Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Naruto.

Despite all reasons, Sakura wasn't afraid of Itachi. He didn't want to kill her.

He would, but he didn't want to. There was no reason for him to kill her, nothing to achieve.

She'd been prisoner for five days now. She knew her time was running out. No matter how good her information was, it would be considered worthless if she didn't speak soon. Chances were, her not speaking would get Itachi in trouble.

The door opened, and the Uchiha in question stepped in. He really did have warm eyes, she thought inanely. "You're going to die today," he said, coming to stand beside her pallet.

She met his eyes levelly, accepting the news. "Okay," she said. "When?"

"Nightfall." He continued to study her. "We will find him. But if you tell us where he is, we'll let you live."

She smiled, flashing teeth. Some were chipped and broken, from the fight she'd made when she was captured. By all accounts, she'd gotten off lucky. "Never make promises you can't keep, Itachi-kun."

"Mangekyou Sharingan."


She was in Konoha, sitting on the infamous bench while cherry blossoms exploded above her head. Slowly, a bloom fell down from the tree, floated in front of her face. While she watched, the flower disintegrated, withering and disappearing completely at the sound of one person screaming.

While she'd watched the flower, the sky had turned from a perfect blue to the color of a raging flame. The other flowers had melted off the trees, leaving the branches empty.

Waiting for Spring to come again.

Sakura left the bench, knowing that it was what Itachi wanted. Several giant snakes made their way through the village, destroying everything in their path. The Konoha ninja tried to stop them, but for every hit they made, one of them died.

She didn't recognize most of the ninja and citizens. Chances were, Itachi was either being very creative, or he was using people he knew. For the Sound ninja, he was reusing several of the faces.

"Orochimaru!" Tsunade's voice. Sakura's eyes immediately sought her out, and then looked at who she was talking to.

Sasuke

In answer, Sasuke started for her, but was quickly intercepted by Naruto. While they fought, Tsunade was stabbed from behind, and fell down. She fell down so easily...she was killed by someone Sakura didn't even recognize.

NO. Sakura shut her eyes tightly, and ignored the screams. She did not have to watch this. She did not have to hear this.

She didn't have to be here.

She 'woke up' to find herself still staring into Itachi's eyes.

Her mouth was bone dry, so Itachi gave her some water. She took a sip, passed it back to him.

"You won't tell me," he said.

Funny how well he knew her in just five days.

"No," she answered.

"You'd abandon your village?"

"Would you?"

"I have."

Sakura smiled at him. "It's still waiting for you."

Itachi seemed to freeze somewhere inside. He looked away, and left the room. Deliberately taking his time at the task, so that she couldn't say he ran away--though they both knew otherwise.

As the door closed behind him, she looked at the ceiling. "I think I struck a cord," she told the spot there conversationally.

Itachi had made a habit of using Mangekyou Sharingan on her three times a day--just before breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes, he missed an appointment. Sometimes he only questioned her twice, or even just once a day. Sometimes he came in to see her at midnight, because otherwise he wouldn't question her at all that day.

Today, he missed his noon inquery. She wasn't surprised. And she didn't try to fool herself into thinking that it was because he had something else to do.

He also didn't bring her lunch.

As Kisame came in bearing a plate of something that could almost be considered edible and wearing a confused expression, Sakura smiled and thanked him graciously.

"What did you do to him?" He asked her.

"I made him Mangekyou Sharingan himself," she told him seriously. "I made him wear a dress. It was awful."

He was neither stupid nor nice. Also, there was no Itachi to keep him from killing her.

He did stop when she went into detail about the dress, though. She put enough thought into it that he actually froze in the act of reaching for his sword, and fled from the room. She had full confidence in that he would forever see his comrad in that dress whenever he saw him.

Maybe she'd apologize before Itachi killed her.

As time wore on, Sakura found herself swinging back and forth in the way of nerves. "I'm not nervous" became a near-constant mantra, because if she wasn't saying that she was thinking "I'm gonna die!"

For some reason, she didn't want to die.

"ITACHI!"

The familiarity of the voice struck her before she recognized it.

Oh no, not Naruto.

"Chidori!"

No, not Naruto. Sasuke.

Her eyes grew wide.

Sasuke.

It had never occured to her that Sasuke would be the one to save her.

Save you?

Abruptly, she remembered. Sasuke wanted Itachi. He didn't even know she was here. And even if he did, she wasn't entirely certain that he'd save her.

He'd left her a long time ago.

What do I do? She wondered. She pushed herself into a sitting position.

She couldn't hear any guards by her door. Chidori's racket kept her from hearing much of anything.

Until it stopped.

What happened?

Without thinking, she put her feet down on the floor, and then bit her lip through to keep from screaming when she tried putting weight on them. She literally heard the fragile bones in her feet break again. Nothing was worth this much pain.

Nothing?

Was Sasuke worth it?

Wasn't Naruto?

She pushed herself back onto her feet, and prayed that Sasuke was still alive so he could do another Chidori. She didn't want anyone to hear her knock something over and investigate.

Slowly, quietly, and with infinite care, she opened the door and peeked outside. The only guard outside was dead. The wall in front of her room was completely demolished. The wall had fallen on her guard. Chidori?

She knelt by the guard, pushed up against the intact part of the wall, and wondered at her options. Take his ninja gear? And use it how? She didn't even have use of her thumbs. And did she go through the wall, and risk discovery? What if one of the Akatsuki saw her? Itachi was the only one who would hesitate to kill her, and she wasn't entirely sure about that.

She took a deep breath, and peeked around the corner, into the next room--where Sasuke was.

He was fighting...all of them.

Is he crazy? She thought in disbelief as Kisame swung his blade. It missed--Sasuke literally dropped to the floor an instant before it hit, causing it to miss by more than a foot.

He was incredibly lucky. Even if it was just a miss by inches, chances were it would still take chakra.

That was just a guess, though. Sakura had no intention of attacking him to find out.

What do I do? She wondered, feeling tears gather in the corners of her eyes. Even if she was in perfect form, she wouldn't be much help. Sasuke was always so much stronger than her.

She couldn't even stand up to one Akatsuki.

Note: Working on the next chapter now. Hopefully, I can finish this thing today. If not today, than tomorrow, or the day after. There's only supposed to be six or so chapters.