A/N: ok yes I totally suck for promising "one month at the latest" and not updating for two and a half… all I can say is sorry and that school was totally insane. Anyway, the point is it's up now! So enjoy!
Chapter 4 – Breakdown
Sakura was in the middle of sharpening her favorite kunai when Sasuke arrived at the Akatsuki base. If the screams of the villagers from the town next to the base and sounds of battle weren't enough proof, he had done nothing to mask his chakra so he was emitting chakra like a flaming beacon. Sakura paused her movements for a few seconds, listening, before continuing to make the weapon perfectly edged. It had been given to her by Naruto on her 17th birthday and despite the fact that all she had done with it were probably not what he had intended her to use it for, it still held a special place in her heart. He smiled faintly at the thought of Naruto. He became the Hokage just before…the incident, before Sakura left. The smile left her face and she froze, feeling the flitters of pain emerge from the place she had buried her emotions in her heart jump to the suferface. She quickly pushed them back down and sat back in her chair.
Emotions are worthless, stop thinking about it. You've stayed strong this long, don't break it for that blonde morron. She mentally chided herself examining the swirl symbol on the blade. She propped her feet up on the grinding stone and waited for Sasuke to arrive by throwing the kunai into the wall in front of her. It had obviously been abused in the same way numerous times before as there were several dents and gashes in the grey rock.
It was only a few minutes before Sasuke managed to get past all of the traps set around the base. He was currently standing on top of the spot where he could feel Sakura's chakra burning at a constant rate below the ground. A smirk appeared on his mouth as he sheathed his katana. I don't sense Itachi anywhere. This is just too easy.
There was a puff of smoke behind Sakura, announcing the teleportation jutsu. She could sense that Sasuke was waiting for her to react to his appearance in the room. She ignored him and continued to imbed the knife into the marked up wall. After a decidedly uncomfortable silence, Sasuke finally spoke.
"Sakura" he said hotly, obviously annoyed he had to speak to get her attention. Sakura turned around to look at him, kunai resting in her hand lightly.
"Oh, Sasuke!" sakura exclaimed with a fake expression of surprise, "I totally didn't see you there!" She snorts out the last bit,grinning hugely. Sasuke just glares at her, adn she gladdly returns the favor. Sakura stands up and crosses her arms, raising her eyebrow expectantly, twirlling her kunai on her index finger. Sasuke watches it twirl for a few seconds, before flicking his eyes to hers.
"…"
"Just spit it out Sasuke." Sakura says in impatience, trying not to get to lost in his endless orbs "I don't have all day."
"Oh ya, cuse you were SO busy before I arrived." Sasuke says sarcastically rolling his eyes, finaly breaking the concetion between them. "Admit it, you were waiting for me."
THE BASTERD! Sakura thought aghast, a blank look on her face externaly. The prick! Thinks he can just come in here and insult my integrity. You know what? I didn't sign up for this bull shit, HE was the one who needed my help. and this is NOT the way to ask for it.
"Goodbye Sasuke." Sakura said blankly turning and walking out the door. Sasuke freezes in shock, or at least as close as he can get to shock. Sakura is halfway out of the base before Sasuke finally snaps out of his stance and quickly follows her. He caught up with the fuming Akatsuki just outside of the base, roughly grabbing her wrist. Sakura is whipped around to face Sasuke, a snarle present on her face. Sasuke just looks at her with a blank expression on his face.
"What Sasuke?" she hisses at him stepping closer, "What do you want? Cuse I don't have time to screw around with your angsty-egotistical-prick like behavior!" At her words Sasuke narrows his eyes, attempting to keep the sharingan turned off. His grip tightens on her thin wrist. She can tell that it's going to bruse.
"You have no right-" he grits out stepping closer so that he is towering over Sakura. He's trying to intimidate me... don't let it get to you Sakura, you are strong. Be strong.
"I have no right?" Sakura asks incredulously, glaring up into Sasuke's onyx eyes. "Sasuke, if I remember correctly YOU were the one who sought me, not the other way around!" At this Sasuke frowns, looking away from her flashing eyes. Sakura yanks her wrist out of his grasp. This is going nowhere. She thinks watching Sasuke attempt to figure out how to get what he wants without admitting his fault. Sakura, get over yourself; you need him just as much as he needs you. She sighs, running a hand through her pink tresses.
"Well shit." She finally says. Sasuke looks at her again, a slight hint of confusion in his eyes. She turns away and sits on a nearby rock. Sasuke looks on with hidden curiosity.
After a few moments of silence Sakura looks up to see Sasuke staring at her. "We both know why you're here, and since you to much of a-" Sasuke glares at her, "Right. Uh, since you're not uh willing to request my help, I-"
"-who said I needed your help?" Sasuke cuts her off.
"Do you want to get Naruto or not?"
"…hn" He answers finally watching Sakura intently. I'll take that as a yes. Sasuke looks at her deeply, God his gaze is so intense.. Sakura pushes her thoughts away as she stands up from the boulder grinning darkly.
"Well then Sasuke, welcome back to the Akatsuki." Sakura walks toward Sasuke, who has his eyebrows raised.
"…hn" he says cautiously as she gets closer than he would have liked.
Sakura pauses, her eyebrow twitching slightly. "Ok, rule one, you are only allowed to use 'hn' every other sentence."
"h- uh, ya" Sasuke says quietly looking down at Sakura, who is just inches from touching him. She grins seeing his discomfort. Oh is he a little shy still? He he. Sasuke grunts and turns away from her stalking away toward the East.
"We will meet back up in two days' time, in the hidden rain. Bring anything you or I will need for the next two months." He states coldly looking over his shoulder at Sakura. Why is his sharringan activated? Sakura thinks as she crosses her arms and raises a delicate eyebrow.
