I am going away for a while, but I'll be back don't try and follow me

'Cause I'll return as soon as possible

See I'm trying to find my place, but it might not be here where I feel safe

We all learn to make mistakes

And run from them, from them with no direction

We'll run from them, from them with no conviction

'Cause I'm just one of those ghosts, traveling endlessly

Don't need no roads

In fact they follow me

And we just go in circles…

Excerpt from "Misguided Ghosts" by Paramore

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any Paramore songs.

Silent Sacrifice Chapter 5: Post Meridian

Sakura hated the feeling of being watched. As she walked through the dirty, overused streets of the cramped town, she felt eyes upon her back, and was grateful she'd taken the time to perform a small genjutsu to change her hair color - she had also taken off her hitae-ate and placed it within the folds of her kimono.

Beside her, Itachi was as stoic as ever, and his haughty Sharingan orbs were only for the path ahead, though Sakura knew they missed nothing. Every shadow, every person, every movement was witnessed by those eyes.

The Uchiha let out a light breath and glanced at her. "What are we doing here, again?"

She looked up, grinning. "I need to buy some supplies for dinner tonight." She paused and scowled at the ground. "You didn't have to come, you know. I thought we already established the fact that I'm not going to run away. It's been three months since I first tried, and according to me, I haven't left your side the whole time."

"…you always go outside at night to meditate without informing me," he countered flatly.

"And you know I do that everyday, yet you don't try to stop me." Sakura flashed her fangs at him - which caused several heads to turn and several people to faint - as she smiled. Itachi merely looked away, but she could see his lips pressed together, the only sign of his uneasiness. "As a matter of fact, if I don't recall, you come outside and sit with me every night." And if I'm lucky, you tell me one more thing about Sasuke when he was little, she added silently.

He didn't answer, though it wasn't really surprising.

"Alright," she declared, and her eyes ran down the signs of the few stores available to her, "I'm gonna need some cabbage, cucumbers, corn, garlic, onions, noodles, rice…"

'Don't forget the tea bags for drinks,' Desunei reminded her. 'We're all out.'

"Oh, yeah, those too," Sakura mumbled.

Itachi glanced at her briefly, brows raised a minuscule bit, before his eyes shifted back to the road ahead.

Dang it, if only I'd remembered to pack the tea bags before we left that last village, Sakura berated herself. Doesn't seem as if I'm going to get much out of this dump. The only shops she'd seen so far were a cheap jewelry place, a couple of pitiful bars, and then some motels which seemed as if they had just been through a tornado.

'Well, we are close enough to Sound for it to be considered as of its towns,' the Tigress remarked.

…don't remind me. My life is already complicated enough as it is. Sakura stared morosely at sky, but her cheery mood was not to be broken so easily, and she found herself grinning again.

Her eyes caught sight of a vegetable stand, and she sprinted toward it, her dull tan kimono fluttering behind her.

Itachi followed at a much slower pace.

"Hello there, miss," the owner greeted her. His deep brown eyes twinkled with mirth.

Apparently, Sakura observed, he wasn't native to the town, for he seemed positively happy.

"Wow, these look great," she proclaimed, and picked up a shiny, smooth cucumber, just as Itachi came to stand beside her.

The man smiled wider. "A fresh batch from Konoha, I'm proud to say."

The cucumber fell back into its slot with a light thud.

Sakura stared down at the vegetables before her eyes slid up to the owner. "A-are you from Konoha?" Her voice was wavering somewhat.

"As a matter of fact, I am," the man said proudly. "Just arrived here this morning to sell my produce." His eyes warily slid around the surrounding building and people. "Not too great of a place, if you ask me. If I don't get more buyers, I'll probably leave by tonight."

Swiftly Sakura gathered all the things she needed in her arms. "I'll take these, please," she stated, and held out some coins.

The man gratefully placed all the vegetables in a bag for her and grinned. "You don't seem like you're around here either. What's a pretty lady like you doin' in a place like this?"

Sakura slid the strap of the bag on her shoulder, blushing at the compliment. "I'm just here for supplies - you know, food and clothes and stuff like that."

