Summary: For Sasuke, it's just another town. Only more people. What makes Konoha different? And what additions to his coven have been kept untold? A very vague summary. . It's AU, and I added an OC. Sorry!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! (Only Itachi's heart.)
This chapter isn't so great. Please excuse me!
It had started easily enough, so why not stay easily enough?
Sasuke exhales, staring at his watch and crouching outside a howling classroom. The final bell strikes tiredly, triggering the jeers of eager students who dash from their rooms, winding in the pleasant dance of a Friday. Behind the packs trudges a single slumping blonde. Sasuke stands upstraight as the boy stomps from the classroom. Spotting his friend, Naruto grumbles lowly, before stepping in front of him. "Whadya want, Sasuke?" he says with a strangely curved mouth. It passes as a distorted pout with the pinch of a frown.
"What happened to you?" the raven-haired boy smirks. "Oh yeah, hear you didn't do so hot on that history test."
"Shut up, Mr. Smarts," Naruto says, rustling his light spikes. "Almost chopped my hand off in woodshop thinking about it. About the look on Tsunade's face! Shit, if she wasn't so damn hot--"
"You'd have a C- average, as opposed to a D-," Sasuke muses, peering towards his watch again.
Naruto crosses his arms, wrinkling his white t-shirt. "Well, not everyone can have your smarts, geek. What're you waiting up for me for anyway?"
"Thought Shikamaru was in your class, dobe," Sasuke replies. "He ditch or something?"
"Something about that Temari girl," Naruto says, brushing saw dust from his sleeve. "Me and Sai're catchin' a movie later. You in?"
Sasuke pauses, spinning his watch and tapping its face irritably. Shikamaru seemed to be the main reason Sasuke didn't strangle the other two on a daily basis; he was calm, intellectual on occasion, and not a pain. Naruto and Sai were loud-mouthed, strange, and impulsive. So while Naruto and Sai were growing on him, he had close to no desire to be trapped in a dark theatre with the two. "Listen, I gotta--"
"Sasuke." Sakari approaches them oddly, thin hands ungracefully held at her side, "Come with me." She watches the passing students and turns finally to Naruto. "Now."
Grabbing his half-zippered bag from the hallway's floor, Sasuke fumbles immediately to a straight stance. "Sure. See ya, Naruto."
"Y-Yeah, wait," Naruto stumbles for words, lips gaping open and closed. "W-Wait."
But the two slip away at an unobtrusive speed down the narrow corridor and through the back exit. Sakari tugs at Sasuke to follow as they quicken their walk to an inhuman pace; she leads him along the sideway, curving at certain blocks and then plunging into a brush similar to the abandoned garage's. She curls along branches, skidding dirt and moss across the air, visible only in the apparent sunlight. The two are lost within seconds, and she pauses finally as they reach a thin lawn and brush of slanted trees, four miles from the school. Her hazel eyes tilt inward, piqued.
"What's so urgent that we have to bolt like vampires?" Sasuke asks from behind her. His steps rustling around sun-speckled leaves and fall onto the short uneven grasses.
"Someone's watching us," Sakari says lowly. "It might be a vegetarian."
"You're serious," says Sasuke. The boy quickens his steps, circling a taller patch of weeds. "How do you know someone's watching?"
"You get the feeling of eyes on you. And they have a heavy presence," she says carefully, leaning against the cracked cement wall. "Forget sensing power, they carry the scent of a rogue vampire. A hungry one." She cuts off sarcastically, "That's noble."
"So a rogue's after us?" he questions. "Or is it just a vegetarian?"
"Probably just a vegetarian carrying the smell of a rogue. But it still means a rogue is locked in this town. And a clever one if you never noticed the scent." Sakari scratches irritatedly at her elbow. "Didn't tell Kabuto, though."
"Kabuto?" he demands, walking towards her again. "How come you never told me about him?"
"We've barely spoken since your first day," she answers with a shrug. "And now it's been about a month."
"So who's Kabuto?" Sasuke asks. "One of us?"
"And Itachi's sidekick," Sakari says with disgust. "Kabuto worships him. Itachi is--" she pauses "--too preoccupied to consider the attachment."
"So Kabuto's dirt to him," Sasuke says tersely.
Sakari's lips curve slightly. "And dirt to me. I'm dirt to Kabuto. It's a circle. Like life."
Sasuke tilts his head to consider for a moment. "Th--"
"Uchiha Satoshi Sakari?"
The two freeze, turning to the clearing rustily. A dark pair emerge from the brush. "What a pain that you'd begun to run. We could have taken you right from your class," the man on the left says slyly, voice patronizing and higher-toned. He shifts into a pool of sunlight, falling from a fault in the canopy of trees. Dirty blonde hair falls down broad shoulders in a loose bind, and his blue eyes point towards her with interest. A bandaged hand to his side clenches and unclenches, contracting with his breaths. He dresses normally, a white t-shirt adorned with swirls of black paint over beat up jeans. His legs fall shorter than his companion. "You're quite a looker, aren't ya?"
