We all have our horrors and our demons to fight

But how can I win

when I'm paralyzed?

:

They crawl up on my bed, wrap their fingers 'round my throat

Is this what I get for the choices that I made?

:

God forgive me, for all my sins

God forgive me, for everything

God forgive me, for all my sins

God forgive me, God forgive me

:

Don't go

I can't do this on my own

Don't go

I can't do this on my own

:

Save me from the ones that haunt me in the night

I can't live with myself, so stay with me tonight

:

Don't go

Don't go…

Excerpt from "Don't Go" by Bring Me the Horizon

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any Bring Me the Horizon songs.

Silent Sacrifice Chapter 14: Lachrymose

Tak.

A bloodied foot stepped forward.

Tak.

Now the other.

Tak.

One foot moved backward.

Tak.

And the other followed.

Tak.

Itachi's hand dripped crimson.

Tak.

Obsidian eyes widened. All his techniques, all his defenses and jutsu, had been used. And to no avail.

Sasuke was frozen.

Tak.

Finally, Itachi reached him. Two crimson-coated fingers reached out, and Sasuke moved back one more step before his back hit a wall. He had no where else to go.

He had nothing else to do.

'Sakura, it's happening,' the Tigress said quietly.

She frowned, eyes still focused as Yamato tried to attack Tobi with his earth jutsu.

What's happening?

She received silence.

And her heart skipped a beat.

Their battle paused as Sakura leapt forward, in front of Tobi, and stood facing him, only about three feet away.

She met his one Sharingan eye (which he didn't allow the others to see) steadily. "Let me pass," she commanded.

He was silent for a moment. Then, in Madara's voice, he said calmly, "Only you."

She nodded, and directed her voice toward her shocked, watching teammates. "I'll be moving on," she called, her gaze still focused on Madara before her. "Keep on trying as hard as you can to defeat him and follow me. Either way, I'll be back soon."

As she passed Madara, he said quietly, "I'll be seeing you there."

She just grit her teeth and sprinted off, ignoring the calls of her teammates behind her as she grabbed Hayasa from her shinobi pouch and flew away.

Sasuke watched with wide eyes as those two blood-soaked fingers moved toward his face. He forced himself not to flinch, prepared himself for the pain of having an eye removed to come.

As the fingers moved closer, Sasuke saw Itachi's lips tilt up, and, slowly, a smile formed.

Finally, the fingers touched him—but not where he expected. Instead of ripping out his eye, they pressed gently, almost tenderly, against his dirt- and blood-covered forehead.

Poke.

"Sorry, Sasuke," Itachi said, the small smile painfully apparent on his lips. "This is the last time."

For a moment, Sasuke stopped breathing. He remained still, unmoving with no strength or will to move, as Itachi's fingers dragged down his cheek, along the expanse of his neck, and finally fell away.

Sasuke didn't move his gaze from staring sightlessly at the charred, cracked ground in front of him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Itachi fall forward, toward the wall, and begin to slide down it, coming to a stop only when his body lay spread out on the cool, hard, concrete ground.

Sasuke's breath came out in soft pants, his eyes wide, his arms limp as he rested against the wall for support. Above him, grey clouds shifted and moved to block the sun, pouring rain upon the desolate landscape.

Only then did Sasuke allow himself to glance over at his brother's lifeless form. Itachi's eyes were open, focused blankly on the stormy sky.

Sasuke's eyelids lowered, and he smiled softly as he found himself falling forward.

Then a flash of pink entered his vision, and the last thought on his mind as he became enveloped in a warm, welcoming embrace, effectively stopping his fall, was, …Sakura…?

"Damn, how the hell does this guy do it?" Naruto's eyes flickered between rage and downright fury. "I just want to freakin' go get my friend and put him back where he belongs! Is that too much to ask for?"

So far, Tobi had evaded all of their attacks, even Shino's bugs, which they had been positive were going to work before Tobi had vanished into seeming nothingness and then reappeared on another branch, greeting them all with a "Hey, guys!" and an enthusiastic wave.