"Clothes, you say?" The owner took in her kimono (which hung limply on her torso and completely failed to flatter her lean, feminine form) and raised his eyebrows. "Hmmm…you know what, I've got just the thing for you." He bent down and searched for something in a bag he had. "Now where did it go? I just saw it….ah-ha!"

Suddenly he popped up, holding two folded bundles of clothing. One was red, the other black.

"I got these awhile ago in Kumo, for my daughter. She's not a ninja herself, yet she loved to where their clothing. I showed them to her and she told me she'd gotten over that phase. Teenagers can never seem to make up their minds." He beamed, holding them out to her.

Sakura's mouth opened in surprise as she unfolded the clothes. The red bundle was a mesh kunoichi shirt, except where the cloth was usually black, on this it was red. The netting was, of course, black.

She loved it on sight.

The other bundle was a pair of close-fitting, black shinobi shorts. They were just slightly longer than her old pair, and had pockets.

"Y-you're giving these to me?" Her voice was quiet.

The owner nodded, and his eyes crinkled merrily. "You're free to take them!"

Sakura hugged the bundles to her chest. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

"Anytime!" he responded, and the two left without a word.

While they walked, Sakura held up the shirt to herself - it was a little big, but she would cope. "That was so nice of him," she murmured.

As expected, Itachi didn't reply.

Sakura checked her mental shopping list. "Okay, now we just need some noodles and rice…"

"What are you making?"

His abrupt question startled her, but she smiled nonetheless. This was the first time she would be cooking for them - every other night they would just eat at a restaurant (in silence) or find something in the forest (like fish).

Before she spoke, her smile grew forlorn, and her eyes dropped to the ground. "Miso ramen."

He nodded slightly.

"Hey, where's Kisame?" Sakura's eyes searched the crowd for any sign of the blue-skinned man. The last time she'd seen him was before they left for the town.

"At a bar," Itachi replied flatly.

"Oh, great," she groaned. "I guess it's a good thing he can hold his alcohol well…as long as he doesn't overdo it."

"Hn."

She scowled up at the Uchiha for his poor response rate - another part of her, however, was secretly smiling: he reminded her of Sasuke so much. But she knew better to think they were anything more than vaguely similar.

Where Sasuke would smirk and call her annoying, Itachi would only glance at her with eyes full of amusement or he would smirk lightly. At times the older Uchiha spoke more often than Sasuke used to, but at others he wouldn't say a word. He was less expressive, not letting any emotion show - not even anger. Although a few times Sakura could see a flash of something other than emptiness in his eyes, on his mouth. She could witness the multifaceted person Uchiha Itachi was on the inside, and she was reminded that he was a human just like herself.

In a way, Itachi was kinder than Sasuke. In others, she could sense that just below the surface there was something that would crack at any moment, and he would lose his calm demeanor.

Sakura couldn't help herself from comparing the two brothers. They were so alike, yet so different. And their mental characteristics weren't the only things she noticed.

Physically, Itachi was taller than Sasuke. His hair was a lighter shade of black, almost grey, where Sasuke's was so dark it had a blue tint. Itachi had darker skin - a soft tan - than his brother's pale expanse. Also, the tear lines crossing down from his eyes were a big difference, as was the fact that Itachi's eyes seemed more feminine - his eyelashes were more defined.

Sakura peeked up at him - he was a whole head taller than herself - and was content with just observing him. His soft-colored black bangs swayed a little as he walked, he carried his head levelly with the ground, and his gait was so smooth it was almost as if he glided over the ground - his upper body scarcely even moved. The Uchiha's profile features were outlined with a glowing light from the rays of the sun, from his straight, refined nose and his lips firmly pressed together, to his one Sharingan eye hidden by ashy bangs (which had - without Sakura's awareness as she gazed - flashed over to her briefly before returning to the path, and soon after came back; he was now staring - rather inquisitively - at her also, but she was too absorbed to notice).

Finally, Itachi reached up to push his bangs to the side, and her spell was broken - she blinked and flushed heavily, upbraiding herself for staring so openly.

They walked on in what Sakura thought of as an awkward silence.

It didn't take long for Sakura to get all of her supplies for the night's dinner, and soon she and Itachi were making their way along the exiting road of the village. The sun was just about to touch the horizon, and the sky lit up in various shades of purple, blue, orange, and pink.

