Right! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and especially to The Ninja Artist and Casny97 (anonymous reviewer) for their incredibly long, and incredible awesome reviews!

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WARNING!

Bits of DeiSakuSaso ahead!
Also, major ItaSaku confession is coming your way! Prepare yourselves, and

ENJOY!

After a while of standing in the field, they both went to their rooms. Sakura once again found herself unable to sleep as flashes of the last hour kept replaying themselves over and over in her head.

Sakura loosened her arms and released Itachi. She looked up at him, tears never to be shed glistening in her eyes. She was no fool. Keeping that promise would be impossible for him.

As if sensing her doubt, Itachi stared at her until she met his eyes. "I mean what I say, Sakura. I won't leave you."

The rosette dropped her head, stubbornly fighting the tears. A strangled sob escaped her lips. "How can you be so sure?" she whispered in despair.

"I will find a way for us to stay together. You have my word."

The despair was suddenly replaced with anger. Her head snapped up, glaring. "How can you be so sure? Huh! You yourself said that Pein was planning to send me away! No matter how strong you are, you can't stop him Itachi!"

But the raven was no longer paying attention to her. He was looking at her eyes, a look of slight surprise and a trace of amusement could be seen in his deep onyx eyes. His hand rose and he gently stroked her temple. "The Rinnegan…" he whispered. "You've mastered it."

"Sometimes I'm not sure if this is all real or just a horrible nightmare…" Sakura whispered. "That blasted thing is the only way I can separate dreams from reality."

Itachi stared at the rosette before him. Unknowingly, she was becoming more and more like him; haunted by the nightmares of her actions, petrified by the path that stands before her.

"Ano… Itachi?" she asked. "Before, you said something. I didn't quite understand it. You said Pein would destroy me by sending me away somewhere. But where do you think he would send me?"

Sakura was already suspicious of the answer, half dreading what was about to come out, half wishing that Itachi would finally take her seriously and tell her the truth.

"I… don't know."

Anger once again swirled within the emerald pools. "Don't lie."

Itachi sighed. He'd made her a bit too perceptive, if that was even possible. The girl wasn't stupid.

But how I wish… Oh, how I wish that it didn't have to be like this…

"If my assumptions are correct, he plans to destroy you in an ultimate betrayal…" he inhaled loudly before continuing, "By sending you to Orochimaru."

Sakura still found it hard to believe. Her father knew of her absolute loathing for the man, to stoop so low as to actually consider sending her to him…

Then again, I guess he kills two birds with one stone – he won't have to worry about me finding out about his plans, and he will get Orochimaru off his back…

The rosette smiled grimly. It was a win-win situation for her father.

I guess it's inevitable… Sakura thought. Pein will send me away when he becomes even the slightest bit wary of my power. Then again, if I go, I will be able to keep regular tabs on Itachi's brother. I guess I'll have to show the extent of my power soon anyway. Luck has never been on my side.

She sighed. I wonder how Shika and Neji are doing… How are they handling the whole Sasuke's defection thingy. Then something clicked. Wait, thinking of Neji and Shika…

The rosette jumped from her bed, and scurried over to her desk. Getting out a piece of paper and a quill, she quickly scribbled something down.

Hm… She observed, cocking her head to the side as she assessed the message written there. It lacks a signature. Should I? It's a bit too much, isn't it? But then again, he seemed to like riddles…

Sakura snatched up a pencil and set to putting the finishing touches to her ultimate betrayal. A small, but detailed sketch of a cherry blossom flower was the result of her struggles.

Something's still off… She pondered. Ah, yes.

Swiftly grabbing a kunai from the side, she sliced it across her palm, and watched, fascinated, as small scarlet droplets began gathering at the edges of the cut. She squeezed her palm shut and let a few drops of her blood drip onto the paper next to the cherry blossom.

A bloody cherry-blossom. She inwardly snorted. How fitting.

But now came the hard part. Sakura run a quick chakra scan around the whole base, before she deemed it safe to proceed. Everyone seemed to be either asleep or nodding off, if their lightly sizzling chakras were anything to go by.