Equally pissed, Kiba growled and jumped into the air, yelling, "Take this, you bastard!" as he began to spin rapidly, effectively beginning his Fang Drill technique. He plummeted straight where Tobi stood.

The Akatsuki member gleefully skipped out of the way, leaving Kiba to drill straight into the ground and grant himself a massive headache. "Son of a bitch," he slurred, his head spinning.

Suddenly, a stir of chakra caught Kakashi's attention, and he watched as a green plant-like thing emerged from the branch Tobi was standing on. It didn't open all the way, so whatever was on the inside was left unseen.

"Well?" Tobi questioned it.

"It's all over," the plant answered.

Naruto squinted to see what the new form exactly was. "What the hell is that?" he exclaimed, giving up.

"He's in the Akatsuki file Kabuto left behind," Kakashi stated.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Damn it all, more people trying to delay us?" he shouted.

"Sasuke won," the plant announced, now opened fully to reveal a person with one-half of its body black and the other white. "Uchiha Itachi is dead."

Tobi waved his hands in the air. "Wow, I didn't see that one coming!" He paused for a moment, then continued, "Not. Just as I predicted, actually!"

"Sasuke collapsed not long after, however," the lighter voice said. "He's probably fading quickly."

"Well, then," Tobi concluded, and his voice grew steadily deeper and more serious, "I guess I'll play with you children some other time." His one crimson eye flashed, now visible to the whole group.

"Sharingan?" Kakashi exclaimed. His eyes narrowed, and his brows furrowed. "Just who the hell is he?"

"Bye-bye!" Tobi called, and waved one last time before he disappeared into nothingness.

He's dead.

Sasuke's head was resting on her shoulder, his face turned toward her neck, his breath ragged against her pale skin.

She clutched his limp form tighter to her.

Dear Kami, he's really dead. Itachi's dead.

For some reason, the tears didn't come. She couldn't decide whether it was because she was too shocked, or simply because all her tears had been dried up, used.

Or maybe it was because she had never experienced something so utterly, terrifyingly painful in her whole life, and her mind just did not know how to cope with it.

She didn't think she could handle looking at his—cold, unresponsive, bloodied, lifeless—body any more, so she turned to the only solid, real thing she had left at the moment: his killer.

She pressed her face into Sasuke's soiled black shinobi shirt, and her muffled screams filled the air.

"Damn it, we have to get to Sasuke before them!" Kakashi commanded sternly. "If we don't, they might try to get a hold of Sakura, too."

"All right, her scent is clear," Kiba announced. "Follow me!"

"Hmmm," Madara drew out. "Seems I have a little obstacle in my way of Itachi's corpse."

Sakura slowly lifted her head from where she sat beside Itachi's body—with Sasuke's unconscious form resting across her lap, his head buried in the crook of her arm—to stare blankly at the Akatsuki founder.

When she spoke, her voice was flat and emotionless. "What do you want, Madara?"

"I've got the others' scent!" Kiba shouted. "They've already reached Sasuke and Sakura!"

Naruto cursed, his eyes flashing red.

Suddenly, blame flames were visible in front of them, blocking their way. They waved black and forth, giving off an incredible amount of heat, eating away at everything in their path.

"What's that?" Kiba questioned.

Naruto glared at the flames, brows furrowed. "It's one of Itachi's techniques."

Kakashi turned to Yamato, and the younger shinobi nodded. "I'm on it."

Yamato clasped his hands together in an Earth-style sign, and then slammed his palm to the ground. Instantly, the ground the black flames were burning began to raise into the sky, and, once finished, split down the middle, effectively creating a fissure for the group to travel through.

"Go on without me," Yamato ordered, his chakra focused on his jutsu.

"Okay, everyone else follow me," Kakashi called, and continued on at a sprint.

"I need them both to come with me," Madara stated.

Sakura's voice cracked as she ran her fingers through Sasuke's hair and answered, "Itachi's dead - you don't need him anymore. I'm taking his body back to Konoha."

"To do what?" Madara laughed coldly. "He'll only be tossed aside for all the wrong he has done to that worthless village."