Several childish peels of laughter echoed from the alley near the road where the two were walking, followed by a high-pitched cry and a sob.

"Uh-oh, did he fall?" a voice questioned anxiously.

Sakura paused on the road, her head turned toward the commotion. Itachi waited patiently by her side.

"Oh, great," another person complained, "now we'll never be allowed to play in the streets again! Kaa-san specifically said we weren't supposed to climb the buildings!"

"You just had to go and break your arm, didn't you, Kaimu?"

A sniffle sounded, and then a low, pain-filled voice croaked, "It's not my fault I fell off the - ow, that hurts, Hamora! Don't touch it!"

"I'm just trying to wrap it up. Calm down."

"Don't you think we should get a medic-nin for that?" a new voice broke in.

"You know the only medics here cost a fortune, Teihan."

Sakura's eyes shifted briefly to Itachi - he stood, gaze locked on her - before she sighed and made her way to the alley (retracting her fangs as she walked).

Five young boys (they couldn't be more than ten years old) filled up the small, dark space, several with worried expressions and one with an annoyed frown on his face. The last one sat with his back against a wall, cradling his left arm to his chest as tears rolled down his cheeks.

They looked up as she approached. She smiled cheerily to them all, and knelt down beside the boy - Kaimu - who was injured. "What happened here? Did you fall?" Her voice was soft, comforting.

He nodded, wide-eyed as he stared at her.

Gently, she took his arm into her hands and her glowing green-gold chakra flared to life. She took her time healing him, making sure he wasn't feeling any pain when she mending the bone together.

None of the boys said a word.

People passed the alley's entrance, some looking curiously over at them while others stopped altogether and stared openly. Sakura ignored them as she pulled some gauze out of her ever-evident medical pack and created a makeshift sling for the boy.

One person, however, stepped closer than the others (she found it amusing and rather sad how a show of amiability was so unfamiliar to these people). He paused about three yards away, quickly taking in their situation with a shocked expression. He glanced at Sakura's glowing hand, then lifted his own right hand and stared at it.

The pink-haired kunoichi (normally, but now her hair was a deep black, courtesy of her genjutsu) smiled at the boys around her before standing up. Sternly, she told the boy she'd healed, "Now don't go off hurting yourself again. Try not to move your arm, and stay out of trouble."

At her words, they all blinked and broke out of their stupor.

"T-thank you!" Kaimu said gratefully. He clumsily stood up and bowed deeply (mindful not to disturb his injured arm).

The rest followed suit, mumbling their appreciation, a couple of them peeking at her from under their hair.

Sakura grinned once again before she turned away from them, her eyes searching the road for Itachi.

She found him standing off to the side, away from the crowds of people. His gaze never left her as she approached him, the smile still on her face.

As she grew closer, though, she felt someone looking at her, and paused. A couple feet off to her right stood the same man who'd taken a specific interest in her healing. Sakura looked up (he was fairly tall) and caught his eye briefly, but he turned away with a light blush on his cheeks. She noticed how he kept rubbing at his hand, and then she glimpsed a large gash that cut vertically from his palm to his wrist.

Sakura gasped, whirling around to meet him face-to-face. She took his hand in hers and immediately began to inspect it. "What happened?" she asked, voice high with tension.

Her eyes flashed up to his - she vaguely noticed they were a very odd shade of deep violet and sapphire - in question.

"I-I was injured on a…mission," he responded quietly.

She weaved her chakra into the wound, mending it simultaneously as she kept the pain at bay.

"How long ago? You really should've wrapped it," she scolded. "It looks like it's infected now."

The man - he looked as if he were just a couple years older than herself - turned his head to the side and refused to meet her gaze. "I was in a rush," he explained softly.

Sakura noticed, with a heavy sense of dread, that there was dried blood all over his grey kimono-like top and black shinobi pants. Really, didn't these people know how to take care of themselves? "Is that your blood or someone else's?"

He smirked a little at that. "Someone else's."

"Well, that's a good thing…I guess," she sighed, and continued on with her work.

The man nervously pushed a hand through his straight, silver hair as she made the finishing touches on his hand. "How - how did you…" His voice trailed off nervously.

She glanced up and stood back, the healing completed. "How did I what?" she prompted gently.

"How did you heal my hand? I've tried with my chakra before, but it never does anything…" He looked anxiously into her eyes.

