Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! Only the parts that I'm adapting into the original story line.

Fated Encounter

CHAPTER 23

"No! Let me go!" Sakura struggled against Sasuke's hold on her.

They were trying to move from the battle field as quickly as possible, but she was making things much harder.

She was currently hauled over his shoulder as the group moved at a rapid pace towards the North. Karin had sensed another shinobi coming to their direction and Sasuke had made the decision to flee as soon as possible. There was no doubt that they were from Konoha with the way that most of them tried to get their way to Sakura.

Sasuke had a trouble at keeping his opponent focused on him rather than finding his companion after Sakura. Luckily, they weren't such talented opponents and Sasuke finished his and Karin's quickly. Suigetsu was on full swing by the time Sasuke made it to Sakura. He was slashing his large blade dangerously and easily cut Sakura's opponent into two.

At that point, Karin knew someone else was coming and was demanding that they try to get a move on as soon as possible. However, Sakura had other plans. She went almost full rampage on Suigetsu who had finished off the other shinobi.

She looked furious as she stormed towards him with anger, demanding why he killed the other guy. Suigetsu looked baffled at the reaction and said he was only helping her. But Sakura wasn't listening to him. She pushed at his chest angrily and yelled profanities at him while saying that he ruined 'it'. Sakura never mentioned what it was, but neither did they have time to find out.

Karin was pacing nervously telling that they needed to move.

Sasuke stormed to Sakura's side, grabbed her by her waist and hoisted her over his shoulder. She screeched even more and banged his back. He was glad she wasn't using her chakra against him. That would be much more painful.

Even though, Sasuke avoided killing anyone else except his brother, he had no other choice this time. These people were going to rattle Sakura's existence to the Elders for sure. Sasuke recognized the fighting style and the manners of the enemy. They were at least Anbu level shinobi, who were sent to find Sakura.

"Sasuke!" She shouted his name, but he completely ignored her.

Sakura breathed harshly against Sasuke's shoulder as she did her best to control her emotions. She knew getting out of his hold required more than just yelling and banging his back like a little girl, but she didn't dare use her chakra. Sasuke had two options if that was to happen, and the one she didn't want to happen was that he used genjutsu against her.

Genjutsu would slow her down for a while until she finally broke it. The other option was that he let her go and would let her scout their follower out in hopes of finding out the truth. Or she could beat Suigetsu up for stopping. But the last option wasn't going to happen. Sasuke wasn't just going to let her go and endanger herself.

As Sakura's rational side took over she calm visibly, her body literally slouching against Sasuke's shoulder.

"I think we lost him!" Karin said while dodging a tree trunk. "I can't sense him anywhere!"

"Let's keep moving!" Sasuke said back with a stern expression. Sakura rolled her eyes, glad that Sasuke couldn't see her expression. Why did he have to be so careful? If Karin's senses were as amazing as they were then shouldn't they technically be safe? Unfortunately, you can't trust blindly at higher ranked shinobi. Who knows what they have up their sleeve.

They quickly traveled to another nearby village. It was much smaller than the ones before as it was near the Northern Hideout. You probably shouldn't even be calling it a village. It was more like a small community next to the mountains.

"Finally!" Suigetsu sighed loudly with happiness as they came to a stop.

Sasuke gently lowered Sakura back on her feet. He had been carrying her around for the past hour and she was feeling the after effects of it. Her rib cage hurt and she was sure she had bruises all over her stomach. Another reason why her low weight wasn't a good thing, it never protected her much from impacts.

Right away, she planted her palm over her bruised ribs and healed them. It felt so good to use her chakra to something good and productive than just piling it up and trying to gather it more and more.

Suigetsu was already running towards the well on the side of the small community and conversing with a young boy picking water from the well. He was happily waiting to have a small portion of the water and completely ignored his traveling companions.

Karin gritted her teeth in his direction before turning away from him. She headed towards a rock collection in the other direction of the well and sat down on it.

Sasuke had inched closer to Sakura with a straight face, "Are you okay?"

Sakura wanted to snap at him with the remaining frustration she had, but opted to answer civilly, "Yes, and no."

"Sakura."

"Stop doing that."

Sasuke tilted his head at her words.

"Exactly that!" She pointed at his face. "Stop reprimanding me like a child."

