Chapter Five
"Do you sense it?" a woman asked from a mouse mask.
There were four figures all clad in ANBU attire. The team leader motioned the team to stop. He had a hawk mask on and the other two figures had a cat and wolf mask.
"Do you feel it? The darkness?" The Hawk asked the Wolf. He received a grunt in return.
"Tch, of course you wouldn't answer. Byakugan!" The Hawk exclaimed. He tensed on the spot before turning back to his team.
"We have spotted our target. Seems like our sources were right this time."
Konoha 11 has been trying for weeks to look for Sakura Haruno. It seems like all the sources were inaccurate until today. The Wolf growled impatiently and was about to leave but the Hawk stopped him.
"Sasuke, do as I say. I am the team leader." The Wolf glared at him in return.
" Why do I have to listen to you, Hyuuga?"
"Cause Neji is team leader you baka!" the Mouse yelled, about to smack him on the head.
"Tenten, do not aggravate him." the Cat said without stuttering. She had lost it long ago due to the presence of a hyperactive blonde.
"Hinata, he's being a total ass."
"What do you expect? It is the Uchiha after all." Neji smirked from his mask as Sasuke glared at him. "We wait. We need to have an advantage and ambush them."
The others agreed and Sasuke was forced to stay upon the trees. He wanted badly to go up to her, to hug her and tell her how much he missed her.
Yes, Sasuke was admitting it. He loved Sakura. He was there her entire life, watching her beauty and power in the medical field rise. He wanted so bad to comfort her and tell her his feelings but he was an Uchiha. Uchiha don't express emotions. So he hid in the shadows, believing it to be the best choice when in reality it was the worst choice ever. It was because of that choice Sakura left.
'You will get your happy ending, I promise.'
'Do you feel them? They're a couple weeks early.'
'Che, of course it's Konoha. They're planning to ambush us.'
'Hey! We can finally get rid of this freak.'
Sakura's eyes widened a fraction and smirked for a bit. She and Deidara had just finished scouting for a mission and were about to return back to their HQ. He kept on rambling about bombs and art and Sasori and Sakura just had about enough.
'We can blame it on them.'
Sakura smiled inwardly and she turned to Deidara. Her impassive mask was on as she asked him a question.
"Do you feel something?"
Sakura knew they were of hearing distance and that her question would bring them out sooner than later.
"What shit are you talking about now, Sakura? Always emo and shit, it's annoying and-" BAM!
A smoke bomb was thrown and Sakura smirked. She would finally be able to get rid of Deidara.
As the smoke cleared, she saw four ANBU figures. Her face contorted into a smug smirk as she saw who she was fighting against.
'Easy. I can see their eyes without difficulty. Two Hyuugas, Neji as Hawk and Hinata as Cat. I recognize those buns anywhere. Tenten is the Mouse while…hmm. Sharingan, meaning that Sauske is the Wolf.'
'This will be interesting.'
"Ah, Konoha nin. It's been a while." Sakura said with the smirk still on her face.
The Wolf growled in return and the four rushed at them.
Sakura rushed back and made quick hand seals.
"Suiton: Suiro ga shutsugen!"
A water dragon appeared and Sakura pointed the four of them. Deidara went to the side as he saw they wanted her and not him. He prepared his clay objects for explosion and waited for the right moment because he knew that Sakura could handle himself.
"Suiton: Suiro no wa kaiko sen!"
The dragon let out a beam of water and attempted to hit any of the four shinobi.
"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" the Wolf exclaimed and he created multiple fireballs that eventually subdued the dragon. Meanwhile, Deidara came out and threw his clay objects at them.
"Katsu!"
The objects exploded and the forced the four members to regroup and organize a plan.
"That blonde guy is in the way. Wolf, keep Sakura busy while we take him out." the Hawk said. However, the group was split as Deidara threw more of his clay and attempted to explode them.
Sasuke rushed towards Sakura and she ran towards him, unsheathing a special katana she had made herself. If she poured chakra into it, water comes out and once she stops, it turns into ice making her sword either longer and sharper by leaving it down or spiky at the fronts if she held it pointing towards someone. She decided with length toady as Sasuke pulled out his Kusanagi and they both clashed their swords with each other. Sakura looked into his eyes bravely and gave a small smile. Sasuke momentarily tensed.
'Is that… regret?'
He had no time to think as she broke off and swung at him, emotionless facade back in place. He dodged and they clashed with each other. They were so fast that they were little blurs. Although Sasuke was faster, Sakura was able to predict his movements and countered him easily. She was able to lightly graze his armor every now and then before he would attack again. He noticed that she was once again holding back. She didn't focus chakra on her feet to make her faster and this made him angry. He was fuming and he pushed her back with force.
Sakura saw his eyes spinning wildly and thought that his three tomoe were so beautiful. She broke her gaze with him and focused on his mouth. She knew that if she looked into his eyes once more, she would be trapped in a genjutsu. Now that he was angry, she would have to be on the defensive.
On the other side, Deidara was having a hard time. He couldn't mold in time to match the speed of the other three. At one instance he was getting hit by weapons and the other, he was forced into taijutsu. Having enough, he made an clay clone of himself. He forced it near the Hawk before exploding it.