She laughed, and he blushed again. "Planning on becoming a medic-nin, are you?"

"Well, I…" he began, paused, then continued, "yeah, I've always found the prospect interesting."

Sakura placed a hand on her hip, her head cocked to the side as she inspected him. "Do you have good control over your chakra?"

"…more so than others."

Satisfied with that answer, she questioned, "Are you afraid of blood?"

He shook his head and gestured to his bloodied shirt. "I don't think I'd be conscious right now if I was."

"You have a point there," she agreed. "Now, are you able to retain information and use it even when under pressure?"

His mouth opened to answer, but she cut him off abruptly.

"Actually, that may be important, but it's not the most critical thing," she declared. "If you ever want to be a good medical ninja, then you must have a strong spirit and never be willing to give up. Do you think you qualify?"

He nodded determinedly.

She beamed. "Well, then, I think you would be a fine medical ninja." Her brows furrowed. "Sadly, I won't be here long enough to teach you. I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Oh, that's okay," he replied hastily. "Don't mind me - words just tend to fly out of my mouth sometimes. Um, thank you for healing my hand. It means a lot to me." The words were rushed out of his mouth as a result of his anxiety.

Sakura rubbed her neck. "It was nothing, really-"

"Please, let me show my gratitude by treating you to lunch tomorrow." His eyes locked with hers intently, pleadingly.

Suddenly, though, his midnight orbs shifted to a spot above and behind her left shoulder. She froze, and then turned her head slowly to look up and stare into the vivid crimson of the Sharingan.

Itachi's gaze wasn't directed at the kunoichi as he stood behind her, his chest nearly brushing against her back. He stared wordlessly at the man before her.

Said man's eyes widened, and his hand hovered over his kunai pouch instinctively.

Sakura frowned up at the Uchiha. "Itachi-sama, what are you doing?"

Finally, he met her gaze, and answered flatly, "We are leaving."

"Oh, okay, hang on, just let me, uh, say something." She turned quickly to the man. "I would love to go out to lunch with you," she said softly.

"Really?" His eyes lit up.

She nodded. "Do you know any good restaurants around here?"

"There is one that's better than the rest," he confirmed, smiling softly. "It's just a couple of streets over from here, with big wooden pillars outside. They have the best barbeque pork in miles."

Sakura grinned. "So I'll meet you there around noon?"

He nodded.

"Alright, see you then!" She was just about to turn back to Itachi when she remembered something. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Haruhei Sakaiya." She said her fake name with a flourish, having practiced it many times, and held out her hand to the silver-haired man.

"Yusumo Naochi," he responded, taking her palm in his and shaking it formally.

Sakura smiled once again at him, and turned to the waiting Uchiha behind her. He continued to stare at Naochi (not an actual glare, but it seemed ten times more frightening) with unwavering, unblinking red eyes.

She sighed, reached down, and grasped his hand that was hidden in the folds of his Akatsuki cloak. His gaze automatically flashed down to hers, surprised through the careful, emotionless wall he had. With a slight tug of her hand, Sakura led him away from the commotion of the village, waving a small goodbye to Naochi's fading form.

Sakura chewed her last mouthful of ramen delicately, savoring every flavor and spice as she leaned against the tree trunk. Itachi sat less than two feet away, against the opposite side of the tree as he ate.

Kisame leapt down from a branch high up, holding his empty bowl in his blue hands. "Thanks for the meal, Princess!" He grinned at the pink-haired kunoichi (she'd dispelled her genjutsu that had changed her hair color when she and Itachi had walked out of the town).

Sakura warily looked at him as she stood up and placed her bowl next to her pack. It seemed as if the blue-skinned Akatsuki member had had a little too much to drink.

"Alright," she declared. "I'm going to train."

She caught Itachi's eye after she spoke, and although he didn't say anything, she knew it was a warning.

She crossed her arms and glared defiantly at him.

"Work on the Ephemeral genjutsu I taught you," he said quietly. Underlying words: 'It would be best not to run away.'

She opened her mouth to reply, then shut it abruptly, and dashed out into the woods.

The Tigress yawned widely in her mind, stretching and flexing her long, black claws. 'Smooth, Sakura,' she drawled. 'Very smooth.'