"And what, oh great partner, are we going to be doing for two months?" Sakura says sarcastically. A smirk appears on Sasuke's face.
"hn." Then he was gone. Sakura sighed deeply. Great. We haven't even been working together for more than two hours and he's already bossing me around like some kind of pet dog. Time to go pack. I probably should go see Madra too…
Sasuke was watching Sakura from a nearby tree secretly. I don't trust her, she's hiding something. This isn't the Sakura I knew.
He watched, chakra masked, as Sakura took one last cold glance around the clearing before walking away silently, her black and red cloak billowing behind her gracefully.
She was never this…quiet… or graceful for that matter. What happened?Sasuke couldn't help but question, narrowing his blood red eyes. he had tryed to not use them, but as he grew more frustrated and currious as to what had made her change, he just couldn't resist it anymore.
As quickly and quietly as he possible could, he followed her from above, carefully watching her chakra levels to see if she became aware of his presence. He had a tight hold on his chakra, meticulously checking to make sure it was fully masked, but he wasn't sure if it was enough. From what he'd heard over the past few years she was an expert chakra sensor, manipulator and identifier. And he for one, did not want to be caught spying on his new 'partner'.
Partner... more like tool. She won't last more than one week with me. She's too soft. To weak. Then he remembered that Itachi had chosen her as a partner. This thought made him furrow his eyebrow in slight confusion.
Why would Itachi become her partner? It's not like him to be around someone he could not rely on to save his ass if he ever needed it. That must mean either Sakura actually is strong, or Itachi has gone off his rocker… or they weren't partners to start out with… Sasuke thought to himself, never losing sight of the pinkette below.
But Itachi wouldn't go along with that…. would he? No. of course not. Itachi would never help out someone like her. And when Itachi is crazy really isn't that much different form his normal self. In fact, I suspect he's been off his rocker since before the massacre. Which leaves that Sakura really is strong enough to be partners with my brother. Sasuke checked her chakra levels suspiciously as she bends down to scoop up some sand and pebbles. He watched curiously as she lets the sand run through her hand keeping the pebbles. It doesn't seem like she has that much chakra, it feels like a low level jonin… but she was ANBU before she left Hidden Leaf… She could be masking it. I will have to test her strength…
Sakura choose that exact moment to flick a pebble at a random tree, which exploded when the small rock hit it. Sakura had on a sadistic smile, scooping up another pebble.
Sasuke's eyes went wide. Her chakra had flared momentarily to a monstrous size. Almost as large as his. I will have to test Sakura's strength soon. He thought a bit shocked. He quickly recovered though, and continued to follow the Akatsuki member silently. She weaved in and out of the trees like she was floating rather than walking. He couldn't help wondering where she was going. Her cloak remained firmly closed, making her look boxy, her Akatsuki hat attached to her hip by a thin silk red ribbon. Her hair was just past her shoulders and heavily layered.
I have to admit that she is much prettier than she was when she was younger…. Wait, what did I just think? Sasuke you're being ridiculous. Stupid hormones. While Sasuke was cursing his humanity suddenly Sakura's chakra disappeared. Sasuke looked around all over for her, only to find empty space.
What the fuck? Where the hell did she go?
Sasuke continued to search for her for at least thirty minutes before finally deciding that it was too dark and heading off to the camp he had set up the day before, still really confused about the whole ordeal.
Sakura was walking in a random direction out of shear boredom. Madra was never in his office before the sun went down, so it was rather pointless to go back to the main base and she really didn't feel like going back to her and Itachi's, err, rather Sasuke's and her base. SO she was currently wasting time. She reached down to scoop up some sand and rocks, letting the sand trickle through her hand. She watched it fall to the ground, reminded of how little time she really had. How little time anybody had. Her fists clenched at the thought of Time, the best friend to Death. In her anger she threw the pebble at a tree which splinter and sent pieces of wood fling in all directions. The site makes her grin. The thought that she could shatter boulders with a flick, made her feel more in control.
What was that? Sakura thinks as she suddenly feels a flare of chakra coming from above her. She freezes momentarily before resuming her walk. Whoever they are they obviously don't want me to know they are there, and they haven't attacked yet, meaning they're only here to spy. Sakura decided that it was probably better if she waited to see if she knew who was following her before disappearing.
She continued to walk acting like nothing was wrong, all the while intently assessing the glimpses of Chakra she would feel from behind her. There was a particularly large flair a few seconds later.
Oh my god! It's Sasuke! She thought as she identified her tail. Why the fuck is he following me? This is no time to be asking questions, whatever he's doing, it's obviously out of mistrust and I don't want to give him evidence. Time to disappear.
Sakura quickly did some hand signs, careful not to make them visible to the position Sasuke was in, before whispering "Sairentosakura No Hana No Yusō jutsu" (Silent Sakura Petal Transportation Technique). She immediately disappeared in a flurry of Sakura petals, which disintegrated when they touched the ground. In less than a second she was in front of the Akasuki's main base. She sucks in a deep breath as she wobbles on her feet. God that used a lot of chakra. Well I guess it makes sense, I just transported across three countries in a single go. After a few seconds, her head had stopped spinning and she was walking into the base, the sun setting behind her.
A/N: Well here's the fourth chapter! I wasn't too happy with this one unfortunately, it was weird writing Sasuke, I wasn't sure how he would have responded. I did the best I could though, so tell me what you think and how I can improve if you want! Due to the fact that it is now summer break, I shouldn't have to much trouble cranking this story out quickly, but no promises!:)
-Your Bismuth Killjoy, Lexie-