Inspiration: The Harold Song- Ke$ha

"They say that true love hurts, well this could almost kill me. Young love murder, that is what this must be, I would give it all to not be sleeping alone"

Pairing: SasuSaku, NaruSaku, or ItaSaku are your main pairings

Notes: The break in upload time wasn't that long, but I know it might feel like a lot to those of you who followed this back before I was in class when I updated like 2 times a week. I'm sorry that I'm a little busy so I can't update nearly as often, but the chapter is here now, so forgive me! Thanks for following me all this time and showing your support. Follows and favorites are good, but always try to review. I like, need to know your thoughts my lovelies. So anyways, enjoy. I won't say much spoilers about the chapter, just read and find out.

As always, Rice, you're a genius.

Theme: Romance/Drama

Rating: Mmmm for Mature: following themes are or will be present in this chapter or throughout the fic: some vulgarities such as language, sexual themes, humiliation, drugs, and other dark themes.

[The life is fading from me while you watch my heart bleed]

He had only managed to make it to the open meeting hall before he heard a scream.

It was faint, but he picked it up easily enough. It sent a terrifying shiver up his spine and a discomfort made his nerves prickle to attention.

Suddenly he was reminded of all the times he'd ever feared for his friends' safety. Every mission he'd been on with Naruto and Sakura as kids, before he had abandoned them in search of power, all the times he'd been worried for them. Each time Naruto stumbled or faltered. Every time Sakura had cried out in pain, or looked at him in fear.

Sasuke was struck with guilt, fear and melancholy that set his instincts on fire. Had he been a little younger, more naïve or as impulsive as he was just a few years ago, he would have took off at as fast as his legs could carry him.

Rather , he faltered in step and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

Its empty silence in the aftermath of the faint echo of Naruto's screech was disturbing. He couldn't sense anyone. Didn't see anyone in any direction, yet there was a feeling within him that made him nervous. He couldn't shake the apprehension that wound in chills down across his skin.

There was a sad acceptance that settled on his shoulders; Naruto was here, Sakura was here, and in all likelihood, there was absolutely nothing he could do to help them.

Sasuke had never experienced any helplessness of this nature before, and it was smothering.

Absolutely overwhelming. It caused a perspiration to dampen his forehead and his fists had drawn into familiar fists of frustration.

There was nothing he wanted to do more than to run towards the noise.

Rather than giving into that instinct he stood numbly in the middle of the room, frozen by the realization that he was incapable of intervening safely. Iced over by the thought of what his past teammates were experiencing.

Somehow, he was struck by the poisonous acceptance of the fact that he couldn't lie to himself anymore. He was worried about his old friends. Regardless of whether they were weak, of whether they got in his way or of the fact that he had willingly traded them out for more powerful allies.

All of those facts paled in the realization that he did in fact care very much if they were harmed.

He had intended to swap them out; to leave them to achieve his goal of more power. He had never meant to see them harmed. No matter how selfish he was, he didn't want stand by and listen to them being harmed, possibly even put down without a fight due to their state.

His legs wouldn't move, no matter how he desperately wished they would.

Sasuke stood staring at the entryway across the room with black eyes that spindled together with pools of red. His senses on high alert, but his body refusing to move.

Itachi was seated on the corner of his bed, his sharingan winding round and round as he glared open-endedly at the door. His eternally blurred eyesight was more so unfocused, like he was gazing through a foggy glass. There was no recognition on his face, no thoughts in his head.

Just a steady stream of uneasiness disrupting the flow of his chakra and causing his hands to shake nearly unnoticeably.

Teetering back and forth on the cliff of leaving to try and talk some sense into his little brother, and on the other hand, just joining him to try to save the rest of the old Team Seven .

Regardless of whether Sasuke thought he was professional and impersonal to a fault, it was the farthest thing from the truth. In reality, Itachi was far too committed. In general , his problem wasn't that he was too indifferent and detached . His real problem was that he always had a hard time ignoring his emotions. He prided himself on not letting them show, but he was always internally battling.

He had more loyalty and more emotions than a shinobi rightly should have.

It was part of why he always liked the little pink haired kunoichi so much. She was passionate and brave and so visibly affectionate. She was a contradiction to what they were supposed to be and at the same time, she was so similar to him on that note.

Sakura who was passionate and brave, and so loyal it was foolish. Itachi connected with her loyalty and her bravery and selflessness.