"You're sixteen, Sakura. You're a child."

"Then what are you? You're younger than me." She fired back instantly. This time Sasuke shook his head at her.

Sakura crossed her arms and bit her lip. She wanted to tell Sasuke why she was so mad at Suigetsu and everyone. But would he even want to know? The shinobi had attacked them and they had been defeated. Simple as that. Maybe they even weren't after her?

Suddenly Karin stood up from her perch with an alerted look on her face. Sakura didn't miss the way her body tensed and she glanced towards the woods.

It didn't even take a fool to know what she was sensing.

"Sakura," Sasuke hissed lowly and pushed her gently behind him, "get back."

In the next second, a cloaked figure emerged from the trees and stopped twenty feet away from Karin, who was closest to him. Sakura carefully inched more closely behind Sasuke to cover herself.

The figure scanned the area carefully taking everyone in. This time a couple of people had emerged from their homes and were staring at the odd group of people.

Sakura, especially, could feel the man's eyes on her even though Sasuke was blocking his view.

But to everyone's surprise, the man jumped back and disappeared into the forest. Karin's pale face turned to Sasuke and Sakura, "He left."

"What the hell is wrong with these people?" Suigetsu muttered from the side. He had filled his cup with water and was once again scratching his head in puzzlement.

Sasuke's shoulders relaxed as he straightened to a better position.

"Did he really leave?" Sasuke asked Karin with a tight expression.

"Yes. He's heading towards East at a rapid pace."

"He's returning to Konoha." Sakura said and looked up at Sasuke, "Probably to tell them that I'm alive."

"Wait, what?" Suigetsu squinted his eyes, "You're telling me that your home village doesn't know that you're alive? What the hell happened? I thought these guys," he pointed at Sasuke and Karin, "kidnapped you like they did me."

"Sasuke and I didn't kidnap you, idiot!" Karin explained.

"It's a long story that not even I know all the details of." Sakura quickly interjected.

"So I guess that means more of those kind of people are going to come after us then?" Karin questioned Sakura.

"Weren't you supposed to go to some place else?" Suigetsu inquired with a lifted brow. "Because I don't think you should be using the word 'us' that freely."

Karin ignored him completely and turned away.

"We should move. Before we get more eyes on us." Sasuke finished the conversation.

A group of people had gathered around them looking and waiting for something to happen. Some had a worried look on their faces and some looked curiously at them.

Without a second thought, Sakura along with everyone else jumped towards the forest. They could easily travel all the way to North by the end of the day and had lots of time before it becomes dark. As they traveled and this time Sakura was back on her own two feet, she finally took notice of her companions.

Sasuke had few scratches here and there, Karin had busted her knuckles and had a nasty gash on her thigh. Suigetsu had bruising on his forearm and biceps. Considering the rank of their enemy, they looked rather good. Or then the people send after her were some lower ranked shinobi, who weren't that important to the Elders.

Sakura felt it in her bones that things were about to get even more complicated.

"Can we have another break?" Suigetsu asked for the nth time since they left the small community.

Karin was doing her best at ignoring him entirely and Sakura praised her for not slashing out at Suigetsu once again. And the way Suigetsu was glancing Karin's way Sakura was sure he was doing his best to rile her up.

As a even bigger surprise Karin actually finally answered Suigetsu rather civilly, "If didn't know, the Northern hideout is the most dangerous one of all Orochimaru-sama's hideouts. It's where he kept his most dangerous creatures. That's not a place you want to visit while it's dark."

"But I'm really exhausted!"

"Suigetsu, it's been less then an hour." Sakura retorted.

"I know! But we've been travelling all day and I need my rest!"

"At this rate, you're going to get yourselves killed." Karin raised her brow in a mocking way.

"And yet you're still with us?" Suigetsu raised his own brow.

"You don't seem to understand that Northern hideout is the home base of Orochimaru's experimentation."

"The one thing that I don't understand is that you're still here." Suigetsu seemed to care less of Karin's warning. And the more he bickered back the more Sakura saw the thin line of patience in Karin dwindling.

"I have business there too!"

"Yeah, right!"

"You really don't know what you have up against? Jūgo is extremely dangerous."

"I've actually met him once before. He's got quite an interesting power. And going by that meeting, I really don't like him. He went to Orochimaru on his own! He must have a screw loose."