"Katsu!"
He saw the Hawk's eyes widen before he was saved by the Cat. Both were slightly injured and Deidara had no time to be proud as he was dodging weapons once more. He threw his clay at her and exploded it again once more.
'Where the hell is that brat when you need her?'
As if she heard him, Sakura left her battle with Sasuke and ran to Deidara. But things would not go his way, no. Today was the end of Deidara.
Sakura, knowing that once Sasuke caught up, would take a swing at her so she headed towards Deidara. He looked like he was having a bad time as he was more of a long distance fighter. Sakura deliberately slowed down and turned at the last second. Deidara's eyes widened as he saw Sakura come at him with the Wolf hot at her heels.
'If she doesn't turn or do something, he'll run into me!'
Everything was in slow mo. As Sakura turned at the last second, Sasuke thrust his sword. He watched as it hit her partner, like she knew he would hit him. His Kusanagi was deeply embedded in Deidara's stomach and he saw his eye's widen in disbelief, as if Sakura had finally made a mistake but at the most terrible time. It was as if she did it on purpose.
Sasuke inwardly shook his head. She wouldn't do that, she was too perfect at theses battles. She held back against him in a sword fight and she was winning. There was no way she would deliberately do that.
As Deidara gasped for his air, Sakura threw explosion tags at the ANBU except for Sasuke and used that distraction to take Deidara and carry him. She pummeled her fist on the ground to create another distraction so she would make it to the HQ with extra time. This time, she used chakra on her feet as she carried Deidara on her back.
He coughed and she felt a tad bit guilty.
"…why? Why did you dodge the last second?"
"I needed to help you as fast as I could and I miscalculated the speed. I am so sorry." Lies, all lies.
Deidara coughed blood out and tried to speak once again.
"..can you.. can you heal me?"
Sakura stopped for a moment to look at the wound. It was too close to the heart and she knew that he was losing too much blood. She couldn't do anything and he knew. He laughed a bit before spitting out blood.
"…do… Do something, hm?"
Sakrua stayed quiet. The least she could do was to grant his last wish.
"I…want to…be buried Sasori… when his time comes… tell leader that…please…"
Sakura nodded silently and masked her chakra so the others would find them.
"…so we can find out whose…art was the best… Say… you weren't really that bad… after all… I'm sorry…" he managed out and Sakura saw his eyes. She tried not to cry even though she said multiple times that she would kill him.
"No, I'm sorry Deidara. Live in peace now, I know that your art will last a lifetime." Sakura said gently and he smiled at her, a true genuine smile. Even if Deidara was a killer, he always had a heart. The others were too empty and too cold; he was the only one she initiated fights with. She sort of hated to say that she would miss him.
So she closed his eyes and ran back to her HQ. She tried not to cry because of what she did. She unknowingly made a friend at Akatsuki, a bond. And she shattered it. She killed him, the only one in Akatsuki who would say sorry for the things he had done, and she felt like shit for doing so.
She just told the story of how Deidara died and his wishes. Pein never suspected that she was doing it on purpose because he saw the flicker of sadness when she retold the story. He knew she was affected so he did not question her. They buried Deidara near the HQ and Pein let her keep Deidara's eye scope he used for long distance as a memory. Sakura was surprised he was even acting this way, but she supposed it was because she was his favorite. He ordered that she would take no missions for a while seeing that Konoha was after her. He didn't want his special trump card to be stolen away.
Deidara really was the only joyful one around. He would play around with the other members and annoy them. Tobi was a different case; he was sick and he played with the limbs of his enemies after he blew them up. Deidara was special. She had always thought of him as an annoying, cold killer but she found him to be just like her except that he had no one to guide him. But Sakura didn't need these thoughts right now. She needed to find out how to kill the rest of the Akatsuki without them knowing.
So Sakura spent the rest of her days doing rigorous training. She trained to keep the pain away from her mind, to keep the memory of her unexpected friend away. Yuki and Takeshi knew of what had happened and that the two had a closer relationship than just arguing. They were literally the only ones other than themselves that were light-hearted enough to argue. The rest were either too emotionless or argued about horrible things. Seeing this, they left Sakrua alone to grieve and she did. She would rid of this organization so that no misguided people like Deidara would ever turn evil. This world needed more joy than pain.
The ANBU team went back to Konoha confused as ever. It seemed as if Sakura wanted her partner to die. It made no sense. Sasuke admitted that he felt like she was holding back and playing more on the defense instead of the offense. As they told the mission details to Tsunade, she rubbed her fingers on her temples and barked at them to leave, saying that she needed to think. But she knew she didn't. She knew that Sakura was fulfilling her part of the mission.
And sure enough, a couple days later, a package arrived for Tsunade. She opened it and found a dead rose and a blood sample. There was also a handwritten note attatched to it.
Tsunade-sama,
Please do not tamper with this. Deidara was the only light in Akatsuki and I realized it too late. He was misguided just like me except he had no light to follow. I am extremely sorrowful that I had killed a friend of mine. Pein let me keep his eye scope, and I will treasure it forever. However, there is one thing for sure; Akatsuki will be destroyed. You can count on that.
Sakura Haruno