Whispers in the Dark

Chapter Five

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The weight of the silence strangled her. The air around her was so heavy that she found her legs heavier than mountains; her feet remained stubbornly glued to the floor. Sakura emerald eyes were stuck on the frozen figure lying on the bed, her lips gradually parted and she finally let out a deep sigh.

Her heart faltered slightly as her eyes wavered towards the long raven-hair. It was a mess, as if a small whirlwind had passed by. Yet, Sakura could not dart her green orbs away from the scene in front of her.

Small locks of dark hair rested in his peaceful tanned features. She noticed his slightly parted lips and his irregular breathing. Sakura right hand slowly moved upwards to her neck. Her fingertips touched the cold necklace that until then had been her only sane proof.

The man that was lying on the bed was the same man that murdered his entire clan, the same man that made Sasuke blind with vengeance. Sakura drew a sharp breathe as she stepped forward. She focused on staying as silent as possible, scared that Itachi would wake up at any moment.

The young medic-nin stopped at the end of the bed, leaning forward she stretched her free hand to support herself on the bed. She gulped as she took in his scent. It was the very same scent from all those weird encounters. Nodding to herself as she finally accepted that Sasuke's older brother was really lying on the bed, Sakura spotted the small wooden chair next to the bed. She hurried towards it and sat down, her both hands covered her face muffling a scream.

What has she gotten herself into?

Everyone was, undoubtedly worried about her. Tears came to her eyes as a blond-haired boy came to her mind.

'Naruto…'

Was Itachi even telling her the truth? Would he really help her to bring Sasuke back? She could not help but to feel rather foolish as she sat in that wooden chair so close to his body. She had believed him so blindly, like a helpless child searching for his mother embrace. She sniffed softly as she wiped her tears away with her sleeve. Suddenly, she raised her chin as she directed her gaze towards the closed door.

This Akito person was beyond suspicious. Nothing about him was ordinary. The way he made Sakura feel so at ease when he was around her, made her now feel incredibly uncomfortable. Was he capable to manipulate her emotions? Sakura narrowed her eyes at her own question. If that was the case, she needed to play safe.

Sakura could not trust them. She would have to think carefully about her own moves. She was playing a dangerous game after all. She could only hope that the rules were not that difficult.

Even if Itachi was not going to fill his promise, she still could turn things in her favor. She would have to try to suck in as much as information as she could.

For a moment, her bright green eyes shone with more intensity.

'Just you watch me…' she thought to herself as a strong feeling of determination started to grow inside her, 'I will bring Sasuke back no matter what…'

Sakura pushed her sleeves upwards and leaned forward closing the space between her and Itachi. She knitted her pink eyebrows together; small wrinkles adorned her forehead as her hands moved towards the Uchiha chest. Sakura concentrated on her chakra and seconds later, her both hands were surrounded by a bubble of green chakra.

She could feel his bloodstream travelling through his veins. She could feel his erratic and faint heartbeat. Her green eyes widened as she realized that one of his kidneys was not working. Maybe she could mend that. She pushed more chakra down to his body and bit her lower lip hard as her own heartbeat started to go wild.

There was an unpleasant itch spreading in the palm of her hands. Sakura focused hard and pushed more chakra into his kidney. The itching became more intense. The pink-haired girl let out a sudden gasp as the bubble of green chakra dissipated away without warning.

Sakura wiped the beads of sweat of her skin. Something was obviously wrong. She had never encountered a resistance like this before. Usually it always took more time to push the healing chakra into someone's body but with Itachi was completely different. There was a strange force blocking her chakra from getting in.

The young medic-nin sighed and leaned back on the chair. Akito's words floated inside her head as her eyelids closed.

"It's like a coma. I pushed my chakra in his wounded body, enough to keep him alive,"

'So it must be his chakra that is stopping my chakra from healing Itachi,' Sakura concluded as she allowed the darkness to take over her body.

It was cold. She was used to it now. Sakura shut her eyes tightly as she ignored the intense light in front of her. She turned her back on the light and focused on the darkness. She hugged herself as she walked forward, listening to her own footsteps. She could not feel her heartbeat this time. It was not beating frantically as it did before. Her green eyes were now wide open as she walked through the dark. A few minutes later, Sakura's eyes could distinguish some strange forms in the darkness.

Suddenly, she stopped abruptly as she finally spotted him.

He had his back turned on her. If he was aware of her presence, he did not show it.

Sakura took a deep breathe and found her legs moving towards him. Her hands curved into fists as she stopped next to him. Her skin began to prickle as she gathered the courage to break the odd silence.

