Pulse

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Beat Four

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Hidan.

Her quick mind jolted into action - pages of the current version of the bingo book - painstakingly memorised - fluttered in her mind before coming to a screeching halt at the page with a smirking, silver haired man with the strangest lavender-red eyes, coloured like exotic flowers from a far off land. She recalled his stats; main weapon triple blade scythe, Akatsuki, formerly of Yugakure, practitioner of the religion Jashin...

The kind of person she really didn't want to meet.

"Cease that," Itachi hissed in her ear, drawing her attention back to him.

And she wondered how she could ever have forgotten. Their proximity made a shuddering mixture of revulsion, and prickly fear fire through her veins like liquid lava. Goosebumps crawled over her skin and she knew he would see them on the exposed skin of her neck that was lightly touching his chin and that thought made her stomach twist painfully. Cease what exactly, she didn't know.

"Your chakra is pushing against mine. It is spiking."

The small lump of chakra he had embedded by her heart began to shudder and burn like the most serious case of heartburn she had ever experienced. Shockwaves of pain radiated out from her heart like a thousand tiny stabbing needles - one wave after another. Whether this was at his will, or as a result of his emotions, or something else, she didn't know. Whatever it was, it hurt. Sakura's short fingernails scraped trenches in the solid stone wall behind her as she tried to repress even the smallest gasp of pain.

She quickly realised that he was cloaking her chakra with his even more than he had been doing previously, and that she was fighting against it subconsciously. Itachi pulled back from her suddenly, making Sakura stumble after him slightly, back screaming in relief as the sharp rocks were no longer digging into her flesh. She saw his hands - long fingered artists' hands that didn't look made for such an occupation - blur in a sequence of movement just before pressing against her temples.

A strange feeling - like cold water being poured over the top of her head and trickling down her body - flowed over. Sakura pressed her head to her hands, gasping, and opened her eyes to see something other than her slim, athletic figure in her usual uniform.

Instead, she looked down at herself and saw a skinny boy's body - nut brown skin, dirty fingernails and covered in threadbare neutral coloured clothes. Sakura could not see the vivid, lime green - almost yellow - colour her irises had become, or the short, lurid green coloured hair that replaced her own pink locks. Itachi pressed on her lightly on her shoulders, communicating wordlessly that she had to sit down and glancing back at the cave opening - and she quickly sat down by the entrance of the cave, remembering to uncross her legs - men did not sit like that.

She was not sure what he was doing, but for now she would go along with it. Her hands shook slightly so she pressed them to her knees to hide it. Sakura almost felt like she could still feel his lithe, compact body sandwiched against hers - she shut down that line of thought quickly.

The genjutsu that covered the entrance flickered a little just as Itachi lounged into position, before Hidan stepped smoothly through it - parting the illusion as though he was walking beneath a waterfall. Rain dribbled from his soaked hair, skin and cloak the moment he stepped into the cave - leaving tiny puddles in his wake that almost looked black in the dim lighting. Apparently they had been just in time.

He paused at the door - stopping to prop his weapon against the rock wall and flex that hand as he took in the surroundings. Itachi's chakra positively burned - filling the room like a territorial animal - though his expression remained stoic. Hidan either didn't notice or ignored it because he smiled showing pointed teeth.

"So you caught one of the little fuckers, huh, Uchiha?" Hidan grunted, in her direction, "And he's just your type."

Sakura didn't know who the hell she was supposed to be, but they seemed to. Some of the tenseness seeped out of her muscles despite herself - she had been ready to fight if he had launched himself at her. Tiredness crawled over her mind - squirming at the edges of her concentration. For what felt like the thousandth time, she thought of Sasuke.

Itachi tightened his lips slightly, but didn't answer. He sat with his legs stretched out in a visibly calm pose - still managing to seem regal and in control even when sitting on the dusty cave floor. He did not stand to greet Hidan as a comrade as she would have done for any Leaf. Hidan, in turn, did not seem in the slightest bit offended by the slight Itachi had given by not even standing to greet him. She had not expected such a show of passive aggressive hostility between them.

