Crossing through the thinning crowds of the street, Sakura skimmed by towards her apartment slowly with the mask in hand as she thought of what the past recent events had presented to her. So many things have been happening that nothing seemed to make sense.

Fingering the mask piece again, she turned it over in her hand a few times before pausing to toss it in the garbage bin on the side of the road. After Kakashi and Naruto's meeting, she could find no point in keeping the shredded piece anymore and chose to dispose of it.

Sakura reached her apartment in moments and walked up the stairs to her door quietly, jiggling the knob slightly as she entered the silent room. She motioned to flick the light on when strong solid arms enveloped around her, one hand wrapped at her waist and the other over her mouth as they pulled her to their chest, mouth a her ear.

"Shh. You got leave here, now. Do you trust me?"

As she tried to speak out in protest, the hand tightened at her mouth and she settle for a moment before giving a single, quick nod.

"Good. Be quick and listen to everything I tell you, got that?"

Another nod.

After her release, Sakura took a deep breath and left the light off as she pretend to grasp an item off her table near the door and step back out, shutting and locking the door swiftly and walking back down the stairs and to the street. She pulled her arms before her head, stretching, with a long yawn and took a stride down the street to the corner where the local Ramen shop was. It was open late so she cast the cloth aside and entered, sitting at the bar next to a tall figure and ordered just something to drink. When the worker turned to complete her order, Sakura dropped her eyes, the nervousness finally flooding her previously stone face. She ran her hand through her bangs as she kept her eyes trained to the table.

"Where now?"

The man shifted slightly, glancing sideways, past her head, at the street.

"Wait here. They're close but won't react when you're in public. Too open."

She held her hands stiffly in front of her, on the table, resisting the temptation she had to bury her face in them. She found it impossible to think clearly. To focus at all! Things were happening so suddenly and if he hadn't caught her before she turned in for the night, she may have never opened her eyes again, so he made it seem.

Thinking back to it, just minutes ago, he made it sound like anything could have happened to her. She grasped the necklace around her neck self consciously.

'You have something important to them. Important to Pain, the leader, and they will hunt you for it.'

'Something very important…' he whispered, his hand on her face lowered to her neck then down the chain, lifting it from her shirt as it fell low, nestling on her chest. His touch and words made it feel like the metal was scorching her clothes and burning through.

Why was it so important? Was it truly worth risking her life for?

'Don't. Don't let them have it, Sakura. Protect it. With your life, keep it safe.'

'Why?'

Why.

"Why?"

She spoke now, aloud but her guest just remain still, choosing to ignore her question as if she never even spoke until it started to eat away at her. She fumed and dared to look at the man, dared to defy him and risk his cover.

"I want answers."

The man refused to meet her eyes but his hands than were folded casually in front of him clenched at his attempt to remain calm and his body grew rigid. He cocked his head slight as he hissed at her.

"Do you want to fuck this up?!"

"I want answers," She repeated stubbornly but he bit his tongue and the owner of the shop gave her a cup of sake, hesitating at the obvious tension.

"I-is there a problem here?"

He inquired, scared slightly as the pair hide their face from him in growing anger.

The man was the one to stand, slapping his money on the bar, and pushing away. Before he stepped out, he leaned to bow at the owner but spoke to Sakura. His red eyes glanced at her just once before he returned them to the ground.

"I'll wait for you. Take your time and relax, you're guilty as hell."

With that, he left and Sakura growled silently to herself as she downed the cup of Sake in one swallow and slammed the cup down.

"Son of a—another cup, please?"

He was so arrogant. It pissed her off more than she ever thought but she knew she couldn't hold her anger for long. This was the man who had saved her and is protecting her now. Of all people to help her, too! This is ridiculous. There has to be a trick here but Sakura saw none. Using her perivial vision, she could see the unnatural shadows not that far from her shifting slightly and swaying with the wind. She could feel their eyes on her, burrowing into her skull as she defied their original plans. The frustration stained the air and the tension built but, as the informant had said, if Sakura just listened to him, she'd be able to out smart them. They couldn't stand on the streets for long; too many other ninjas were still walking about and they wouldn't risk their cover.

Still, Sakura could shake away the ripples of fear that ate of her soul. The Akatsuki? After her? For some kind of jewelry? This was all so confusing and never in a million year could Sakura see this ever happening to her of all people.

'Just my luck…'

She thought bitterly as the minutes flew until a good 30 minutes had flown by thanks to the cups of Sake she had been taking in. It took quite a few cups to truly affect her judgment and she had yet to reach that limit but the warmth of the alcohol was already warming her, relaxing her tensed muscles and when she glanced back at the shadows, she noticed the stalkers had vanished from their previous posts. Unsure as to if they are still watching, Sakura paid her bill and stood up slowly and looked around to remind herself where she was required to meet the condescending man at and walked calmly into the darkness, sticking near other by passers as she was instructed. She walked a couple blocks, and then retraced her steps, running now until she reached a side street and quickly made her way to a narrow alley behind the very bar she had been sitting at. She sat down on the ground and held her spinning head a moment. The Sake was making its way through her system.