Itachi could hear everything so clear. He could hear her deep breathing, the way she quarried her feet on the ground in a nervous way. He felt rather amused that he was able to make her feel nervous. It made him feel like he had the upper hand. He watched her from the corner of his eyes.

The pink-haired girl opened her mouth and closed it multiple of times, not really sure of what to say. Itachi watched as she pushed her eyebrows together in frustration. He raised an amused eyebrow as she pouted; unaware that he was observing her.

"Well kunoichi?"

His voice startled her. She quickly gained conscious of her surroundings and jerked her head to the side, meeting his deep dark orbs.

"I…" Sakura bit her lip as she realized that she could not look away from his eyes, "I… f-found y-y-your b-body," she shivered as she finished talking. She must have looked like a totally idiot stuttering like that! Sakura mentally scowled herself as she forced her eyes towards the floor.

Itachi dark eyes widened at the new piece of information. The pink-haired girl had his full attention.

"Elaborate,"

Sakura ignored the cold sensation that licked her spine. She swallowed dry and nodded, ignoring his demanding tone.

"You were not— I mean your body was not in the exact place you instructed me," Itachi narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips firmly as the information hit him.

"I don't know if you know this man," Sakura sighed and relaxed her hands, "All I know is that his name is Akito and somehow it's because of him I can see you while I sleep, then before I knew it I was in his house andu-"

Sakura eyes widened as two firm hands held her shoulders, "You are not making any sense," Itachi murmured as he looked directly at her wide green orbs, "Try again,"

The young medic-nin nodded and allowed herself to breathe again when Itachi hands moved away.

"Right," said Sakura before she cleared her throat, "When I got to the place, everything was destroyed in a way that no one would recognize what once it had been. I searched for your body everywhere and when I was about to give up, this man showed up," Sakura paused and noticed how Itachi seemed somewhat troubled.

"Akito you say?" Itachi asked as he stole a glance at his other body.

Sakura followed his gaze and nodded, "H-hai," she answered softly, "Akito took me to this small house a few miles away from where your body was supposed to be,"

Itachi dark eyes returned to the pink-haired girl. He wanted to ask her why in hell she would follow a stranger but refrained from doing so.

"He said that he possesses healing knowledge, it's something that he inherited from his clan," said Sakura as she tried to remember Akito's words, "Itachi-san!" She exclaimed as her green eyes met his, "This Akito person kept you alive with some unknown jutsu! If he had not done so, you would not be alive right now!"

Sakura was highly surprised with the indifference emotion plastered on the Uchiha's features.

"Akito…" he whispered the name a few times, forgetting Sakura's existence.

Sakura stood still as she watched the Uchiha turn his back on her. She heard Itachi whisper Akito's name several times, each one of his whispers had different tones and emotions. She was suddenly startled as Itachi quickly turned around; crimson orbs replaced his usual dark ones.

'Calm down… calm down… do not look at his sharingan!' she told herself as she quietly darted her eyes away from his form.

"I see…" Itachi spoke to himself with a malicious smile playing in his tanned face. He stared at the pink-haired girl with interest, "tell me kunoichi, what else happened?"

Sakura fixed her eyes on the ground. So, Itachi did know who this Akito person was and it looked like he was not going to let her know anything about him. She was not sure whether Itachi was on good terms with Akito or not. It did not matter anyway. She knew that she could not trust them.

"Right now I am staying with Akito," Sakura fought to keep her voice as normal as possible, "We are going to work on your recovery,"

Itachi nodded, the smile was long gone from his face. He studied the pink-haired girl and he could now understand part of what was happening. He could also see why Akito chose her. She was the Hokage apprentice, a master in healing skills, one that could perhaps complete Akito's plans.

"Hn," said Itachi after a while, "You should hurry up, kunoichi. The faster you heal me, the faster I reach Sasuke."

"Sakura," the pink-haired girl drawled impatiently. Itachi crimson orbs eyed her intently, questioning her. Sakura huffed, "You know my name so stop calling me that, it's annoying,"

The Uchiha lips moved upwards in something that could resemble a smile "Sakura,"

Sakura could feel the hair of the back of her neck stand up. The way that Itachi pronounced her name gave her goosebumps. His voice was deep soft and echoed inside her mind over and over again that found herself eager to hear him call her name more often.

She quickly shook her head. What on earth was she thinking? Feeling the heat rise to her cheeks, Sakura turned around. She breathed in and out a few times and walked away.

Itachi blinked softly as the girl in front of him spun around, turning her back on him. He raised an eyebrow as she walked away towards his body. His eyes followed her as a hunter watches its prey.