"Move the fuck out of my way, boy," Hidan spat, aiming a quick kick at her legs - which were sprawled out near him.

Angry comments bubbled at the edge of her throat and died there. Her fists clenched, and he watched her - expression goading - to see if she would do anything. His eyes - feminine coloured, but no less malicious for it - narrowed.

She went to glare up at him, not even thinking about the action, but when her eyes met his the chakra close to her heart gave an unexpected jolt. Sakura gave a humiliating squeak of pain and scuttled back a little - clutching her chest in what probably looked like fear. Seconds later her cheeks began to burn with humiliation, but she didn't move to do anything. Trying to crush his skull with her bare hands would most likely blow her cover. Unfortunately.

Hidan gave her one last simmering sweep with his gleaming eyes before turning his attention to Itachi. The way he looked at her made it feel as though he was undressing her with his eyes, but considering she looked like a boy at the moment he was probably just sizing her up. The alternative didn't bear thinking about. He smoothed his hands back across his gleaming silver hair and flicked the excess water in her direction.

Sakura felt her pride sting furiously as each tiny droplet of water splattered on her form. She was sure he could feel her murderous glare - it was probably why he was smirking so widely. Itachi shot her another warning look that made it feel as though she had been pinned to the wall with his gaze.

"The boy is a dead end," Itachi said, tone becoming more biting than she had ever heard - glowing eyes still fixed on her," no bloodline limit."

Hidan snorted, cracking his knuckles. Sakura made a show of trying to smooth her furious expression - coming across as a downtrodden captive was not particularly one of her strong points. She looked down at the brown, scabbed skin that was now her knees and tried to calm her still spiking chakra.

"If you're sure of that - give me the bastard," Hidan smiled in a way that didn't extend to his pale, piercing eyes, the exposed muscles of his stomach rippled slightly in what could have been anticipation," Jashin-sama welcomes blood even from fucking useless little swine like that."

"If he's useless," Hidan's eyes watched her closely, calculating," we can use him in the trade with that slimy bastard Orochimaru, right? Fucker wouldn't know till later and we could just say the boy was in fine condition when we handed him over, so you must've fucked with him too much. Or fucked him too much, full stop," he let out a raucous laugh.

Her ears pricked up at that. Itachi had failed to mention any imminent meeting with Orochimaru - she would be sure to bring that up later.

Itachi did not answer that - his near glacial stare being enough of a reply it would seem. Sakura didn't know how often Akatsuki members interacted, so she assumed that maybe Hidan was used to Itachi's aloof manner. Hidan paused to draw a line of limp bandages from inside his cloak and then dangled it between them as though it was some great prize. Itachi's bland, if a little icy, stare shifted to something altogether more predatory.

"Smells like," Hidan pressed the slightly damp, limp bandages up to his nose, closing his eyes," a woman, a girl. All sissy strawberries and pissy sweet perfumes."

Sakura felt a slight jolt of fear - like a shock of electricity lancing through her system. Those bandages were hers; either the ones she wore beneath her headband, or some of the ones that usually secured her now empty kunai pouch. That would explain why Itachi had been so eager to leave that small waterfall. She silently cursed her own thoughtlessness.

He took another deep breath of the cloth, in a way that made her stomach churn and then smiled showing straight white teeth, "Not that you would know much about them, eh?"

Itachi didn't even seem interested in continuing the conversation anymore, or showing any semblance of trying to. His sharp, ruby eyes - reflecting the flickering fire like banked coals - were fixed on Hidan as he stooped to sit on the floor, bandages still being twirled idly in one hand.

"Caught a bunch of those heathen Leafs, you know," he said, boasting - nodding mockingly at Itachi's headband with its line that reminded her sickeningly of scar tissue. Damaged. "But..." he paused, eyes turning to her again - Sakura knew she should hide her white knuckled fists," they had no bitches and the scent on this is pretty fuckin' fresh, right? And the only other chakra signatures in the area are yours and this little prick's." He gestured towards her.