The pink-haired kunoichi dropped to the ground and folded her hands into the sign of the tiger. Let's not focus on that - I think I finally figured out what the bracelet is for.

Desunei was silent for a second, and then she purred. 'You have it, child. You finally put all the right pieces together,' she said approvingly.

It took Sakura a second to remember that the Spirit knew everything that went through the kunoichi's mind, so of course she could already determine whether or not Sakura's hypothesis was correct.

'Now the next question is whether or not you can put its power to use,' Desunei continued, a hint of a challenge in her "thought voice."

Sakura nodded and placed her right hand over the bracelet on her left wrist, carefully concentrating chakra into it.

Okay, so if I'm right, then I need to place chakra in each bead except for the five representing the elements. I have to feel every emotion they come with, and then bunch it all up into the tiger's eye…

She did just that, her mind cramming up with all the sudden, unprecedented thoughts and emotions. Rage, passion, healing, intelligence, love and more all flashed through her, either as something she felt or something she could imagine in her mind.

So cramped her mind was that she could barely remember to focus all of it into the large tiger's eye on her bracelet. A spark of black and green shined in her vision, coupled with the familiar yet unwelcome twang of jealousy.

Come on, Sakura, she thought forcefully to herself. They're just emotions…

Just emotions.

Emotions…that make me weak.

With a tightening of her jaw, she forced the chakra that had been placed in the smaller beads into the tiger's eye.

Bliss. Perception. Clarity.

And everything went blank. The haze in her mind faded just like that.

Suddenly, everything around her became so prominent. The sounds of the forest invaded her senses…wind stirred leaves, crickets chirped in harmony, an owl flew almost unnoticeably by…

The voice in Sakura's head jerked her out of that calm state. 'Focus, Sakura,' Desunei prompted. 'You just completed the most difficult part. Now all you have to do is focus chakra into the stones that represent whatever elements your enemy would have.'

Blindly, Sakura maneuvered her chakra around the fire agate and blue chalcedony, which represented fire and water.

And then something strange enveloped around her. She abruptly felt as if her conscious mind was being transported over a distance…forest green flashed around her, the black of the shadows passed so quickly they melded together in one big blob. An uncomfortable sucking sensation coupled with the blurs.

What's happeni- Her thoughts were cut off brusquely before she briefly saw Itachi's stoic face…and then nothing.

Blank darkness was presented to her.

Silence stretched for eternity, the cold wreathing its way into her own mind. Ice drove into her skin, and at the same time fire erupted inside of her. Burning at her core, piercing her body…

She dropped down to her knees, clutching her head in her hands as she panted harshly. Another bout of fire sparked through her, and she clenched her teeth together.

It was obvious she wasn't wanted here.

And she shivered when the cool, icy wind blew over her warm skin.

Fire.

Ice.

Pain.

…rejection.

"Why are you here?" The voice was quiet, controlled, but it echoed across the impending distance between them.

She ceased her trembling, and snapped her head up to stare at the man so far away from her. His Sharingan whirled as a sign of his anger, while his face and poise refused to show anything. His smoky hair swayed around him as the wind made another pass, brushing onto his cheeks and against the lines on his face.

Sakura looked down, away from his probing gaze…and gasped.

Separating them was a literally endless chasm. It gave off the only light in the darkness - fire burned deep down, hundreds of thousands of feet into the abyss, crackling almost silently as the molten glow shined against the gap's obsidian walls.

The icy wind also came from it, howling above the sound of the flames, traveling upwards until it burst out and sliced out everywhere, to everyone that was in its way.

She hurriedly backed away from the ledge.

"Why are you here?" Itachi's voice whipped out flatly again.

Sakura looked up, and responded frantically, "I-I don't know. I don't even know how I got here-"

"Leave." He closed his eyes.

"W-what?" She took another step backward. "But I don't know how."

"Just…go." The last word was sighed, and he turned away, heading out into the blackness, away from her.

She watched his form fade silently. Her chest contracted, and she felt tears line her eyes.

You are so weak, Sakura.

She refused to let her tears fall, and blinked them away.

At the same time, her wrist began to burn. The bracelet glowed with her green-gold chakra, twisting and moving incessantly around it.

