Previously:

Her heart stopped, she was partially grateful for it not pounding in and out of her chest, but she stared in shock as the giant snake hurled for her, fangs and mouth wide open. She tried to move but to her horror, she couldn't.

Okay, A little too busy and hectic at school, so I might not update in a while ; Ahh, feel REALLY sorry for the people reading my other fanfic because I haven't updated in a while, and THIS break on top of that…sigh…I'll have to make it up to them later or something ;

'MOVE!!! Legs, arms, anything!' She silently pleaded.

She desperately tried to move but then, as she thought things couldn't get worse, she saw what the snake was conjuring. Using the back of its throat, it was coughing something up. She would've said 'eww' if she wasn't in in danger…or for the fact that she couldn't move!

She struggled to get away from the snake, but it was as if she was paralyzed on the spot. At that moment, it coughed up what looked like ACID! Headed her way. Tears were streaming down her face, why was she so weak? She was a burden to her family, to team 7, to Konoha, to Naruto, and to…Ita-. To Sasu-. No, that also wasn't right, to the Uchiha brothers.

'Why couldn't you pick one of them?' Inner Sakura asked, prodding her to say what she always denied.

'I think you and I BOTH know the answer.' Sakura grudgingly whispered.

'Well, say the 'answer' for your own sake, you need to hear it for yourself.' Inner-Sakura snapped.

'Because…'She she whispered quietly. 'I love…both of them.'

As the acid swirled in the air, heading straight for her, as she stared at it as it made its way closer and closer to her. She closed her eyes, she knew the pain she would suffer and the pain she would cause to others, but she had given up. Why couldn't she move? Wasn't she strong enough? She guessed not, after all, she agreed with Sasuke now, she was always weak after all. She was just in denial, THINKING that she could've changed and become as strong as the others. Well, her fateful doom seemed to be planned out already, so she waited for the pain come, waiting for the delightful pain and suffering she would get. 'I will never be a burden again now; the acid will make sure of it.'

Her eyes squinted shut, waiting for the impact, but…it didn't come…slowly opening her eyes, she saw that Itachi had used his Mangekyou Sharingran to create another dimension (Like Kakashi's kind of, in the Shippuden, and, honestly, I have no idea if Itachi really does that move or not, so no accuracies here! . ) But unfortunately, he didn't have enough time to fully dissolve the acid and suck it into the other dimension, leaving a little swirl of it still heading towards her.

Itachi knew that he had to protect Sakura, at all costs, it was his duty, but he couldn't…

Flashback

The leader and all of the other members shook their heads, they knew that each of them were to complete their mission. "Remember, the mission comes first, no matter what…If you're partner has to die, then so be it. If you have to die, so be it, if you have to risk something valuable to you, then SO BE IT. Failure is not an option here." The leader icily, almost hissing-like, said out. They all nodded their heads again and all left for their assigned Jinchuuriki to catch.

End Flashback

The mission had to come BEFORE Sakura, but it didn't feel like it, he felt that she was more valuable than him, the Akatsuki and the mission combined. Why did he feel so compassionate and protective of her? It felt so…weird, but all he knew was, he had to stop anything from hurting her…even if it cost him his life…

Sakura flinched and gasped in horror, as acid met skin. It burned, seared. It felt so bad, the stinging feeling of hurt. She felt so useless as it continued to corrode through the skin. She definitely saw signs of the acid having poison in it as well. This did not bode well. The injury looked horrible; it was gashing and was bubbling. She knew it looked bad, but it would FEEL worse.

Why would he do this to her? To leave her all alone. Why did he let this happen? To let it get this far. All these answers swirled through her head. It was true, a state of fact, that Itachi…THE Itachi, took a blow of ACID for his lowly partner who couldn't even move at the moment. He knew the consequences of this. They would fail their mission. Wasn't the mission supposed to be the most important thing to be an Akatsuki member? Why did she do this for her?

Itachi winced in pain, 'ugh, THE Itachi, wincing in pain. This would not bode well for his reputation.'

"Are you…alright?" He whispered to Sakura.

He saw through her eyes that she was going through many different emotions, trying to comprehend all that had happened from the 15 minutes that she had just encountered.

Her eyes were filled with sadness, jealousy and confusion. It was silent and then all of a sudden, those emotions were wiped out with the strongest look of determination and compassion. She understood what she needed to do, she found her resolve. Finding all of these emotions she had never felt before, a strong need to fight, an actual reason. With this, she got the strength to over-come her fear and hesitation in anything, and stood up.