"So where's that bitch gone, Uchiha?" He finished, pressing the bandages to his face again.

Sakura felt her heart rate increase as though she had just popped five solider pills in quick succession. Caught a bunch of those heathen Leafs? What had he done with them then? She closed her eyes and hoped, selfishly - desperately - that none of her team were among the captured. Though she was confident Hidan wouldn't be walking around uninjured if he had encountered any of her team and taken them down. Still, the bitter taste of anger filled her mouth as she thought of any of her comrades in arms falling to him.

"I do not have time to spare to compensate for your mediocre tracking skills," Itachi murmured, expression smoothing again - apparently ignorant of her inner turmoil.

"Ah, but I'm doing you a fucking favour, Itachi-chan. I swear to Jashin, you're an ungrateful bastard."

The silver haired nin twirled the bandages around his fingers again before slipping them back into his cloak. A sour what-if slipped into Sakura's mind - smearing thick, greasy fear across her thoughts. What if she had been alone? What if Itachi had decided to let Hidan see her as she was? - because he was under no obligation to keep her intact; she had made sure of that.

Every time a slight breeze slipped into the cave it carried with it the cloying metallic odour of blood, and it made her stomach twist painfully. She wasn't sure if she was imagining the cries of pain that slipped along the edges of her hearing - setting her teeth on edge.

"I have no time for your lengthy rituals. Have you retrieved the information required?" Itachi replied, forehead creasing minutely in a way that suggested she might not be imagining the screams.

He moved to stand gracefully, the fire between them all going out in a single definitive movement that prompted Sakura to drag herself to her feet. In the dim light, she felt even more unease - the chakra by her heart had calmed to the point where it didn't hurt anymore, but she still felt the organ pulsing rapidly. The fact that, as a relatively skilled medic, she couldn't even control her heart rate was worrying.

In the darkness, her senses were amplified sharply. Blood seemed to almost coat the air and the sounds of screams were most definitely not imagined. Anger and fear jostled together in a way that made her feel almost seasick.

"Morally you flounder in wet shit. Of course you don't fucking understand, "Hidan sneered, what little she could see of his handsome face twisting in a mixture of revulsion and vicious glee, "No, not yet. Got one left just ready to have it ripped out of him though."

They began to move towards the entrance. Sakura deliberately hung back, but she saw Itachi's cat-like eyes zone in on her and knew she wouldn't escape his attention. She straightened her spine and met his eyes.

"Do it then," Itachi said to Hidan, eyes still on her. Tone mocking.

"I couldn't resist the lure of an audience," Hidan followed his gaze to look over at her again, pausing at the door, "Ever seen someone die, you little cocksucker?"

"Yes," her voice came out a husky whisper - choked with anger. It was probably deep enough to pass for a young man.

Hidan waited at the entrance for her to pass by - following Itachi like an obedient little captive. He leaned close enough for her to smell his breath and feel the body heat radiating off of him. She refused to flinch even for the sake of maintaining the cover that had been thrust upon her.

He paused for a moment before dragging out the syllable as though savouring it, "Shame."

...

They didn't run far at all. Sakura was vaguely grateful for that, but any semblance of positive feelings jolted out of her the moment she stepped down into the small clearing Hidan stopped at.

Spread eagle inside a strange symbol was one of her fellow leaf nin. One she didn't know, but that hardly lessened the shock - like a vicious punch to the gut - that she felt when she saw him. Blood splattered the ground around him in thick, congealing rivulets. The man inside the circle stretched his bloody hand as though he was drowning and reaching for some sort of salvation with his last breath. She watched his bloody hand wave in the air furiously, and then sluggishly - as though languidly greeting an old friend.

His head was split at the back like someone had tried to peel the skull apart and she could see his brain from where she was standing. Sakura didn't have to hide the feeling of revulsion slithering up her spine like a snake, settling - burning - in her throat as acidic bile crawled up and choked her. Her hands shook, cold sweat prickled on her skin. With wounds like those - impaled stomach, multiple lacerations, split skull - she wouldn't be able to help him anyway.