The rosette inhaled slowly, before she once again relied on the strong pull she felt inside herself. A second later, a black crow appeared before her, its' head tilted questioningly. Sakura smiled slightly before she sealed the scroll with a prick of her chakra from her non-bleeding finger and handed it to the bird. It hopped onto her wrist as she carried it over to the window. Wrestling the glass open, Sakura sighed.

"Get this to Shikamaru. I trust you. Now go." She instructed the bird.

The crow cawed quietly, before taking off.

Sakura left the window open, not bothering to close it, before she send a bit of healing chakra to her bleeding palm, and watched in sick satisfaction as the flesh mended itself back together.

It would take at least two days for the crow to get to Konoha.

If my plan goes right, in two days' time, I will be far, far away from here.

The next morning, Sakura awoke to the feel of her mattress being weighted down and two bodies cuddling in on either side of her. Well, one body. The other just lay there peacefully. Instantly, without thinking, she pulled out the two kunai that she always had under her pillow and pointed the weapon at the intruders.

A deep chuckle snapped her out of the dream she'd had, and she whipped her head towards the sound.

"Glad to see you're on guard so early in the morning, doll." Sasori commented.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! You almost gave me a heart attack!" another familiar voice exclaimed.

Sakura exhaled loudly. "Any particular reason as to why you two idiots are in my room?" she bit out.

"Woah, Saku-chan, are we not allowed to visit our favourite pinky? I'm hurt." Deidara whined.

"Not at ungodly o'clock, you're not." She stated dryly.

"We're all sparring today in the forest nearby. Everyone. Even Leader-sama is coming out to watch." Sasori explained.

"We came to make sure you'll come." Dei continued.

"I'll be there, don't worry."

Sasori nodded and rose, dragging a still-whining Deidara after him. Sakura sighed, but inwardly, she was grinning madly.

Time to get this party rockin'.

Sakura gasped as she managed to narrowly avoid Hidan's scythe hitting her side.

I can't afford to get hit. I need to make this through with enough chakra to use that jutsu.

Instead of responding with a justu which required chakra, she attacked with a barrel of well-executed taijutsu moves.

Itachi watched from the sidelines, his gut-instinct and incredible observation skills warning him that something was about to go horribly wrong.

But WHAT?

He didn't know if it was the fact that Sakura hadn't used any chakra since the spar with Hidan started, or that the rosette kept stealing subtle glances at Pein and then rapidly turning away that had first alerted him that something was off.

Probably both.

In the meantime, Deidara had gotten bored of just sitting at the sidelines and watching all the action unfold, so he jumped down to join the fun, dragging Sasori after him.

Sakura cursed as she realised that now she would not only have to watch out for a sharp pointy object being repeatedly shoved in her direction, but also for bombs and puppets with more sharp pointy objects.

Well, shit.

But then an idea came into the rosette's mind. A wonderful, stupid, risky, but still absolutely ingenious idea.

She smirked. Use their distraction as a weakness and turn it to your advantage. She told herself.

Here it comes.

Deidara aimed a C3 at the annoying Jashinist and threw. What he didn't consider was that Sakura might've had the same idea. He yelled out as the rosette jumped at Hidan, seemingly oblivious to the explosive that was slowly but surely coming her way.

The blond cursed himself for making the bomb react on impact, then proceeded to franticly suck back the chakra from the flying clay creation.

A little bit more…! Come on! Come on! Just a little and it'll nullif-!

BOOM!

…Too late. The artist thought grimly.

Unknowingly to the blond, Sakura was well aware that she was in the way of a dangerous explosive. She scoffed. She jumped at Hidan in the last moment because she wanted to get in the way.

Why else would she go through the trouble of using the Hiding Mole justu at the last moment?

She grinned manically from her place underground. Now to spice things up…

Deidara ran to the place where the explosion took place, ignoring Hidan's tattered body in favour of looking for the rosette.

Imagine his surprise when he found her standing, in one piece, mindlessly twirling a kunai around her finger.

Emerald eyes looked up at him in surprise. "Dei? What are you doing here? I thought we were meant to be sparring?"