He watched her crouch on the unleveled ground, one of her fingers stopped on her rose-colored full lips as she concentrated on the body. Her eyes widened slightly as if she had won the lottery. Itachi felt somewhat uneasy as a wide smile etched on her pale features.

"I know!" Sakura exclaimed happily, as she allowed herself to fall on the floor, next to Itachi's body.

"What is it ku- Sakura,"

Sakura bit her lip as he pronounced her name. Then, she turned her head towards him.

"This body!" She announced as if it was that obvious. Itachi simply waited for her to carry on, "This body is what I have to heal!" She nodded waiting for him to catch her meaning. When he did not say anything, Sakura licked her lips and sighed, "you see, when I was with your real body, I could not heal you! My chakra was blocked by Akito's chakra! That is why this body is here!" Sakura added enthusiastically as she placed her both hands together, a bubble of green chakra did not take too long to appear.

Itachi finally nodded, understanding every word. He was surprised that the pink-haired girl got to the answer before him. He opened his mouth to reply but Sakura's voice interrupted him.

"So that's why!" the vivid smile disappeared from her face. "As soon as you get fully healed you will be able to head towards that intense white light… b-because right now you are in between," Sakura paused, analyzing what she had said before she continued, "right now… you are between life and death, so that explains why you are outside your body… wow,"

Itachi lips parted slightly as Sakura hands moved on to the damaged chest. His left hand paused on his chest where he could feel an uncomfortable itchiness.

"I can feel it," Itachi said as he placed himself closer to the pink-haired girl.

Sakura tilted her head to look at Itachi and smiled.

Itachi managed to ignore the itching as he stared at her perfect smile. He could read something in her big green orbs. The young medic-nin like him had already planned her next move. All his previous thoughts that the girl was an easy target to take down died away. Slowly, he darted away his gaze from her eyes to her neck.

She was wearing his necklace.

There was a long period of silence while Sakura healed the body. Sakura seemed as if she was going to suffocate anytime soon. She could not stand it. The silence was unbearable, especially when he was standing so close to her, watching her.

"What was it like?"

The sudden question caught him off guard. Itachi usual blank emotion suffered a shock.

"I beg your pardon?" he questioned, his tone of voice showed his blatant surprise. Surely, she was not asking that.

"The fight," Sakura whispered, "Sasuke… did he-"

"Hn," Itachi watched as Sakura moved her hands to his stomach, "He fought well…"

Sakura nodded slowly. She knew that he was not going to let her know the details. He sounded somewhat hesitating; as if there was something that he was hiding.

"Do y-you miss it?"

"No," Itachi answered, he sounded rather rude.

Sakura ignored it. She knew it was rather risky to be asking those types of questions, but it was not as if he was going to kill her while she was healing him.

"I have been away for almost two days," she said as she pushed more chakra inside his body, "I miss it already," she carried on, not daring to look at Itachi, "There is nothing like home," then she giggled quietly to herself, "mother always used to tell me that when I first became a genin,"

Itachi could not take his eyes away from the talking pink-haired girl. He was intrigued at every emotion her pale features displayed as she carried on talking. He did not answer or intervened and was somewhat glad that she finally understood that he did not want to answer her questions.

"Those were the best times… when we were still all genins," said Sakura as a picture of team seven invaded her mind, "Sasuke, Naruto and I, team seven…" Sakura eyes widened when she heard Itachi sit next to her.

Everything was quiet. The nature— trees, flowers, grass watched in silence as two figures walked together under the moonlight. A blond-haired boy suddenly stopped next to a tall tree.

"Dammit!" he screamed, making the other boy stop.

"You dickless! You want the ANBU to find us?" asked Sai while he rolled his eyes.

"I don't get it!" Naruto exclaimed angrily, his bright blue eyes stared at his team mate, "Why would Sakura-chan leave us!? Why would Sakura-chan… leave m-me?"

"Just calm down," said Sai in a quiet tone, "we are going to find her," Sai sounded pretty convincing which gave the blond-haired boy some hope.

"Yeah…" Naruto whispered, "We will,"

"Shhh!" Sai hushed Naruto while he looked around, his dark eyes narrowed.

"Shhh you!" Naruto retorted, pointing his index finger at the dark-haired boy.

"Naruto! You baka, someone is here," said Sai as his hand reached his weapon holster.

Naruto eyes widened, "Well yeah!" he exclaimed, "That's why I was telling you to shhh!"

Sai did not bother to reply. Instead, he quickly turned around, sending a dozen of shuriken flying towards the dark bushes.