Hidan sauntered over and started barking questions that she didn't quite register. The vaguely hot, tight feeling of blood trickling down her chin was barely noticed when she bit her lip so hard it bled. The only thing that stopped her from launching herself at Hidan was the warning pulse the chakra near her heart gave.

Itachi ran his fingers lightly over the back of her hand when Hidan wasn't looking as she watched her comrade die in agony metres from her. She wasn't sure if he was comforting her or mocking her.

Seconds later he walked across and severed the man's throat in a flicker of metal and a thick gout of blood that leapt from the severed artery. Hidan let out a furious crow of anger - eyes sparking in indignation. Itachi ignored him entirely, and snapped out a few sentences that didn't quite reach her, and a few moments later they were running through the trees together without him. Sakura felt hot, salty tears crawl down her face in fat droplets, mingling with the blood that still dripped down.

She tried her very best to think of Sasuke.

...

They ran for what felt like the whole night, but it was still pitch black when they reached another cave. She didn't know why they had left the last, didn't ask. This one was lower down than the first and the air inside the small space smelt rich and musty - the sweetish odour of decay lingering. One look at the packed dirt floor and Sakura knew she would have stiff joints and bruises from the cold and the faint moisture - bedroll or not.

Her knees buckled the moment she stepped inside, opting to sluggishly watch Itachi set up yet another fire between them from the floor. The smell of blood was in her hair, and had dried in sticky patches on her skin.

"Will you take this genjutsu off?" She asked, voice wavering more than she might have liked.

She folded her legs up beneath her and unfolded her bedroll right beside the wall. This cave was even smaller than the last; she hated how close she would be to him while she slept. If he was going to try anything he would have by now, but that thought still didn't quite reassure her. She rubbed the area over her heart absentmindedly as she smoothed down the fabric - the feminine flesh could still be felt, but not seen - a flat boy's chest was all that was visible. Beneath her hand the chakra by her heart gave a low, relaxing thrum.

"No. It's... safer for you this way," he chose his words carefully, talking in a soothing manner that didn't sit quite right with her.

Lowering herself into a lying down position, she facing him with her back to the wall - eyes focused on him, unblinking. She would feel uncomfortable enough without her back being exposed. Logically, she knew he could kill her whatever way she was sleeping, but this still made her feel better. When he merely sat down across from her after setting up yet another genjutsu by the entrance she examined her new hands - larger than her own, clumsy, a few hairline scars. Questions surged to the forefront of her mind despite the foggy cover of exhaustion that had began to cloak her thoughts.

"Who am I meant to be?"

"That information is classified," Itachi murmured, closing his scarlet eyes.

She considered that for a moment; flicking through memorised bingo books, current and outdated, to try and find someone that matched the visage she had seen the reflection of in a puddle while running. Acid green hair and eyes were not a common combination, but if she had to guess she might have said Grass Village. Her memory was not quite photographic, but it was close enough. Nothing in the bingo books. No scrap of information that she remembered being mentioned at all. She supposed it wasn't as important as her next questions.

"And the meeting with Orochimaru - is that classified as well?" Sakura muttered, emphasis behind the words stabbing through the silence.

He paused before saying quietly, "Technically."

Itachi began to remove his coat quickly and efficiently. She hated the loud popping noise that the fasteners made as he pulled the cloak open - there was something obscene, unsettling, about that noise that didn't quite sit right with her. Sakura drew the top of her bedroll over her fully clothed and tried to move discreetly into a more comfortable position. She tried to ignore the small voice that said he looked much better without that hefty cloak. Another said it should always be on - so that the blood red clouds could always remind her of his loyalties and of what he had done, lest she should let her guard slip. As though his eyes didn't do that already. As though she should need reminding at all.

"Mm, but it's relevant to our deal," she murmured, trying to keep the husky burr of tiredness from her voice.