She followed her instinct and drew the chakra out of the bracelet.

And she was back into her own world.

What just happened? she demanded, blinking at the trees in front of her.

'You know exactly what happened,' the Tigress retorted. 'You panicked, that's all.'

…so it's true, then?

The silence she received answered for her.

She had just entered Uchiha Itachi's subconscious mind.

Itachi wondered at the silence that accompanied his apprentice's training. If she was working on the Ephemeral genjutsu, then he should at least be hearing muted curses and shouts of frustration.

In the past months he had taught her two water ninjutsus: his Suiton: Suigadan and Suiton Suijinheki, which had been originally been used by the Nidaime Hokage. Sakura had mastered both of them in that time to the point where she had even begun making her own modifications to them.

For the last two weeks the Uchiha had begun teaching her his Ephemeral jutsu (first by inflicting it upon her - it had caused her to hide herself in a motel room for a day, a result of the psychological torture she'd gone through), but she seemed to be able to grasp it only by a minuscule bit. Instead of using just a finger as he did, the kunoichi had to perform a series of hand seals to get the jutsu working. When tested on him, she'd barely gotten to the point where crows flocked from her form. It was understandable, though, since she did not possess the Sharingan.

Itachi sensed the kunoichi's chakra signature not too far into the woods, dormant after a brief flare. She was not moving, so he assumed she had already started meditating as usual.

He took one last glance at Kisame's snoring form on the ground before he pushed off the tree and headed toward her.

He found her sitting on a fallen log, her head buried in her arms as she breathed heavily. Perspiration coated what little skin was visible through her kimono.

Her head whipped up when he stepped on a twig, eyes wide as she stood up quickly with a kunai poised and ready in her hand.

At the sight of his familiar Sharingan orbs and ashy hair, she relaxed. "Itachi-sama?" she asked, lowering her weapon. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to join you," he responded impassively.

Her eyes shifted to the ground. "Oh, I wasn't meditating…" She glanced back up then, observing him warily.

How is it that he wasn't aware of my penetrating his mind?

'That's simple, really,' the Tigress answered. 'You invaded only his subconscious mind, not his conscious one. The Itachi that blocked you was his subliminal form, an embodiment of his unconscious psyche, if you want to put it that way. If you were to, say, use the bracelet while he was asleep, he would then be able to be aware of you…or he could mistake you simply as a part of a dream.'

"Sakura," Itachi said, staring intently into her eyes.

She blinked. "Yes, Itachi-sama?"

"I have a piece of vital information you might be willing to hear." His voice was quiet and stoic, yet it held some dampened form of urgency.

"What is it?" she asked, confused.

"I regret not telling you earlier, but my sources claim that Orochimaru"- she stiffened immediately upon hearing the Snake sannin's name -"was defeated and disposed of by my little brother approximately two days ago."

And silence reigned once more.

…

…

…

A frog croaked.

…

…

…

"Huh," was Sakura's only response.

Itachi frowned lightly at her as she turned away and disappeared further into the woods, but he didn't follow.

He knew she would need time to fully digest the information.

About five minutes later, it began to rain.

Itachi glanced up from where he sat against the trunk of a tree, and a drop hit his cheek, rolling down his face before it fell and soaked in his Akatsuki cloak.

He slid down further so that only the top of his head was visible above his cloak's high collar.

Beside him, Kisame grinned in his sleep.

And the startling crack of thunder reverberated throughout the sky.

Sakura's fangs glinted hauntingly as the seventeenth tree creaked and groaned before finally crashing to the ground, its roots sticking up abnormally in the air.

She whipped around and delivered a spinning high kick to a smaller tree behind her - the force detached it from its base and sent it flying into a large boulder about ten yards away.

Her hair slapped against her face as she did that, plastering to her cheeks as a result of how soaked she was. The water streamed down her face and neck, her kimono acting as a dead weight.

She didn't care.

Another bout of thunder crackled through the sky, roaring so loudly that Sakura felt the ground shake beneath her. Lightning flashed simultaneously, and the noise - so familiar to the crack of a whip - drove her to move once more.

She latched on to the unnecessary rage that coursed through her (she didn't even know why she was so furious, but upon hearing what Sasuke had done, she'd lost every sense of logic) and continued with her attack on the forest, completely ignoring Desunei's pleas to calm down.

