the Anbu and he promised to come back." Gaara said all this with confidence and authority. Naruto sighed. He knew that Gaara was right, but doing nothing just wasn't his style, and 'waiting' counted as 'doing nothing' in Naruto's book.

"You should sleep while you can, Gaara," Naruto again broke the silence, turning his frustration into concern for his friend.

"Yea, you're right." Gaara turned to the blonde. "Do you mind?"

"No," Naruto watched as Gaara slide from a sitting position to lay on the floor, curling up like a cat with his back against Naruto's leg. The red head was asleep almost as soon as he was comfortable. Naruto was about to go to sleep too when he heard something moving in the darkness of the cave. Instead of going to sleep, he decided to stay up and be ready, just in case. Gaara needed his sleep and neither of them wanted to be killed, after all.

So, I hope this chapter was worth the wait! What did you think, Sai?

Sai: It sucked, except the torturing Kakashi part. Other than that? It sucked.

Shiori-chan: Sai, I thought I told you to stop being so rude!

Sai: You don't like it? Don't ask, you freakin sadist!

Shiori-chan: What do you mean 'sadist'?

Sai: Such graphic details can only come from one with experience.

Shiori-chan: I've never tortured anybody!

Sai: How else would you know about all those torture weapons?

Shiori-chan: Well...um...um...uh...Wikipedia?

Sai: And why would you be looking up such things? Hmmm?

Shiori-chan: Uh...well...um...So, what did you think about the chapter, Itachi?

Itachi: -evil laughter- fun -smirk-

Shiori-chan: ...S-s-scary...

Sai: -emotionless shudder-

Shiori-chan: So anyway, thanks for reading and um...Itachi? What are you doing with that sword?! No put it down! Itachi!! Sorry guys I gotta go, but please review and tell me what you thought about this chapter!

OOO and before you go, I have to tell you! I'm having a contest! yup! it's a fanart contest. all you have to do is draw a picture of any thing from one of my fics. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners get a one shot of thier request and their pics posted on my myspace and/or gaia (unless requested otherwise). The 4th and 5th place winners get the next three chapters dedicated to them. here's the rules:

1) it has to be from one of my fics

2) you have to post it on photobucket . com or deviantart . com and send it to me at my email. (animegirl2691 yahoo . com) remember to take out the spaces!

3) it has to have your name or screenname or something on it so i know who sent what

4) and no cheating! you can't copy someone else's pics or anything!

5) you have to get it in ASAP like before April 19! yea, that's the deadline people, the 19th of April! that's when i'll post the new chapter and the winner! (please tell me if that's not enough time to finish and i'll be glad to extend the dead line)

i hope every one tries! i think it'll be fun! thanks again guys!

love ya!

(c) Shiori-chan gone crazy