"You don't like anyone!"

"I do!" Suigetsu stopped with a faked shocked expression. "I really like Pinky!"

Sakura's footing stumbled as Suigetsu fired his happy-go-lucky words.

"She's the only sensible here! If you don't count the hick-"

"Suigetsu!" Sakura hissed once again horrified by what he was about to talk aloud. They seriously couldn't go anywhere without Suigetsu causing some sort of an uproar with the girls.

"Suigetsu, enough." Sasuke finally interjected.

"Fine! Fine!" He waved his arms. The scenery had changed into a much rockier terrain and Sakura was sure they weren't that far away. But the more she listened to Karin and Suigetsu speaking the more she dreaded meeting this Jūgo person. He didn't sound like anyone she would want to associate herself with if he was deemed as dangerous that he needed to be kept in the most infamous hideout of Orochimaru.

"What is this guy even like then?" Sakura finally asked out of curiosity.

"He's a murdering maniac." Karin said it like she knew what she was talking about, "He has these urges that might make him lose control. And if he does lose it, his appearance changes and he becomes completely unstable. He kills everything he sees and everyone's his enemy."

Sakura couldn't help but think of Sasuke. He had his Cursed Mark that made him change if he used it. The Cursed Mark had to have something to do with this guy, she wondered. Because it gave Sasuke such amount of power that it was unheard of. Not to forget the things that happened in the Forbidden Forest.

There Sasuke lost control of all self-restrain and attacked the shinobi from Sound.

"In a nutshell, he's a bastard that enjoys killing." Suigetsu joked with a laugh.

"He was one of Orochimaru's best test subjects. Orochimaru was able to subtract an enzyme from him that could be added to other shinobi giving them similar abilities. Some of you must be aware of this?" Karin continued to explain and confirm Sakura's thoughts. They hadn't talked about Sasuke's Cursed Mark at all since she joined him, but this was actually quite interesting.

Sasuke, on the other hand, looked bored with the topic. He knew all this beforehand.

"So Jūgo is the origin of the Cursed Mark?" Sakura asked.

"Exactly."

"Don't even say it." Sakura warned Suigetsu.

He was once again yawning and stretching his arms as if he was ready for another break. It was getting utterly ridiculous with the pace they were going. Suigetsu was demanding for a break every ten seconds, but this time they were hard against him.

They were so close to the Northern hideout that it was almost pointless to stop and take a break. At the head of them rose mountains that indicated that they had almost reached the hideout, and Sakura didn't want to stop this close from getting there. There was still few hours of day light left, and if they could get in and out sooner than that then she was happy.

There were structures ahead of them high up on the mountainside. They resembled guard towers with the way they were build.

"Shouldn't there be someone on guard?" Sasuke asked looked at Karin.

Karin looked up at the towers ahead and nodded in confirmation, "Yeah, there should be."

"I have a very bad feeling about this." Suigetsu murmured from the back.

Sound of gravel moving alerted the group and they watched as battered up man came from around the mountain. His steps were unsteady and his limps were shaking. He collapsed few feet away from Karin, who ran for him.

"He's from the Northern hideout!" She said in alarm as she turned him around.

Sasuke crouched down next to his lying body, "What happened?"

The man opened his swollen eyes and his eyes widened as he took in Sasuke's form, "A-are you.. Uchiha Sasuke?" He took a deep breath, "Please save us."

"What happened?" Suigetsu repeated Sasuke's question.

"T-the rumors s-spread of Orochimaru's... death. A-and the prisoners went on a rampage. At th-" he took another deep breath before going completely lax.

Even from the distance Sakura noticed the signs of death. The way the jaw hang and the body collapsed against all of that was holding it up.

"Oh, geez! He died!" Suigetsu leaned closer to the body now being held by Karin.

Suddenly Karin's head snapped to the direction of the hideout, and at the same time a dark blur landed fifty feet away from them. It crashed against the ground sending bits and pieces all around.

Sakura was instantly reminded of Sasuke's Cursed Mark. The creature didn't look like Sasuke, but the characteristics were there; longer hair, darker skin and limbs that had transformed into something more unnatural looking.

"What the hell is that?" Suigetsu tilted his head to the side.