"I smell it," Sasuke says to Sakari, narrowing his eyes. "You're right, it isn't one of them."
"The name's Deidara," the man grins. He motions to the taller figure to his side. "This here's Kakuzu."
"Stop wasting time with your goddamned small talk," his companion, Kakuzu, broods in a molasses voice. His eyes are gray, his skin pale and almost metallic. He manifests a thicker build than his partner, tight muscles clenching as he scratches at a nearby branch. A katana slithers in his hand, its blade a red-rimmed porcelain, sharp and humming, rhyzite. "Let's just lynch her."
"You ruined the mood, Kakuzu," Deidara cracks his neck, proceeding to do the same with eath knuckle. "What'll she think of us now? Her and her little friend there."
"That punk's Uchiha Itachi's brother," Kakuzu snaps at Deidara. "Think of the ransom he'd put up for her."
"Probably 0," Sasuke cuts in, his haunches tensing. He knocks back a blue-black bang and glares at the two.
"Oh, tough kid," Deidara muses.
"Shut your shitty trap," spits Sasuke, "you're not laying a hand on her."
Deidara turns his face, amused. "Well, aren't we angsty? Fine, come get me."
Eyeing Sasuke, Sakari crosses her arms, here tone unchanging. "You come to lynch me, eh? So who told ya to?"
"Hah, getting to the point, I see," Kakuzu grins. "I said lynch because Deidara tends to run on. In actuality, our goal is simply to take you, very alive, and run."
"Run where?" Sakari drops her thin bag from her shoulder, kicking it straight and bringing out a slim hand knife, colored similarly to Kakuzu's sword. It measures from the point of her finger to just before the start of her elbow.
"She has her ryzite blade!" Deidara shouts contentedly. "This'll be more fun then I bargained for."
Kakuzu spins his sword by the wooden hilt, "Then let's go."
With the speed of a sound, he disappears, whisping into a god-like run. A swish of air, and Sakari is shoved against a tree trunk, the wide knife a breath from her neck. She watches him curiously, hazel orbs surging. "Hungry?"
In an instant, she ducks from his blade, wind hissing in her attuned ears. She speeds easily yards away and stops, eyes re-attaching over him. She runs a cold hand through her hair, holding the point of that arm with her other, the knife balanced between her middle and forefinger.
"Heh, looks like he did 'lay a hand on her'. Watcha gonna do, Uchiha?" Deidara raises a brow smugly.
Sasuke's brows narrow as he clenches his jaw. "You bastard--" His image flicks in front of Deidara, a bony knuckle smashing into his jaw.
Deidara's head falls back before the heavy fist can embed further damage, and he takes two quick backward jumps. Tilting his cheek, he cracks dislocated line of his jawbone, drawing a maniac grin. Deidara's tongue shoots hungrily over a trickle of blood, evident at the left corner of his lip. "Nice punch, kid. But you know, I guy like me's gotta get sick of the taste of his own blood." Deidara stalks closer to the shorter boy.
"Are you the one who wants run?" Kakuzu says in a thick bass tone. His fingers constrict the katana's hilt, color choked from their meat. Sakari stares back, standing straight finally and curving the edges of her mouth.
"Getting a little angry."
Kakuzu grunts before charging again, sword flailing like an extension to his arm. He slashes as he comes close to her, but she ducks backwards, whizzing away an inch and parrying the next hit with her knife. She spins, landing a blow on the sword hilt's wrapping, a hair from his finger. Kakuzu kicks at her, ducking and striking her balancing. Sakari faults, jumping up twice and impulsively reaching for a branch; Kakuzu wastes no time to grab her from behind. His fingers coil around the bottom of her face, smothering her speech. His wet breath whisks against her ear, "You will come with us."
Gritting her teeth, Sakari maneuvers her wrist, pointing the knife low to his thigh region. She builds pressure in her finger and shoves the blade down; Kakuzu drops her. He snaps away with a low growl, and he steadily attempts to moderate his breaths. Kakuzu charges forward again, sword dancing in the noon's shadow, blood soaking down his leg; his feet plummet over new leaves, soggy under dew and soil. His blade sings when it snaps a nearby tree.
Sakari draws back from an attack, letting it split dried leaves stuck against hallowed trunks. She balances on her kneeled right leg, rhyzite blade, prepared to slice forward.