She was just glad the rain hid her flowing tears.

After approximately an hour had passed (his mind had counted every second unconsciously), Itachi stood up and followed the flaring evidence of his apprentice's chakra signature.

He found her diving down through the air, one leg extended while the other was bent up to her stomach as she aimed for a tree.

The lightning flared a vivid white that lit up her face eerily, making the shadows beneath her nose and chin stand out harshly. Her pale jade eyes glowed in a stark, colorless pallor, and the pink of her furrowed eyebrows and hair almost lost their normally bright tint.

Sakura's foot connected with the tree trunk, and it crashed into the muddy ground.

Around her, Itachi noted that about fifty trees littered the floor, all either uprooted or snapped off in various pieces.

She was just above to take down another when he called her name softly.

"Sakura."

She froze at the sound of his voice, and her wildly mad eyes instantly met his calm ones.

"Itachi-sama…" Her voice came out as a broken whisper.

And she flung herself at him, her arms wrapping around his thin - yet muscular - torso as she hid her face in his neck. The force at which she propelled herself sent them both to the ground, so that Itachi's back landed against the side of one of the still-standing trees, him sitting upright while she clung to him.

Itachi stared down at the top of her pink head with eyes slightly wider than usual. She curled her knees into his lap, her hands clutching at the cloth of his netted shinobi shirt at his back. No sound came from her, yet he felt warm tears cascading down his neck, and she breathed profoundly.

The rain never ceased to drop as he sat there with his apprentice in his lap, and he was thankful that the branches and leaves of the tree they were under shielded them from the downpour.

He stayed rigid, hands hanging limply at his side, while her breaths gradually lightened and her tears stopped falling. Her grip on his torso never let up, however.

Slowly, Itachi reached up and undid the only closed buttons of his cloak at the top. He brought it around so that it covered Sakura's dampened form, consequently covering him, also.

And only when he noted that her skin warmed did he let himself wrap his arms around her petite figure, rest his cheek on the top of her head, and drift into unconsciousness.

Sakura woke up to the smell of freshly boiled rice. Her eyes snapped open, hungrily searching around for the source, which she found being held out to her by a certain stoic-faced Uchiha.

She sat up and stretched her back, emitting a long, tired yawn, and then she grinned wearily up at him. "Thank you," she said sincerely, taking the bought bento box from his offering hands. He must've gone into the town and gotten breakfast there.

As she ate, she looked around herself mindlessly. Her eyes caught sight of crimson next to her, which confused her to some extent. The only red item she owned now was her new kunoichi shirt she had received yesterday…

Upon further inspection she realized she was sitting on Itachi's Akatsuki cloak. How odd.

"Itachi-sama, did you lose your clo-" Suddenly she remembered what he had told her about Sasuke last night, her bought of mad fury, and…her falling asleep in his arms.

Abruptly she stood up (trying to cover her blush) and shoved the cloak into the Uchiha's arms, then stalked off into the woods, passing a very confused Kisame who was just waking up from his beauty sleep.

"I'm going to train!" she called, not waiting to hear an answer.

Thankfully, as Sakura trained for three hours, Desunei didn't question her about her antics of the night before.

The Tigress just sat beside her in her ethereal form, dropping a hint here and there about how she could better perform the Ephemeral genjutsu.

Out of pure determination and frustration she managed to bombard the Spirit with shuriken in the illusion (she was using her to test the jutsu on) and make her fall asleep by means of the crows. Of course Desunei was going easy on her, or else she would've never been able to place the jutsu on her in the first place.

After training, Sakura washed herself in a nearby stream and changed into her newly acquired kunoichi outfit (which, she noticed appreciatively, accented her legs and conformed around her torso perfectly), adding her own medical pack and kunai pouch with it. She then used a genjutsu to make her hair black, and stuffed her hitae-ate in her pocket.

Sakura brushed her hair (with a brush she'd bought at a town they'd stopped at about two months ago), checked to make sure all her weapons were in place, and headed back to where Itachi was going through some scrolls that were rolled out around him. Kisame was busy polishing the few kunai he owned.

"I'm off to the town for lunch," she announced.

Kisame glanced up and grinned approvingly at her new attire. "The outfit suits you, Princess. Very sexy."