"Then I'll expose his true reasons, and expose you while I'm at it!" she shrieked, fangs flashing. "You can take Sasuke for all I care, but Itachi is coming with me."

"She's a feisty one," Zetsu remarked from his spot beside the Akatsuki founder. "Can we keep her, Madara?"

Sakura nearly growled at the plant-like man.

"So you would leave Sasuke—your very own teammate—with me, and instead save a lifeless corpse?" Madara seemed amused. "I know you are smart, dearest Sakura, but where is the logic in that?"

She glanced down at Sasuke's limp body in her arms, and then at Itachi lying on the ground in front of her. She swallowed before turning back to Madara. "Sasuke will return to us in his own time, whether it be by force or by his own decision," she said slowly, "and as such I will not allow you to have Itachi. Neither of them belong to you, but at least Sasuke is still alive. On the other hand, if I give Itachi to you now"—her voice cracked again—"he won't be honored in the way he deserves."

"Very noble of you, Sakura," Madara said lightly. "But I have an even better idea: why don't I just take all three of you?"

'You cannot let him have you, Sakura,' the Tigress warned. 'His eyes are far too powerful to be reckoned with, and I am not as strong as I used to be centuries ago. He might try to use what powers I have left.'

"In your dreams," Sakura snarled. "I'm taking Itachi with me whether you like it or not."

"Really, now?"

Abruptly, he was right in front of her, blocking Itachi's body from her view. Sakura felt emptiness in her arms, and found that Sasuke had been moved away from her.

Madara was fast with his teleportation jutsu—faster than even Itachi, and so she sensed a steady haze begin to creep into the corners of her consciousness as she stared into Madara's one visible Sharingan eye, left with nothing to use to fight back.

As she faded, she distantly heard his last words to her: "I'll leave you be for now, dearest Sakura, but always remember that I will eventually have you within my grasp. And don't worry—I'll make sure to take good care of your beloved Uchiha brothers."

Shit, she thought, and consequently lost hold of reality.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice rose in alarm as he caught sight of his pink-haired teammate's unconscious body lying on the ground. "Come on, Sakura-chan!" he shouted when he reached her. He took her in his arms and shook her gently. "Sakura-chan, wake up. Don't do this to me right now!"

Sakura gradually pried her eyelids apart, and blinked up at Naruto's frantic form. She inhaled sharply, and then coughed.

Naruto's gaze was worried and questioning at the same time.

Sakura just shook her head slowly in response.

"There's still a trace of their scent, but…" Kiba trailed off.

"We're too late," Kakashi finished, his two visible eyes focused on the forest surrounding them.

Naruto's jaw clenched, and he lowered his head to hide his expression.

But he couldn't stop his shoulders from shaking, couldn't stop the tears from falling.

In that moment, the only noise was the constant rain pouring down on them all.

When Sasuke opened his eyes, he was met with the pointed ceiling of a cave, the vague image of pink lingering in his mind.

Sasuke bolted upright when a voice spoke to him from the darkness.

"I gave you some basic medical treatment."

He stared blankly in the direction of the voice as it continued blandly, "You won."

Itachi.

Sasuke's gaze lowered.

"It was a close battle," the voice remarked. "You're still badly wounded. I really should've had Sakura heal you while I had the chance."

Sasuke's hand curled into a fist, but his expression remained impassive otherwise.

Finally, the figure the voice belonged to stepped into the dull candlelight. Sasuke remembered him from his fight with Deidara.

"We've met once before, as enemies," Tobi continued, "but I would like for you to see me as an ally now."

Sasuke just stared blankly.

"Before you decide to completely ignore everything I say," the Akatsuki member said evenly, "I have something to tell you that you might want to hear. It's about your brother."

Sasuke stiffened slightly.

"There's the reaction I want to see," Tobi said approvingly. "It is quiet amusing, really, how much you know about Uchiha Itachi, and yet at the same time, there is so much you don't know. Even dearest Sakura is more knowledgeable about the other side of your brother more than you are as of this moment."

Sasuke just blinked slowly.