"I'm tired of playing ring-around."

"You shouldn't drink so much. It makes you stupider."

The darkness whispered down at her and she felt a slight wind ripple near her as the man's feet touched down beside her silently and he leaned down over her.

"Shut up. It's the only way I know to dull the buzzing… buzzing in my head. It's because of you it's there."

She snapped and looked up to meet to steely red eyes glaring at her in a front but she could see deep in them that they laced with concern and it took her back a bit especially when his hand flew over her eyes and pushed her bangs back gently. Sakura stared up at his palm and then at the purple finger nails as he dropped his hand back, withdrawing it into his now pitch black coat. It was a different make than what his previous one had been but she didn't feel like questioning it, knowing that's the only reason he could trick his own comrades into not knowing it was him beside her the whole time.

Itachi straightened himself with a sigh and looked straight ahead.

"They got slightly lost. You're drunkenness helped in tricking them but it will only be moments when they find us if we don't move now."

"I'm not drunk… and move where?! Where else could we go? We can't hide anywhere in Konoha. They find us. People will recognize us, er, or me at least. You are obviously 'well hidden'."

Sakura remarked, rolling her head back and closing her eyes until something smack across her face and she opened her eyes and blinked, staring at a large coat that he had tossed at her. She held it up.

"This is way to big for me. It's too long."

"Deal with it. You'll wear it for now to cover that bright hair of yours until we make it out of here."

"We're actually leaving the village?!"

"Do you even hear yourself when you speak? Oh course, we're leaving. They'll find us if we don't. It's not far so stop complaining."

Sakura stood up, swaying slightly.

"I'm not complaining I just don't want to go. I'm tired and… not drunk. I want to sleep. I wanna…. Sleep…"

She muttered softly as she swaying turned to falling as her eyes rolled back and her head dropped. Itachi caught her in his arms before she could hit the ground and he adjusted her body so her head rested on his chest, snoring softly. He stared at her relaxed face as he muttered,

"Light weight…"

And lifted her effortlessly into his arms and cradled her as he walked through the alley, towards the forest and out of this god forsaken village.

It took a while before Sakura's eye fluttered and opened to see the world around her flying pass too quickly and a headache pulsed behind her eyes. She took a moment to realize that someone else was doing the running and they were holding her.

Sakura's eyes flew up and she could see Itachi's silhouette against the slight morning light that began to peak over the horizon. He briefing glanced at her then back ahead as his mouth formed a small smile.

"Morning, Drunk."

Sakura growled but bit her tongue as the headache pounded on her bringing the prickle of tears to the corners of her eyes.

"Could you please slow down?"

She pleaded softly and he reacted to her weak tone and slowed his steps a bit.

"We'll be there soon."

"Where?"

"Just a small village. It's only temporary until I've though of our next step."

He replied calmly and slowed down even more until he completely stopped at the edge of the think forest, at the beginning of the village. It was definitely a very small village, scattered with few homes and fewer buildings. They stood off near the only hotel they had when Itachi lowered Sakura to stand on her own feet.

She stood carefully, ignoring the hang over that ate at her and stretched.

"I can't be gone long. People will notice I'm missing."

She commented but Itachi walked ahead of her, not looking back as he replied.

"Exactly."

Ex-exactly?

"Is this all a part of your master plan?"

She snapped at him, standing her ground.

"Is everything going 'according to plan'? Why am I even following any of your instruction?! I bet you're in on it all and this is just some kind of game to you! A sport! What do you get out of this little charade, huh? Huh?"

Itachi had stopped walking then and kept still with his back still towards her until she stormed to stand before him and in his face that remained a mask. With every 'huh', she shoved at him angrily.

"Well? Answer me, damn it! I want my answers! Tell--"

He moved too quickly for her to react. Reaching a lightning fast hand, he snatched her poking hand and pulled it down roughly, yanking her upper body down a bit with it. Sakura froze and cast her wide eyes up at Itachi's now and saw them squinted in anger, making her shallow hard in fear she had pushed too much. He bent his neck down slightly and spoke through clenched teeth.

"If this a game with the Akatsuki, I wouldn't even waste my time on you. Period. This is different and if all you're going to do is bitch about it every five minutes, I'll just take that god forsaken charm around your neck and leave you here for them to do as they wish."

Although her heart pounded unevenly, Sakura dared to respond back.

"Then why don't you just do that? It'll save you a lot of time!"

"Because I can use you to set things right."

He barked back, releasing her aching wrist and walk ahead again.

"Don't just stand there and draw more attention than you already have."

She stared at his back as her fingers traced the tender area of her hand gently and followed silently behind him as she thought over what he said.

What could she possibly do to help the infamous Itachi Uchiha? The mass murderer of Konoha. The most successful, most talented ninja of their time.

What purpose could a lone ninja serve to someone so great?