Walking toward to the snake-like creature, she slowly pulled out her long Katana that she sheathed out. Changing her pace in speed, she went from a slow walk to a fast run, charging toward to the snake. It had underestimated her speed, she was fast.

Side-stepping, she flashed out of view and appeared right on top of the unexpected snake. Focusing her Chakra in her hand, she punched down with all her might, making the snake pummel to the ground. "Erg! You bitch! I'll kill you!" It hissed out, cursing out loud, but before she got time to say more threats, Sakura used her foot to connect sharply to its stomach, when she flew down from the previous position.

Sakura was REALLY angry, though she had no idea why. Was it because the snake made her feel weak? Was it because it had hurt Itachi? She didn't know, but all she DID know was, killing it would make her feel…complete, satisfied, thrilled, it made her forget all her problems, taking the pain out on others.

Stalking around the snake that was still a little unconscious from the hit, but trying to get up. She didn't get the chance to recover as Sakura grabbed it by the tail and swung her around, finally letting go, as her whole body made impact on the hard, stone cave walls…dead. She wasn't satisfied though, she needed more, the pain was still emitting from her, she needed someone else to take it away from her, and she got her wish.

The Jinchuuriki appeared in front of her, "You will regret that…" as the Jinchuuriki named Sylius (A/N Named the Jinchuuriki to make things easier to explain) stepped back in the cave shadows. Sakura closed her eyes; she needed to concentrate on Sylius' movements. It'd be hilarious if Naruto was here, he'd probably yell out loud and mess up everything, he was such a goofball. But quickly shook the idea, and tried to concentrate on what she was TRYING to do. Sasuke would probably try and kill hey by himself, always too confident, she couldn't help but smile at that, but knew she was distracted. Kakashi would probably say pointers, and would teach them something new. She really did miss them, didn't she…

Sylius swung from behind her out of the shadows and stabbed a kunai in her back, twisting it in. Sakura winced, but never screamed, she would never give her the satisfaction. Cursing of the absent-mindedness, she swung and kicked her to make some distance between her and Sylius. She needed a plan, before she lost too much blood and her conscious. Her vision was already swaying, everything was a little blurry. She needed to end this, and fast.

Gaining enough chakra in her legs, she ran full speed towards Sylius. Using her chakra, she boosted by jumping up, going over-head of Sylius, hitting a stalactite, causing it to fall down, and hit Sylius, crushing her.

Panting from all of the chakra she used, she collapsed on the ground. Unfortunately, Sylius was not finished. With some difficulty, she pushed the rock boulders off. "If you think THAT would finish me off, you're ssadly missstaken." Hissing out fiercely. Sakura was in trouble. Grabbing a stalagmite as leverage, she hoisted herself up. Panting of exhaustion, she analyzed her current situation. She needed to defeat Sylius, a Jinchuuriki, that might be even as strong as Gaara or Naruto, she ALSO needed to heal herself, possibly, if she had a major wound from this battle, she needed to heal Itachi, who knows what that snake had in that acid, and then have enough energy to go back to the base, and possibly having to carry Itachi also. The chances of her ACTUALLY being able to do this were….1 in a million, great…

Grunting from the amount of effort and pressure she had to use for just STANDING UP, she definitely knew this was an impossible situation, she had on-hand.

Sylius stalked towards Sakura, swinging a kunai around her finger, she through it at Sakura with chakra enlaced with it, to make it go with more force. Sakura weakly put up a kunai to stop it, the force pushed her against the wall. Coughing up blood, from the impact of the stone wall, she silently cursed. The kunai still edged in her back was pushed in her more from the cave wall that she was just slammed in. Conscious was slipping by her, she could feel it, she needed Sylius near her, that way she wouldn't have to worry about running to her, which would cause her too much effort. She would need to defeat her when she was in a close range.

Thinking up of a quick plan, she summoned a genjutsu to paralyze her, as Sakura fumbled across the cave flooring, towards her. Once she reached her, she placed her hand on Sylius' forehead, closing her eyes. She muttered a jutsu that allowed her to see her worst fear, making sure to double the intensity. It was a jutsu that was kind of like the Mangekyou Sharingran that she had learned and combined by herself by studying the Mangekyou. Since it wasn't' an original jutsu and wasn't completed, it caused a great amount of chakra and control. Dropping to the floor, she knew that she was almost at her limit. Sylius on the other hand, was writhing on the floor as well, while screaming at the mental images that were playing in her head, double the intensity.