At the lack of response, Tobi raised a hand to his mask and said, "All right, why don't I start by introducing myself?" He began to remove his mask. "Like you, I am a living, breathing Uchiha…"

Sasuke's eyes widened minutely as the mask was pulled off enough to reveal one of Tobi's Sharingan orbs.

Sasuke suddenly found his left eye activated with his own Sharingan, and, slowly, it began to change into a form he recognized but was unfamiliar with in himself. Blood began to pool in his eye and gradually overflow, leaving a path of crimson down his cheek.

Across from him, Madara took an unsteady step back. Impossible, he thought, stunned, and abruptly found the black flames of Amaterasu eating away at the material of his shirt on his right shoulder. He fumbled backward into the darkness, slowly being engulfed by the obsidian flames.

Sasuke heard muffled sounds coming from the opposite side of the cave, but the sudden pain in his left eye drew his attention away from it. He clamped his hand over the bleeding eye, panting harshly, still not comprehending what exactly had happened. Only when he felt his Sharingan recede to its normal form and finally vanish did he try to control his labored gasps.

"What the hell was that?" he breathed, staring at his bloodied hand.

Tobi's voice answered from the darkness. "The Amaterasu Itachi implanted within you," he said, stepping smoothly into the light once again, his body completely unharmed, the flames of Amaterasu now gone. "He never ceases to amaze me, even in death. Planning for a situation like this…" Tobi shook his head. "It just blows my mind."

Sasuke's gaze darkened. "What are you saying?"

"He did something—something peculiar—to you before he died, correct?"

Poke.

Sasuke's lips pulled into a tight line.

Tobi sighed. "It was a last-effort trap to try to kill me," he explained.

At the younger Uchiha's blank gaze, Tobi sighed again.

"Let me make this easier on both of us - I'll start from the very beginning."

"Sakura-chan? Are you okay?"

She tore her vacant gaze from the trees ahead of them and turned to meet Naruto's pure blue eyes. She opened her mouth, and then closed it. When she finally spoke, her voice was rough with unshed tears. "Actually, Naruto, I'm not okay," she croaked, and swallowed. "Even though he might've done some bad things over the years"—there were reasons that you don't know of yet—"Itachi…he was never a truly bad person."

Naruto kept his gaze focused steadily on hers, not commenting on anything his teammate said about the killer of the Uchiha clan.

The rest of the group had moved on to give them some privacy, and so they were left to talk in silence.

"It's hard, Naruto," she whispered. "It's hard to lose someone you care about, and have to live with the fact that they're never coming back." She swallowed once again. "At least we have a chance with Sasuke, but with Itachi…"

Naruto placed a hand in hers, and she grasped it tightly. He wanted so badly to shake her and yell, 'Sakura-chan, he was a cold-blooded murderer! He was the person who forced Sasuke to leave us! How can you possibly say you cared about him?'

But he didn't, because Sakura needed his support.

"With Itachi," she said softly, painfully, "he's really gone. He's dead."

The blonde jinchuriki pulled Sakura to him and wrapped his arms around her, her face pressed into his chest.

Still, she didn't cry.

"Oh, Kami, Naruto," she choked out. "He's gone."

"Lies."

Sasuke found it hard to think coherently.

"What you said isn't true," he said, staring blankly at the cavern walls. "It's all lies. It can't possibly be true."

"Everything I've told you," Madara responded calmly, "has been absolutely factual, I assure you."

Finally, Sasuke cracked. "Damn it, you're lying!" he shouted. "If what you say is true, then where the hell does Sakura fit into all this?"

"Yes, that one was quite unexpected," Madara said, amused. "But Itachi had his plans for her, also."

Sasuke grit his teeth. "What could he have possibly wanted with her?"

Madara's one visible Sharingan eye flashed. "You speak of her as if she is weak, Sasuke."

"She was nothing but a useless addition to my genin team five years ago," Sasuke replied flatly. "I doubt she has changed since."

Madara chuckled. "Really, now? Because the last time I checked, her Akatsuki member defeat toll had risen to two."

Sasuke remained silent, questioning.

"You haven't heard?" Madara asked evenly. "About two years ago, she defeated and killed the Akatsuki member known as Sasori along with the help of an old Suna-nin."