It was a fact that he hid daily. His own loyalty. His own selflessness. If anyone could really see just how much Itachi really did care, they'd all look at him differently.

So he locked his external responses to his feelings inside a box in his mind.

There were always times like this one where that box became terribly full, to the point it might overflow.

There was no knock at the door, but Itachi was still prepared for the entrance of a figure.

He sensed them before he heard them and they must have known as much. It might be considered rude not to knock before entering a room, but if anyone knew he would sense them, it was an Akatsuki member.

Immediately, he braced himself with relief to see Sasuke. Maybe his foolish brother wasn't so foolish. He had probably gotten half way and stopped cold; realized that there was nothing he could do. Itachi wanted desperately for Sasuke to realize that there was only one way this scheme could be pulled off, and it wasn't acting rashly.

He gazed openly as the door slid open soundlessly. The sight he met made his muscles tense beneath his cloak.

Not Sasuke , but another face greeted him as they shut the door behind themselves just as quietly.

He stood from the bed out of surprise. In an attempt to pass it off as being polite, he stiffly lowered his head in a minor sign of respectful reception. After all, he wasn't angry or upset to see that it wasn't Sasuke. Just surprised.

The gruff expression on the very grayish-blue face before him was impolite at best. A shadow of discomfort, annoyance and reluctant disinterest. Kisame and Itachi squared off for a moment of silence, both standing uncertainly before the silence was broken by Kisame's voice.

It was rather clipped and staid. " Never thought I'd see the day I thought I was smarter than you ." The admittance seemed indignant at best. "Both of you Uchiha and that stupid girl are trying to get me killed."

Itachi peered at the man whom he considered a friend with dull eyes. He deactivated his sharingan in an attempt to lessen the pain it was causing. The blurring around the corners of his eyesight was causing his ever present headache to grow worse by the moment. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything." He said evenly, his voice may have been the same tone of disinterest, but his friend knew better. "It sounds as if you're really afraid."

The tall Akatsuki before him snorted huffily. "If I'm afraid then you really are stupid and we both know that's not true." Black and white eyes met black and red for a moment before Kisame's miffed expression upon entry turned neutral.

Along with his new attitude, he seemed to sober into a business tone. "That girl is more trouble than she's worth, Itachi." He didn't sound intentionally rude or cross, but the words still read harshly. They made Itachi internally cringe at the thought.

He didn't answer, simply left his gaze trained on Kisame as he waited for the man to continue.

"She's with Pein now." The words were bland, and almost a little dejected.

The words sent a new breed of concern shooting down through Itachi's bones. "Are you certain?"

For a moment , he could read mild surprise on Kisame's features before they turned sour. "I can't be sure, no. But I went to talk to the kid for her, and when I came back she was gone. I think it was Pein." The angular, blue features on his friend were displeased as he spoke, and it was a strange thought that Kisame could be upset over such a thing. Itachi had never known the missing-nin to take kindly to strangers and that's definitely what Sakura was.

He decided to process the entire sentence carefully before making his next move. He didn't know why he trusted Kisame, but he did. He trusted the sharp spirited man more than most, and he knew that the tall Akatsuki's instincts probably weren't wrong. If Kisame thought she was with Pein, she probably was.

He couldn't deny that he was a little shocked to hear that Kisame seemed to be on their side.

"The kid?" He repeated the words in a short, professional tone.

"Yeah, that blond brat. Her teammate."

A small kindling of hope sparked within Itachi's chest. Perhaps he could finally help his brother and Sakura. If it was the last thing he would do, he wouldn't fail those few people he cared about.

"Tell me everything."

For a moment, his companion seemed annoyed at the request, but he almost immediately conceded. The tale that he began was interesting, to say the least.

Itachi was soon suppressing the urge to grin as he thought of the pink haired girl. She was definitely a sort apart. Her gall and spirit wouldn't be broken in a place like this, of that much he was certain. Now if his little brother would just realize it, they could do it.

Itachi was nearly certain that they could reach their goal easily, with Sasuke's acceptance that Sakura wasn't broken and weak, and didn't need saving that is.

It was a short, and proficient explanation , and at the end of it, Kisame gave him a measured glance.