Both boys froze at the sound of metal clashing together. They watched intently as the bushes moved and a tall figure finally came into view.

"Yo!"

Naruto jaw dropped while Sai visibly relaxed from his combat position.

"Kakashi-sensei!" said Naruto, shocked that the masked-nin had found them so quickly, "We are not returning to Konoha without Sakura-chan!"

"Aha," Kakashi put his kunai back in his holster and tilted his head, "I suspected as much," he replied with a jovially tone, "However, I am not here to take you guys back,"

"Really?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicious.

"Hai," Kakashi answered as he looked upwards, "we better hurry if we want to find any good trails," the copy-nin said as he pointed to the sky, "It's going to rain,"

"Ne, ne Kakashi-sensei," Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, a smile adorning his whiskered face, "What happened to the other two that came with you?"

"There was no one with me," said Kakashi as a smirk formed underneath his midnight blue mask.

Itachi did not know if she had been talking for hours but it felt like it. Normally, he would have told her to shut up and just heal his body. After all, talking about unnecessary things was not a part of their agreement. Strangely, her talk was welcoming.

He spent an infinite time by himself stuck in this place consumed by his own demons. It was a pleasant change to have the pink-haired girl talk about her life in Konoha, even if he did not care one bit about it. Yet, he could not say he did not care nor was not paying his devoting attention to her tales, because he was indeed partially interested.

His interest would perk when she mentioned his little brother.

"He was not surprised to see us there," said Sakura focusing on healing the body. Akito was not lying when he told her that Itachi internal wounds were serious, "He was so changed," a sigh escaped her lips, "I… missed- I mean… we missed two whole years, we could have done so many things together… he could have trained with us…"

Itachi snorted catching Sakura's attention since his snort was the only sign that showed he had been listening to her this the whole time.

"Do you think that Sasuke would not realize that staying in Konoha was not enough?" Sakura blinked stupidly at Itachi's question, "Even if Orochimaru had not given him the curse mark, Sasuke would have left you in search of power,"

"You don't know that," Sakura whispered sadly, refusing to accept Itachi's opinion.

"Sakura," Sakura swallowed dry as his deep voice reached her ears, "Sasuke life purpose was to kill me… now that I am dead, or he thinks I'm dead, he is a shell. He has no life purpose anymore,"

Sakura green chakra disappeared. She pressed her lips together as Itachi words echoed inside her mind. Vicious and poisoned words. Sakura tried to ignore them as much as she could but without any success.

"It's not t-true…" she said softly as she stood up looking down at his sitting form, "He would not… he wouldn't be like this… he wouldn't lose his life purpose…" her voice became more steady and louder as she carried on, "Sasuke wouldn't lose his will to live if you weren't a psychopath that killed off his entire family!"

Sakura gasped at her own words, covering her mouth with one of hands.

Itachi said nothing as his crimson orbs bored into her green ones. Words were not necessary to express the warning his gaze gave her.

"Gomen," whispered Sakura as she felt that she was being pushed away.

'Thank Kami' she thought as the world around her became darker again.

Sakura woke up with a start and shivered. Her eyes widened as she felt the chair rock backwards. Panicking, Sakura stretched her arms trying to hold on to something, her fingers managed to grab the white blanket that covered Itachi's lower body. She pulled, trying to balance herself only to end up falling anyway.

"Owww!" Sakura moaned as her head collided hard with the floor. Groaning and cursing aloud, she sat upright and massaged what was going to be a bump. She picked the blanket of the floor and stood up. Seconds later, a small scream escaped her lips; the blanket fell to the floor as her emerald eyes spotted something private.

'Hell yea!!' inner Sakura yelled, punching her fist into the air.

Sakura came back to reality when she heard hurried footsteps from the hallway. Quickly she covered Itachi's naked form and watched, as the room's door was wrenched open.

"Is everything alright?" asked Akito as his golden-cat like eyes stared at the lying chair.

"Yep, everything's fiiine!" Sakura fought back a laugh as Akito blinked in confusion.

A/N: Hahaha, this last part got me laughing. Yes, I am insane if that's what you're wondering right now. Oh… yeah I'm quite hyper too.

Anyway, I can start to say that this chapter is the result of too much sugar. Again, many of you still say things are too confusing, I hope it's getting more clear now of what is happening. So if you let me know what you think about this, I'll be a happy girl.

As always, thanks for reading!

Hugz,

Creidhe.

[Edit:] Oh yeah!!!! I really could use a kind soul to help me with my grammar. A beta anyone? (puppyeyes)