After, maybe 10 minutes, Sakura thought, she knew that her jutsu wouldn't last very long, since she was running out of control, she wanted to end it now. Kneeling down on the hard floor, she slit a little bit of her finger with her kunai and doing multiple hand forms, finally slamming her hand to the ground, which caused a giant rock wave Sylius' way sending her flying across the cave. Crawling towards Itachi, she turned him over with much difficulty checking his condition, it didn't look good. The acid looked to be of a kind that was like a virus, it spread through your body till it shut down. Breathing in and out, she put her hand over the wound, and attempted on sucking the poison out of his system, hoping she wasn't too late.

It seemed as though hours had passed, she had taken out tons of poison out of his system, but it seemed as though it was unlimited. No matter how much she took out, more was still there. She was losing faith and hope, until Itachi started to stir. His conscious was returning rapidly as he sat up with a little pain. Looking at Sakura, it was a little painful.

She had the look of relief on her face, but her clothes were torn, sweat glistened off her body as dried blood crystallized on her. The kunai that was dug in her back, was almost fully into her, only the ring handle was sticking out. She looked exhausted and pained was etched in her face. "We should take out the kunai out from your back." Sakura knew this, if she didn't, it would be more painful later.

She nodded as she turned around, allowing Itachi take hold of the handle of the kunai. Pulling it out a little slowly at the beginning, to see how badly it would affect and how bad the wound was in her. She gasped and opened her mouth like she was silently screaming. Itachi turned her around to she was facing him, and quickly captured her lips to avert the pain. "This might hurt a little." Itachi murmured under his breath just audibly loud enough so she could hear.

Grabbing the handle once again, he pulled it out at a faster pace, so the pain would only be for a while.

Sakura let silent tears fall down as she pushed the kiss harder refusing to scream out.

Once it was fully out, she was crying on the floor, it hurt so much, not only of the fact that the kunai exposed her so air was seeping in her deep cut, but of the fact that, there was another cut, just as deep, if not deeper, the realization was seeping in that wound. It hit harder than the kunai, it was that Sasuke was gone, Itachi was the one she loved, not Sasuke.

Itachi ripped his cloak in a big enough cloth strip to tie around her wound. You need rest, I'll check on the Jinchuuriki. Sakura nodded as she was finally able to let sleep claim her. But before she left from her consciousness, she whispered the words that surprised him. "Thank you, for everything…"

Why would she say thank you to him? She used her remaining strength to bring him back, he did nothing for her. Oh right, the acid thing…he shuddered at the fact that she'd probably ask him why he did that. He didn't want to explain to her why, because…he didn't quite understand it himself. Looking over the Jinchuuriki, he knew that was physically broken. She would not be able to move by herself anymore, so they'd have to carry her to the hideout later, but what really amazed him was she seemed…mentally broken as well. How would that happen, Sakura couldn't do anything horrid enough to break someone down mentally, unless…she used the jutsu? It was quite unstable, why would she go to such an extent, he didn't even know she had this much chakra. He had never seen her use this much, viewing the battle scene.

He thought, incredulously, The Jinchuuriki was STILL alive, impossibly enough. This was a good thing, though, they would need to extract the Jinchuuriki out of her. Luckily Sakura hadn't killed her. Though she wasn't dead, she was beyond repair, she would probably be crippled for life (Though she didn't have a very long life to live…) He would have to tie all her limbs securely with something. It looked to him that almost all of her bones were broken, he sighed. This was going to be a very long day…

I swear I feel like crying, I'm so confused! Is this an ItaxSaku or SasuSaku fanfic!!! DX REALLLLYYYY sorry people, I should just choose one and get it over with, but I'm having difficulties, because I don't mind both couple pairings. OKAY! I think I'm just going to continue rallying back as couples because I'm undecided yet ; so next chapter is going to be practically full out SasuSaku…wait, no, I can't do that, Deidara has to appear! Okay, the chapter after that.

Yeah, also, sorry for this chapter being all emo-ish, I seriously tried to make it horror-like, but it didn't work, because…I dunno! But it turned out emo… -.-'

Ha! Ran out of my ideas that for this fanfic, so if you have any suggestions, I'd gladly hear it out.