The Perfect Plan

ItaSasu

Author's note: I had an ItaSasu dream last night. xD It was nice. Itachi and Sasuke were in a garden, Itachi was in his younger form and Sasuke was in his 15 year old form. xP It was night time and there was much moonlight. Itachi was standing behind a thistly bush and looking mean. D; So Sasuke said, "Fine, I'll get the apple juice" (It was a dream, you see) and he walked into a nice warm house, but Itachi ran up, grabbed his wrist, twirled him round and kissed him sweetly. Yay! The weird thing was, I was Sasuke, i.e. I was seeing it from his point of view. xD I even felt the kiss. xD So now I know how Itachi kisses. BD

ANYWAY, I'll get on with the chapter shall I? …

Chapter 6 – Images

I heard Naruto's piercing cry. Sakura was gone from my side in a flash. I jumped up too and ran out of the tent. My team mates were standing there, facing the strangest person I'd ever seen. He was about seven foot tall, with a bulky but muscular build and I was repulsed by his shark-like appearance. In his hand he held a huge bandaged sword and he wore a long black flowing cloak, similar to that of Sora's, only his one had an unusual design of red clouds on it. I realised at once what this meant – the Akatsuki were upon us!

Everyone jumped into action at once. Naruto, as usual, jumped in head on, spinning some shuriken, which were easily deflected by the sword. Expecting the momentum of the sword's swing to slow the enemy's speed, he went in to attack. He assumed wrongly and the large, cloaked man swung back at him, throwing him to the side and smacking into a tree. What incredible strength…!

Sakura had attempted to dash behind him as Naruto distracted him, but he turned at the last minute and punched her in the stomach, winding her. He was able to do such a thing when being attacked by two ANBU!

"Sasuke!" Naruto called, "Where's Kamen-san?"

The eyes of the sharkman lit up at the name. Shit…!

"Naruto! You complete IDIOT!" He'd just revealed our client – the man who was trying to escape the Akatsuki!

He clamped a hand over his mouth, reacting too late. Jeez, why did he never think before doing stupid things like that? But, he had a point: where was Kamen Sora? He couldn't still be asleep, could he? Naruto jumped back into the fight along with Sakura and I took the opportunity to look into our client's tent. It was dark in there and it took a second for my eyes to adjust, before I saw the straw hat lying on the floor. Sora was nowhere to be seen.

Shit! I felt myself getting hot again as I desperately searched to the corners of the tent with my eyes, before accepting that he definitely wasn't there.

I came back out of the doorway and yelled, "He's gone!"

Sakura and Naruto gasped and the weird blue man took advantage of the opening to attack. He swung his sword at Naruto once more, who seemed to waver when it came close to him. I began to run towards them, when the enemy grabbed my pink-haired team mate and held the sword to her throat.

"Aaah!" she cried out in a weak voice.

"Stop right there," her captor ordered, "Or the girl dies." His mouth slid into a wide, sharp-toothed grin. I had no choice but to stop where I was. I was about ten metres from them, and Naruto stood between us. The man chuckled cruelly, pulling the sword across her so that the front of her uniform ripped, revealing a light pink lacy bra beneath. She cried out again. Even at a time like this, I found it difficult to keep my hormones under control – I'd never seen a woman's body like this before, and my cheeks flushed hotly. I tore my eyes away from the sight with difficulty and glared at the red clouds on the man's cloak.

"Take your filthy hands off her!" Naruto shouted furiously.

He continued to smile wickedly and I noticed that Sakura's struggles seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. "Give me what I want," he said, stressing each word, "And the woman lives."

"What do you want?" I asked, through gritted teeth.

"…Kamen Sora," he smirked.

"Hn," I said. I knew it. The bastard… I was angry and tense, which roused the familiar sensation in my eyes of my sharingan activating.

He looked at me closely for a moment, not loosening his grip on Sakura. I would attack now. I began to prepare mentally for my attack, calculating my moves… He began to say, "You know… you look a lot like-"

"Don't even think of attacking!"

I looked up into the trees, at the point whence this new voice had originated. I saw another Akatsuki cloak, but it disappeared before my eyes and I sensed his presence behind me immediately. A hand was going to make contact with my left side. I twirled round, ready to accurately parry the attack, when sickness suddenly took over. My head spun for a second and because of this sudden wave of dizziness, I moved one millimetre too far and he caught my arm, slamming me onto my knees, facing away from him as he held my arms in a lock. There was no way I could move. Fuck…

Naruto cried out my name and I looked up at him through my dark bangs of hair. He was in between the two of us. He was desperately looking back and forth, clearly unable to decide who to go to the aid of.

"Just try to escape," my captor behind me said, "And I'll kill you."

I cursed, as he pulled harder, shooting pain up my arms.

"If you save the girl," he said, now directing his words at Naruto, "The boy will die. If you save the boy, the girl will die, yeah." He snickered, "Who do you love more? Who do you want to rescue? Who will you leave to be killed, yeah?"

The other man began to laugh too, "Dei, you're cruel."

"Let go of me, teme," I said in a low tone, "Or you'll regret it."

"Heh," was the reply, "You're not in a position to be making threats, yeah." He yanked my arms further into an unnatural angle and I bit down on my lip to stop from crying out.