The fire between them cracked and popped slightly. The shrieking noise a piece of wood made as air escaped it while burning made her think of the impaled Leaf and of Hidan. The blood she hadn't managed to get off of her face had dried and itched. Her fists tightened beneath the bedroll.

"I will consider exploring that avenue should the... meeting with Sasori's subordinate not go well," Itachi said, voice a little rougher around the edges than she might have expected.

"You'll consider it, will you?" She hissed.

His expression became reproachful - bearing down on her like a tonne of bricks. Sakura refused to respectfully break her gaze from his and look away in the age old symbol of deference. She had deferred enough to him tonight, and she feared if she did so any more she would use whatever little credibility she had to start with.

"You sought my help, not the other way around. We will follow what I feel is the best course of action," Itachi said, courteous tone laced with a hint of steel.

Again, his reference to them as "we" - a single entity, a team - grated on her. She felt her eyelids begin to drop slightly as though weights had been attached to them. As the air in the small space heated the bitter, tangy smell of earth became far stronger - mingling with the entirely human smell of two heated bodies confined to a small space. She knew that he was right, but she still didn't like the way he took total control of the situation.

She noticed that he wasn't sitting with his back against the wall and wondered why. It would surely put an unnecessary strain on his back to sit like that. A second afterwards she took in the thin, filmy cover of moisture on the dark wall that she hadn't noticed before, the small moss and fungus growing on the slick rock. He had let her have the dry side without a moment's hesitation; Sakura wasn't sure what to think of that.

Her mouth opened to offer him a place on the dry side - she could move to give him room, but instead she heard herself say, "How exactly will this deal go, Itachi-san?"

It seemed he had expected this question because the answer he gave was prompt and well thought out. Concise and efficient in the way that only someone rigorously trained from a young age in giving clear military reports could be.

"We will gather information - mostly through the aforementioned meeting - and while we do so you will heal my eyes at night. Afterwards, we will stay in a base relatively near here for a time while we plan; there you will be able to work on my eyes more easily. If all else fails the trade with Orochimaru will be the back-up plan. After Sasuke has crossed the border into Konoha you will never see me again. I have other duties I must attend to, but I can work around them."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak again, but he cut across her, "Do you always have so many questions? Sleep."

She frowned at him despite the fact that tiredness took the edge off of her irritation. No traces of solider pills were left in her system. In the flickering firelight, she could see splatters of arterial blood from the recently killed Leaf nin showing brazenly on his pale skin like spots of black paint. She focused that image in her razor-sharp memory along with Sasuke face crumpled in anger and pain to stamp into herself exactly what he was.

A murderer and a traitor.

The fact that she had to keep reminding herself of that was the worst thing of all.

Blackness began to creep across the edge of her vision, cloaking her mind further. Sleep encroached whether she wanted it to or not. The faint dripping noises of water coming from the other side of the cave prompted a single thought to swim through the darkness of approaching sleep like a tiny silver fish in the middle of a vast ocean. Sakura closed her eyes - screwing them tightly shut before mustering up the courage, or idiocy to say,

"You can sleep on this side if you like."

...

Annnnnd, that's a wrap. I (foolishly) signed up for an art contest in the KakaSaku lj community (it's based on tarot! - I need not tell you that is awesome. I blame the awesomeness for my predicament. You should check it out, for srs.). And... yes, I did do art last year, but I suck and I forgot this fact. (All I can draw are flowers, jugs and fruit - how does that help? Will I just shove some pink hair on an apple, some silver hair on an orange and hope for the best? WILL I?) So, basically frantic drawing practise has taken up some time I usually use for writing.

Oh, and a big thank you to all of my lovely reviewers and favouriters - I heart you to the extreme. Usually, I try to do at least some replies to reviews, but I've been failing a bit on that front lately. I suck. In particular, I'd like to give a big, slobbery thank you kiss to Unisawr/Unsawr - who always gives good reviews, and that last one was no exception.

Ps. Anyone who gets the vague Pinter reference gets an e-cookie. Oh, Pinter, I think you just liked to swear, you cad.

Thanks for Reading,

Silver ~ x