I can be so evil.

Oh and rejoice, my January exams are finished meaning less revision time and more writing time.

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A situation can change dramatically in a few seconds. When someone you trusted with your life betrays you, you can be capable of feats that may seem impossible. When you can already do the impossible, you start making mistakes.

When Itachi gave Max the choice of saving Naruto, who was being pinned to a tree and having his windpipe slowly crushed, or saving Gaara, who she wasn't even sure was actually in danger due to being told by someone she no longer trusted. Max chose the obvious of who was currently in the least amount of time left.

The process of removing a demon took a few days in which she could interrupt it, but it takes about two minutes to kill someone by starving them of oxygen.

"Which are you going to pick Max?" Itachi asked tauntingly, applying more pressure on Naruto's neck. Seconds later Max had her gun pointing to the side of Itachi's head.

"Guess," she hissed. She was hoping Naruto was conscious enough to do something to help her. When teaching Naruto about guns she had made him promise to only use it if he really needed to, and if she was using hers then he should use his.

"Would you really kill me?" Itachi asked coyly. Max could have sworn she saw a flash of panic on his face but before she could make sure it was gone.

"Do you really want to find out?" Max found her arm holding the gun knocked away as Itachi rounded on her, leaving Naruto crumpled on the floor trying to breathe normally. Max automatically aimed her gun back at Itachi.

"So shoot me," Itachi challenged taking a step towards her. Max started to lower her gun, Itachi smirked until he heard Max fire and felt something impact against his body. Max had lowered the gun to aim at a less vital area. She had managed to get him to lower his guard by pretending to give up. Another trick he wouldn't fall for again.

Itachi could feel the skin of his lower chest start to bruise, a few ribs were probably broken too, Max was a bit predictable with her 'ultimate weapon' and he had taken measures against it from observation of its damage. While it hadn't blocked all of the damage, the Kevlar/dragon hide mix layered with a shield spell had stopped most of it.

Max had lit her hands while Itachi was inspecting the damage, dashing forwards Itachi was forced to react quickly to avoid burns. Neither were fighting to hurt the other, they were both trying to delay each other. Max wanted Naruto to get away safely. Itachi was trying to delay her so back up could help subdue her.

Out of the corner of her eye Max could see Naruto get to his feet, she tried to lead the fight away from the blond. Hopefully Naruto would go and find Gaara, make sure the red head was ok. As she countered Itachi's punches she could see Naruto draw his M9 and aim at Itachi, he tried to gain eye contact with Max to see if he should shoot.

Max nodded slightly, despite the fact Itachi was armoured it would still distract him. What she wasn't counting on was Itachi noticing. As Naruto pulled the trigger, Itachi twisted out of instinct, dragging Max in front of him to take the shot. She fell to the ground clutching her side as blood began to seep out of her latest bullet wound.

"Max!" Naruto yelled, lowering his gun and clicking on the safety. He ran over, ignoring Itachi's presence and knelt by Max. "Max?"

"Naruto, get out of here, go make sure Gaara's ok. I'll be fine, I promise"

"But-"

"I've never broken a promise to you, I refuse to start now. Go!"

"Isn't that sweet, but who says I'm going to let him go," Itachi asked. "It's not like you can do anything about it," he taunted. Max looked at him with eyes that seemed strangely empty, he could see how her mismatched eyes would creep someone out. He watched her prop herself up onto an elbow then use Naruto to get to a standing position.

"I'm not out yet"

"You can barely stand"

"I made a promise years back, I said I would protect Naruto to the best of my ability. As I said, I don't break promises." Max pushed off from Naruto, flames in one hand, kunai in the other, she managed to block Itachi from getting to Naruto. Naruto took this as his cue to leave but didn't.

"Damnit, what is it with you and Sasuke, do neither of you understand that when I tell you to go I mean it!" Max hissed loudly.

"You're injured."

"Gaara could be dying right now, I have a better chance than he does at the moment"

"But-"

"Just Go!" Naruto fled as Max yelled it loud enough to send the birds from their nests. Her only goal now was to stall Itachi.

-

The quickest route from where the trio had been to Suna bypassed Konoha completely but Naruto wanted back up with him so headed home. He also needed to inform Tsunade about the events that had just happened. There needed to be a team sent out to aid Max with at least one medic in the team. Itachi would be classified as a missing nin, again. He felt sorry for Max, he didn't know how she was mentally holding up with the betrayal.

The time it took to get to Konoha seemed to stretch on forever, his mind was supplying what could be happening to either Max or Gaara. None of the scenarios were good.

-

Max wasn't fairing too well in her fight, she had managed to hastily bandage her wound but she had lost a fair amount of blood. Even the blood replenishing pills took a while to work as they only promoted the creation of blood, not full out replacing it. Max was dearly wishing she had found some way to get rid of the priestesses bindings, it was hard to fight when you could only use half the power you were used to.