She frowned mildly at him.

Itachi looked at her with an indecipherable expression. After a few seconds, he dropped his gaze and murmured flatly, "You look nice."

Her eyebrows raised at that before she turned away, toward the small town.

The table she chose was a nice one in the back of the restaurant, where no one else sat. She had unnoticeably arrived thirty minutes early, so she was left waiting for Naochi impatiently.

Sakura glared down at the menu before her. She still found the fact that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru quite hard to take in, and for some reason it made her angry. Had he really become that strong? Would she ever be able to catch up with him?

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a person seat herself in the booth next to hers. Sakura buried her face in her arms on the table, her mouth pulled into a grimace.

"Bad day?" The person asked, a hint of amusement in her tone.

Sakura lifted her head and looked over at the woman on her right side. She seemed about Sakura's age, with startling red hair and red eyes covered with glasses. One eyebrow was raised, and she sat with her arms crossed over her chest.

Sakura gave a small smile, noticing the kunai pouch on the red-head's leg that signified her as a ninja. "Yeah, kind of. Life's not easy these days."

The woman smirked, and pushed her glasses up further on her nose. "It has its ups and downs."

Sakura laughed harshly. "I just hope there everything will be alright in the end." She remained silent for a moment afterwards, then grinned again. "I'm actually waiting for my…" She paused, and threw caution to the wind as she continued, "date to get here. What about you? Anyone else, or are you alone?"

"Oh, I've got someone coming." The woman smiled dreamily. "My future husband, to be exact."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Really? Wow, good for you."

"I know, right?" she gushed. "And he's the hottest thing that ever walked the planet. I mean, every girl is after him." The woman stopped, then directed a heavy glare to the pink-haired kunoichi she was speaking to. "You wouldn't happen to try to steal him, would you?" Her glare darkened.

"I'm not like that, I promise," Sakura assured her. "If he's yours he's yours, and plus I have my own date coming, remember?"

The red-head sighed. "Okay, good, because if you did I just might have to-"

"KARIN! Why did you have to get a seat so far in the back? And did you get me some water? I'm almost out, for Kami's sake!"

A silver-haired man suddenly appeared next to the red-head's - Karin's - table, flashing his pointed teeth in annoyance.

Karin fumed. "Just shut up and get your own damn water, Suigetsu."

They obviously did not get along. Sakura hid a laugh behind her hand as she watched them. "And is this your future husband-to-be?" she asked, smiling.

Karin sniffed and lifted her nose in the air. "As if. Unfortunately, he's my teammate."

The man - Suigetsu - turned to Sakura, and he grinned. "Well, well, well. Who do we have here?"

Sakura raised a brow, and was about to say something incredibly witty when her eyes flew open wide.

Impossible.

That chakra signature…that dark, imposing presence…

"Ooh!" Karin squealed. "Here he comes!"

Slowly, Sakura turned her head toward the entrance of the restaurant, where a large, orange-haired man was walking in with a shorter man at his side.

Sakura's eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and her lips parted in disbelief.

Karin squealed again.

"There you are, Sasuke-kun!"

((It's as if every day I'm with you, I stand beside a raging ocean. The waves threaten and hiss. Yet its grace mesmerizes those who have the will to look deeper. They see hidden life, witness its calm periods, breath in its relaxing scent. Some never want to leave. But, just when you think you understand what it will bring, the water drowns all.

It is unpredictable - if you get too close, the throb is all you can feel.

And every day I'm with you, the water surges closer.

Yet I don't want to move away.))

As we watch, the oceans bleed into the skies.

A/N: I finally got this chapter up! Dang, it took me forever. Life's been keeping me busy lately. :P

Well, I start school tomorrow, and soccer just recently started too, so updates will be just a tad later than usual. Sorry, but I really need to focus on school right now.

Oh, and as for the thing at the end, in my eyes it would be Itachi thinking of Sakura. Again, don't ask. :/

Linkin Park is coming out with a new album on my birthday! I'm so excited! Yay! :D

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system.

Anyway, next chapter: Our dearest Sasuke-kun makes an appearance! What will happen? (Insert dramatic soap opera music.)

And last but not least: please, please, please review! It would be the best early birthday present ever. Please? :)