Sasuke blinked.

"And just two weeks ago," the Akatsuki founder continued, almost gleefully, "she defeated your brother, just as you did recently."

"Impossible," Sasuke replied immediately. "There is no way an Uchiha could have been defeated by a mere kunoichi such as herself. The Sharingan can only be matched against another Sharingan."

"Well, she proved us both wrong, because what I said was true." Madara folded his arms across each other. "Mind you, she did it with the best training one could have received."

The younger Uchiha glared, suspicious of what was to come.

"Over the last two years," Madara explained, "Haruno Sakura has been training under the tutelage of both Uchiha Itachi—"

Sasuke's brows drew together, the mention of two mentors unprecedented.

"—and the Fujin na Tora Seishin, the latter of which Sakura is the host of."

"Fujin na Tora Seishin?" The title felt foreign on Sasuke's lips. "I have never heard of it."

"Many people haven't. Only few know of her existence in the past, and even less know that she is still alive today." Madara turned so he was looking into the empty shadows of the cave. "The Fujin na Tora Seishin was said to be extremely powerful, even on par with the Jubi so many centuries ago. However, as the world of the shinobi began to grow, she eventually faded into a sort of non-existence. People began to speak of her as if she were only a myth, and did not question her absence. Only recently did Itachi begin to keep track of her whereabouts, and he captured her. He was in need of a host for her, since she would not allow him to fulfill the job." Madara's eye gleamed from the light of the candle. "That was where Haruno Sakura came in."

"So now Sakura is the host of a powerful creature?" Sasuke's voice was flat and emotionless.

Madara nodded. "Although the Tigress's abilities and potency have dimmed over the years, she could still easily wipe out an entire country if she pleased. And under the Tigress's tutelage along with Itachi's, Sakura has grown into someone not to be underestimated, much like your other teammate, Naruto."

"Why did she want to train under Itachi?" Madara noted how Sasuke's voice caught a little on his brother's name.

"Isn't it obvious?" Madara questioned, slightly sarcastic. "She wanted to grow stronger so she could eventually bring you back to Konoha."

"Shouldn't she have been a little less trusting of him?" Sasuke whipped out callously, his gaze hard. "Didn't she know she was running off with a murderer?"

She wanted to grow stronger to bring you back to Konoha.

Sasuke clenched his hand into a fist.

"From what I am guessing, Itachi told her the truth of the massacre—of me—not long after he convinced her to come with him. She wouldn't have been so wary of me the first time we met otherwise."

"Itachi told Sakura…himself?" Sasuke drew out slowly.

Madara seemed amused. "Yes, actually. You shouldn't be too surprised. My sources claim that the two of them grew to be quite close over the last two years."

Sasuke froze. "What do you mean by that?"

Madara chuckled lightly. "You'll just have to ask Sakura herself sometime. It's really not my place to speak."

Sasuke watched Madara with cold, apathetic onyx eyes as the Akatsuki founder turned on his heel and headed toward the exit of the cave, his coat swirling behind him.

A/N: Um, don't kill me. I'd already had this planned long before I started writing it. So. Yeah. Sorry. Itachi's dead. D:

I have finally drawn a picture of how Sakura would look in this story (with all her marks and such). :D Check out my profile to see the link.

Anyway, if you're into more hard core/screamo-ish type music (I don't know if any of you are…), I would highly recommend listening to the song that I took an excerpt out of at the beginning of the chapter. It's called "Don't Go" by Bring Me the Horizon, and I swear, the first time I listened to it, I almost cried. It's such a beautiful, melancholy song. But if you're not into that type of music, then…yeah. Just look it up on Youtube and give it a chance, at least. If not, you're missing out on a great piece.

Oh! I almost forgot: I just posted a new story (it's going to be a multi-chapter, but probably with no more than seven or eight chapters) called "Alerion," so, if you will, check it out and leave me a comment. It's going to be pretty dark, so I'll need some constructive criticism. :)

That's all I had to say, so, as always, please review!

Please and thank you,

Silver Echo