"He's in the second state of the Cursed Mark." Karin gasped in slight terror. It was a really bad thing if these guys were running around freely.

"I'm gonna kill ya'll." The guy groaned with a sadistic smirk on his face. His body lowered for an attack, but before he could move a muscle Sasuke was already attacking him. Sasuke's movements were fast and it was only after he had struck the man that you could even see what had happened.

Lazily, Sasuke held on to his kusanagi as he had sliced open few of the man's body parts.

In seconds, the Cursed Mark withdrew from the man's body revealing his human form. With a shocked face, he fell face first on the ground and Sakura had to held in her gasp. How Sasuke was able to attack so easily and not kill anyone was beyond her understanding. His ability to take on an opponent and disable them was on a whole another level.

Sasuke was already moving towards the hideout when Sakura quickly moved after him. Karin and Suigetsu were left standing in shock of the whole situation, but soon followed after.

"Wait up, Sasuke!" Karin yelled as she ran after them.

As the front gates came a view, they were greeted by a mass of new prisoners. Sakura felt shivers ran down her back as she looked at the deformed faces. All of them were wielders of the Cursed Mark, and they looked blood thirsty.

"Is any of them Jūgo?" Suigetsu asked with an impatient tone. His fingers were itching to wrap around the hilt of his blade and show these people his power. After walking so long he was ready to unleash himself completely.

"Don't be so impatient." Karin murmured as she focused on the group of hundred. In no time, she focused back and confirmed that none of them were Jūgo.

"Finally! I can be a little reckless, right?" Suigetsu grinned in anticipation.

"Don't hit any vital points." Sasuke suddenly commented.

"I can tell you're from Konoha." Suigetsu teased him, "It would have been completely okay if you killed the guy earlier, you know? You guys are too soft."

Sasuke and Suigetsu caused a distraction while Sakura and Karin slipped past the battlefield. The prisoners were so intent on attacking anything that moved and even showed a little bit of a threat that it was almost too easy to slip past them.

Karin lead them into one of the guard's room and right there hanging on the wall was a ring of keys. Karin grabbed it with a joyful cheer as they quickly raced down the stairs and outside. Sasuke and Suigetsu had already taken care of everyone in the courtyard and were patiently waiting for the girls.

The place was even bigger a labyrinth than the other hideouts. Every hallway looked the same and extended the same length before dividing into three more hallways.

"Karin, lead the way." Sasuke stopped walking as they reached another crossing.

"Who made you be in charge?" Karin challenged him.

"Aren't you notorious for that exact ability?" Sakura asked her with a raised brow.

Karin huffed in annoyance, "I already found the keys, shouldn't that be enough."

All she got was pointed looks from everyone. Shaking her head, she focused again before pointing to her left, "It's that way."

Suigetsu happily started walking that way without a care in the world. Sakura followed right after him.

"To think that the Cursed Mark actually mutilated the body like that is actually pretty creepy." Suigetsu pondered out loud and visibly shivered.

Sakura smiled at him, "Says a guy who can transform himself into water."

"That's not creepy at all! It's cool."

"If you say so." Sakura shrugged.

"What about you Sasuke? Does it do that to you, too?" Suigetsu asked Sasuke with laughter in his tone, but didn't receive an answer.

"Sasuke? Why aren-" he turned around, "What the hell!"

Sakura turned around too this time to see what he was cussing at. And he was cussing at nothing. Sasuke, nor Karin weren't following after them. The hallways were completely quiet.

"That damn woman!" The white-haired nin cursed. "She did it again!"

As annoyed and angry Suigetsu was, Sakura couldn't help but feel the complete opposite. Karin's actions were just plain ridiculous. The way she separated them from Sasuke to be alone with him was just too desperate. But what can you expect from someone with a crush on the Uchiha?

Of course, there was that tiny part in Sakura that felt jealous, but after the conversation with Sasuke, she felt more relieved than anything else. She knew Sasuke wasn't going to do anything with Karin, and all she had to do was find her way back to him.

A bit longer chapter this time! Are you proud of me?

Next chapter might be a short one again. I only have on free day this week so I need to write chapter 24 after work, which will be a slow progress.

Thanks for everyone who followed and favorited this story!

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If you're still confused why the Elders are after Sakura, it will be explained much more in detail in couple of chapters. So please be patient!

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- Jakura