Sasuke ducks from Deidara, narrowly evading another kick. His razor teeth sink into his tongue as his enhanced eyes work to fish out the older attacker's movements. He slides to the left, quick enough to dodge a manic tackle, courtesy of the tall blonde. Turning his foot to point a sharp punch back, Sasuke freezes as Deidara makes a lightning turn, moving towards him once again. Sh--
A red-tinged knife lands at the knitch of Deidara's back neck and spine, and blood spurts across the air in subtle spurts. His cry is gargled, mixed with a string of profanities and hot drops of crimson. Sasuke stumbles away from him, looking past to see Sakari parry from her throwing position. "Sakar--"
She backs away quickly to another slash from Kakuzu, but in an instant, her attacker's image disapates. She dashes forward but not fast enough. Kakuzu slams his sword at the center of her left shoulder bone, crushing her shoulder blade. She gasps, too close to screaming, and yet too far. A warmth spreads across her back, and she kneels wearily. Sakari's hand cleaves to a high branch; she shifts, breaths rash. Blindly, she kicks up mudd in his face, pebbles cracking into his black marble eyes.
He cries out, scratching madly below his brows. Sasuke jumps to his feet, grabbing the knife from Deidara and running at Kakuzu with a cracked yell.
"S-Sasuke?"
Sasuke head jolts quickly to catch the newcomer. "Naruto! You shithead get out of here!"
Naruto quivers, legs giving out. His blue eyes falter, and cold sweat shakes from his temples. He crawls backwards, rustling in piles of shredded leaves, his tragically awed gaze fixed on the beasts before him. "Nn--"
"Damn it, Naruto!" Sasuke's voice is hoarse. "Get the fuck out of here!"
Kakuzu throws the last of the sediment from his face; he approaches Sasuke, looking down, red evident in his enraged eyes. He corners him, shoving him against a wall, slamming him like a rag doll. Deidara comes to his feet ghostily, face bloodshot. He sneers, looking from Sakari to Sasuke to Naruto, to Sasuke. "This your friend, shithead?"
"S-Sasuke?" Naruto squeeks.
Sasuke slams hard fists against Kakuzu's weary form. "Run, damn it! Naruto! RUN!"
In three clumsy strides, Deidara reaches Naruto, hands constricting around his thin neck. "This one's human, eh?" he says hoarsely. "That means he's breakable, neh?"
Naruto swallows, landing useless kicks and punches at his holder.
"Heh, not today, human," Deidara tilts his head. "Say, you don't even count as human, more like a third of a human. Meh, you're a tiny little thing. I wonder if our leader would mind if I took a little bite out of just you. Just a littl--"
A straight punch narrows at Deidara's neck, throwing him yards back, his head cracking ninety degrees. To Sasuke's surprise, Kabuto emerges beside Naruto, rubbing his bruised fist. Above, Kakashi knocks Kakuzu's back with the flat of his elbow. Stumbling, Kakuzu back steps, examining the two and then spluttering under his breath. "Sh-Shit--Deidara, they're more of 'em."
Deidara groans from far away. "Le's spl--it."
Kakuzu quick steps to his companion but hesitates before grabbing his ripped collar. His eyes smolder towards Kakashi, and he says lowly, "Don't get me wrong. You'll be seeing a lot more of us. Remember this face, it'll be the last one you see." With that, he pulls Deidara up, retreating into the shadows of distance.
Sasuke gasps, moving immediately to the kneeling Sakari. He calls quickly to Kabuto. "Is he hurt?"
Kabuto raises a curious brow, turning over a limp Naruto with his foot. "Looks like he's just passed out."
Letting out a breath of relief, Sasuke turns back to Sakari. Kakashi helps her sit up correctly, and she stiffly rubs the back of her head, blinking dirt from her eyes. She lets out a soft groan, as Kakashi examines her wound. "The bastard got her from the back," Sasuke says harshly. "Right when she looking out for me. Damn it!"
Kakashi frowns as he looks over the gash. "It isn't near any vitals," Sakari says tiredly. "How fast is it bleeding?"
"You need to drink," Kakashi says sternly. He turns upward, glaring at Kabuto. "Are you going to come here, or does she have to walk to you?"
Kabuto shrugs, trotting easily towards the three. "I was checking out Uzumaki. He's got bruises all across his neck, some veins crashed. I bet his back's pretty damn messed up to." He bends closer to Sakari, eyes turning cold. "And I thought she was just as talented with meds as I was."
"Damn it, Kabuto, is she supposed to have eyes on her back, or is she just supposed to turn her head all the way around so she can examine herself?" Kakashi replies bitterly.
"Sakari..." Sasuke starts softly. "Why did you--"
"Do I need a reason from the top of my head?" Sakari says quickly, exhaling as Kabuto runs a rough hand beside her gash. "Ah--"
"Let's take her to the mansion," Kabuto says indifferently. "We should stop the bleeding quickly, it'll save someone's life."
Kakashi kneels in front of Sakari. "Sasuke, help her onto my back," he says.
Sasuke gingerly brings her forward; her hands ring around Kakashi's neck. He watches her eyes narrow at the gentle treatment. "My feet aren't broken," she says between heavy breaths.
Kabuto tilts his chin at the site, producing a pocket watch from his black jacket. He looks from it to them and then takes a quick sidestep. "I'll carry the blonde."