We were stuck. We three, the strongest team in Konoha, the "New Sannin", were stuck. I'd never thought such an occurrence could take place but I'd just been proven wrong. I needed to think quick. There must be a way to get out of this. If Naruto ran to Sakura, I may be able to swing my legs round and slip from "Dei"'s grip… As long as there weren't any other members of the organization hiding nearby. I hadn't sensed the second man until the last minute, so there was a possibility that others may be around. I looked over at Sakura. Her eyes were closed and she'd stopped moving. She seemed completely drained of all life.

I bit my lip in anger this time at how helpless I was. I'd let this happen and now she was in the clutch of a giant sharkman, with a sword to her throat and her clothes torn, leaving her indecently exposed. I didn't want her to get hurt. I didn't want to see her die. I'd grown to love my team mates and I didn't want to know what it was like to lose them. It hurt me enough to know that my clan had been massacred, even if I didn't remember it and there was definitely no way I was going to let that happen now. I positively did not want to know what it would feel like to lose someone. If anyone was to die, it should be me. I had no memories and I had no family. If I died, the loss would be minimal.

"Naruto…" I said, "Save Sakura. I can handle this."

"But, Sasuke-!"

"Do it!" I yelled, "I don't want to see my friends die. I deserve to-"

Then everything happened at once. The sharkman lifted his sword to cut Sakura and the man behind me began to release my arms to attack. I saw Naruto glance at me and I gave him a sharp stare so that he turned in the direction of Sakura. I sensed the weapon heading straight for my neck and I knew then that my life was over. I would die in battle. Time seemed to slow down tenfold and images of Sakura and Naruto appeared in front of my tightly closed eyes. They were smiling. They were both so… beautiful. Kakashi was there too, grinning over the top of that dirty book of his. Sakura took my left hand and Naruto clasped my right. I'd never felt love in my life until that moment. I realised how precious they really were to me.

I did love Sakura. I never wanted to let her cry again. I swore I would do anything to make her happy. I would kiss her if she asked me to. I loved her.

I did love Naruto. He was so stupid, but that was what I liked about him. He was the loudest, most annoying ninja in Konoha but he was my best friend. He'd always been there for me. I loved him.

The last image I saw was of a dark figure against a cloudy sky, with long hair blowing in the breeze. I couldn't see his face but I smiled. I didn't know who he was, but he made me feel warm inside. I knew that there was something familiar and special about him. I loved him too.

A tear ran down my cheek. I didn't know if Naruto got to her in time. I didn't know if Sakura got killed. Hell, I didn't even know if I had died. There was a moment of nothingness and silence as the cold metal of the kunai touched the back of my neck. It was as if time had stopped and everything around me was still. I felt like I was falling. I felt like I was flying. I felt the cold air on my face. I felt the trail of the tear on my cheek. I heard air whistling by my ears. I saw trees, and I saw the sky. I tasted the damp air. I felt arms that weren't my own around my bare torso and a hot body against my back. I realised in that moment that I was somehow very much alive. My feet hit the solid branch of a tree.

"Let go!" I ordered, "Get off!" I felt immediately awkward with a stranger's hands touching my exposed body. I felt warm breath on the back of my neck and I shivered. There was a pause after I'd spoken, when the person behind me said, "You're supposed to be protecting me."

I froze. Velvety streams stroked my ears and I tasted the sweetness on my tongue. My face grew hot in realisation. This voice…

I was so caught up, I said aloud, "Sora…"

A second later, I gasped, realising what I'd just done. I'd called him by his informal name. And without the "-san" at the end of his name, I'd addressed him in what would be an intimate fashion. I guess I was so caught up in my emotions – I mean, I'd been ready to die and now here I was in the awkward embrace of Kamen Sora. In that split second, I'd felt so comfortable as to say his name like that- it had just felt… right.

He must've been as shocked by it as I was because his grip loosened and I broke free, spinning on my heel to look at him.

The first thing I noticed was that he wasn't wearing his hat. The moon hung in the sky behind him and his hair rustled slightly as the wind whispered around us. The second thing I noticed was his open coat. He wore underneath his coat a simple grey T, with a net shirt underneath. His three quarter length trousers were a darker shade of grey. Round his neck sat a delicate looking necklace. I was surprised by how slender he was. He'd looked so large and strong in his coat and hat, and now he stood before me, completely open to me. I saw from his body that he couldn't be older than early twenties, though his face said otherwise. The lines under his eyes made him appear weary, but his sharp, intense gaze told of an intelligent and youthful spirit. His expression, however, was emotionless and impossible to read.

"---out!"

I came back to my senses when I heard Naruto's voice. I looked down and saw him on the ground, holding Sakura. The sharkman and Dei were gone.

"What?" I called.

"I said, look o--"

It was too late. They were behind me. Before I could react, I felt a thump on the back of my head and for the third time in two days, everything went black.

Author's note: Okay! I'm sorry about the shoddy fight bit! I'm not so great at fight descriptions so I kept it short. xD I'm sure a fight against Team 7 wouldn't end so quickly, but I don't have that much patience. So, never mind. This is a romance fic, not an action fic, anyway! x)

Well, I don't have that much else to say, other than that darn Sasuke seems to be getting knocked out quite a lot recently. When did he get so weak –coughanduke-ishcough-? 8o And YAY he does love his team mates! Hurray for slightly implied SasuNaruSaku bwahahaha.

And Sasuke gets closer to Sora. OoooOooOooooOoooh.

I'm going away for the weekend, so if I don't update tomorrow, the next one will be on Monday at the earliest. Well, I'll be off to bed now. Later! 8D