"You don't know when to quit, do you?" Itachi sneered.

"I don't quit on someone else's terms. You know that," Max hissed. She was crouched on the floor holding her side, since Naruto had left she hadn't bothered standing up, it made her too unstable and therefore it didn't help.

"I know that you're stubborn and arrogant. Now if you don't mind I have places to be." Itachi turned to leap out of the clearing leaving his back open to attack, Had Max been in better health she would have noticed a trap when she saw it and not leapt at him. It was only when she was slammed into a tree she realised her mistake.

As he vision began to blur she saw Itachi disappear leaving the clearing empty, she tried to get up and follow but her limbs weren't responding. She could barely get them to twitch. The pain in her side spiked as her other senses increased to make up for the vision loss. The only thing she could really smell was her own blood and she could hear footsteps getting further away.

No one was heading in her direction. She was alone as she faded out of consciousness.

-

A small team was racing to her position, the best medic that could be found, barring Tsunade herself, was being carried on one of the faster runners back so she wouldn't slow them down. Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi were headed to Suna, Team nine, Gai's team, were being redirected to assist.

-

A day earlier, over the skies of Suna, a battle had taken place, the Kazekage had stood atop a floating cloud of stand, ready to protect his people. A clay bird had been circling the village and subsequently the Kazekage. Neither of these warriors had ever met before, nor did they know that they had a common friend. Whether having this knowledge would have changed the out come would have to be speculative.

The first explosion had echoed around the area sending all the civilians below into a panic as they scrambled for shelter. This would be a fight to remember for anyone brave enough to watch. One that the Kazekage couldn't win while protecting his home.

Currently the red head was in a cave unconscious with his demon being extracted. It had been sped up slightly be another member turning up to help power the extraction.

-

Max could hear something, something other than her minds annotation of life.

"…How she's still alive…Very lucky…"

"Could have died… blood loss alone… spinal injury…possibly paralyzed"

"…awake…"

She cracked open an eye ever so slightly to see people looking down on her. She was still in the clearing from before. She recognised the green medical chakra being used to close the mess they bullet had made of her side. She also recognised the pink hair of Sakura who was controlling the chakra.

"She needs to get back to Konoha, I've closed the wound but she needs more medical attention," Sakura was telling the others, she stood up and dusted off her knees when she was done. Max took that as a sign she could move. Moving while being healed was never a good idea. "At least you spinal injury seems to have healed fine"

"Spinal injury?!" Max asked, Sakura nodded. "I'll murder the bastard," she muttered standing up, leaning on the tree until she had fully regained equilibrium and the ground stopped trying to shake her off.

"You're going back to Konoha"

"Like hell! I have to get to Suna, feel free to come with me and make sure I don't die but don't try to stop me"

"I must protest-"

"Protest away but my friends are in trouble"

"You're in no state to fight"

"If I promise to stay out of any fights may I go and make sure they haven't died?" Max said, she had phrased it as a question but there was no question about it. She was going.

"I-" Sakura started.

"I don't have time for this," Max grumbled and she took to the trees. She was tempted to fly, using her death god form, but she wasn't sure where they were and didn't want to see when they would die, as the shingami eyes would show her in that form.

Apparating was also out of the question, she couldn't concentrate properly with her injuries. What she did do was take the most direct route and use all the speed enhancing tricks she knew, chakra and magic combined.

As she ran her mind started to form a game plan, she was going to milk her apparent condition for all she could, as far as everyone else knew she was too weak to fight. If she used some of her aliases to help she could make it look like she was in no condition to do anything or maybe even dead, Akatsuki would think she was no longer a threat.

A quick clone was sent back to Sakura and her group to explain her plot. If anyone asked then they were to say they hadn't found her, and that from the amount of blood they found it was doubtful she was alive. It would at the very least imply her death without lying.

She knew it would hurt people but she needed to be as anonymous as possible when she took down Akatsuki.

She suppressed her chakra and made two of her strongest clones, they would split to meet up with the two teams. She knew what happened in the anime to a point and so was planning accordingly but ready to change if need be. The two clones changed appearance, one becoming her formerly dead alias Psi and the other to form Mu. No ninja knew of these aliases so she was safe using them.

The Mu clone headed off to where Naruto's group would be while Psi clone headed to Gai's team. Finding a point roughly equidistant from where she could feel both groups, she sat down and began to meditate. She would need fine control over both clones.

As requested by Max's first clone, the one sent to Sakura, the rest of Sakura's group guarded her in case someone stumbled upon her. Sakura herself headed off to Naruto's group, they would need to be told about Max's apparent death, if only to make them fight harder.

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See what I mean, I'm evil and working on the suspense genre

Reviews are welcomed with open arms, unlike the new maths module I've just started.