Sakura inwardly snickered at the artist's confused look. Go on, Dei. Say it.

"I-we-I… we thought- the explosion!" he took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Are you alright?" he asked finally.

The rosette tilted her head to the side in fake confusion. "You came all this way to check is I'm alright?"

"Well- the explosion-"

"You didn't think I could avoid it?"

"Yeah! I mean, the blast was-"

"Are you calling me weak?" Sakura hissed. 3…2…1…

"No! It's just that- well, you're weaker than Hidan since he's immo-"

But Sakura didn't let him finish. She took one glance towards the side-lines where everyone's eyes were directed at her and her eyes connected momentarily with Itachi's.

No, don't-! the raven-haired male pleaded inwardly.

Her eyes hardened as they turned back to Deidara, her lips twisted in a sneer.

"I am not WEAK!" she yelled. Sakura took a deep breath. "Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"

An enormous wall of fire shot out of the rosette's mouth, lighting up anything in a close-by radius; trees, bushes; anything.

And through the flames, the smoke, the fear and the confusion; Sakura bolted.

She didn't get far. After only about five minutes of running, a hand shot out of the trees and snatched her wrist, yanking her back into a firm chest.

Slim hands grasped her shoulders, pushing her away from the body she'd crashed into.

Red eyes swirled with pain and confusion, but most importantly; anger. In a rare show of emotion Itachi yelled at her.

"What were you thinking? Do you know how absolutely stupid you acted? I told you that Pein was planning to send you away if he became even vaguely aware of your strength, and what do you do? You set half of the forest on fire using an S-rank technique which was bound to get Pein suspicious! But nooo, you also had to use the technique that Madara-fucking-Uchiha used! DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?"

Sakura stared. And stared. And stared.

She ignored the fact that Itachi swore. She also ignored that this was the first time he had ever shouted at her.

She was captivated by the fury, the pure insanity, and the raw, almost visible pain that shone in those haunted crimson orbs.

The rosette didn't feel the pain of Itachi's fingernails as they dug into her shoulders, until he completely removed his hands from her person and turned his head away.

"I… It had to be done, Itachi." Sakura whispered.

"Don't be foolish." He responded dryly.

"Wha-" Sakura gasped, disbelieving. "I had faith in this idea, Itachi! I still do! And if having faith is considered foolish… Then let me be a fool!"

Itachi's head snapped back to look at her, but Sakura was far from finished.

"All my life you've been trying to keep me as far away from danger as possible. At the beginning I was grateful, since I hated the idea of having to kill. However, it only progressed from there. You lied to me, you pushed me away, you sheltered me-!"

"I sheltered you because I love you!"

Any further arguments died on Sakura's tongue. She was reduced to looking like a fish out of water, eyes wide, mouth opening and closing.

"Itachi, I-"

But the raven in question didn't give her any time to answer, as with one last, pain-filled glance, he dissolved into a flock of crows.

"…love you, too."

It turned out that Itachi's disappearance couldn't have been any better timed. Not a minute later, Pein came out of the shadows, his face schooled into an emotionless mask.

"Well, I knew Madara was right. She really is a nuisance." He murmured. To Sakura he said. "You might be my daughter, but since your return to Ame, your usefulness has dwindled. You've gotten soft in the Chuunin Exams. The opposite of how I wanted you to turn out. You've started to care, to enjoy, to love." He spat out the last word. "Love is a weakness. I thought I've drilled that into you long ago."

Sakura surveyed her father slowly. "So are you calling yourself weak then, father?" she asked, half sarcastically, half curiously.

"You foolish child," he bristled, though Sakura could almost see a glimpse of amusement in his eyes.
"I don't love you."

That was all she heard before she was knocked out, and everything went black…

Well, that's it! Next chapter will be a half-action, half-filler, considering that Sakura will meet a very special someone. *coughSasukecough*

Also, I'm still open for pairings suggestions, so if you want your favourite pairing (as long as it's not Yuri, I don't want to scar my readers *shivers* ) and you would like it to be in my story, drop the suggestion in your REVIEW!

And if you have any other comments, also leave them in your REVIEW!

Thanks for reading!