"She's going to need to regain her chakra, and quickly," He frowned, "Or else she's going to go from a sitting duck, to a dead sitting duck. She may be competent but that doesn't mean she's going to last long without being able to defend herself. You, your little brother, and I can't protect her forever."

Itachi knew he was right, but it didn't make the thought any easier to swallow. "She'll manage." He said with an even voice. He hoped the words were true. Sakura was strong enough to manage on her own in the event that they couldn't help, but that didn't make it any easier to think about.

The nearly shattering pressure at which Sakura was gritting her teeth was audible. It caused a deep ache to form, which nearly immediately gave her a headache. The tension that had built up from his punch earlier had long ago caused her head to feel like it was four sizes bigger than normal. Her eyes felt strained in their sockets.

It was becoming difficult to breath. She greedily gulped in as much air as possible during the silence that followed her hurtling punch to his face.

What was she thinking? Punching Pein in the face. It was just too bold, and too stupid.

She couldn't see Naruto and his lack of sound was making her even more nervous.

The lack of motion in the room all together was another thing entirely. Like a bolder of stress and apprehension, suffocating them all. Floating down around them and then hardening until it felt like dried mud.

Pein was showing no external disapproval of her motion, but she could sense it in his body language.

His fingers which were curled around her knee and upper arm dug the slightest bit deeper into her skin. The pressure they exerted was noticeable and edging on uncomfortable . There was a minor moment as her bright green eyes met the purple, spiraling depths of his own, that she wasn't entirely certain she was actually awake.

She thought surely she must have been dreaming.

If this were real, she would already be dead now. She wouldn't have punched him in the first place if it were real.

But it was real, and she couldn't and probably wouldn't even if she could, retract the punch. The response he gave her after was also real, even though it seemed inequitable to reality.

She was gazing at him one moment and the next there was nothing.

A whooshing feeling came over her, as if both the ground and the ceiling were moving both up and down at the same time. There was no feeling of his arms around her anymore, but yet, she was still hovering. Her feet weren't touching the ground, but he was gone.

There was nothing.

A floating feeling and then, total blackness.

A blackness that was so tangible, so real, that she could reach around and touch it. Her fingers poked into it and it melded around them like water. There was a moment where she felt certain she might vomit from the strangeness of the feeling.

There was no sound. There was no feeling. There was nothing but an empty space.

And that's when she knew, instantly, instinctively.

Her heart began to pound as the empty black space before her morphed into a flat, wide and bland gray space. No walls , no ceiling, somehow there was no floor yet she was sitting on one nonetheless. Her hands reached out before her and her strength felt zapped.

She brought her fingers before her and laced them together. Taking a deep breath in and releasing it, she closed her eyes. "Release." She whispered, desperation bringing her voice up an octave.

This wasn't reality. This was a genjutsu, and even as she lowered her hands away, it remained.

Whatever minuscule amount of chakra she had left in her wasn't enough to break the spell she was under.

She couldn't decide what would have been worse; knowing it was a genjutsu and she couldn't release it, or just never knowing; remaining oblivious.

Outstretched as far as the eye could see, the dreary ashen landscape was obtuse, and made her vision blur from having nothing to focus on. When the figure appeared, she didn't expect it.

In fact, she was so frightened by the sight that an immediate gush of tears formed on her cheeks.

Being stuck in a genjutsu made her particularly vulnerable. Being uncertain of what to expect, but knowing that none of it was real was particularly alarming.

As her eyes met the black and red figure, which was so disturbingly clear against the background of the room, she choked on a breath of air.

She didn't expect to see the black hair, nor the red and black eyes. Her lips formed the name on instinct. "I-Itachi?"

Immediately, her head buzzed to life, denying her heart the terrifyingly relieved rush it wanted to deliver her. Rather, she realized immediately that it was probably a trick. She must be in Pein's genjutsu. It couldn't be the real Itachi, of course it was a trap.

The instant she attempted to scramble to her feet, she realized her mistake.

The pain came in that moment and it was like none she'd ever experienced.

Like a million needles being stuck into the deep tissues and nerves, like her bones being broken, like her skin being set on fire. Her vision quickly blurred and then disappeared as she squeezed her eyes shut against the pain.

She was screaming and writhing on the ground, and even if she wanted to, she couldn't open her eyes again.

The amalgamated screeches and gurgles of sound she was letting loose were horrible to her own ears. She wanted to reach inside of herself and track the chakra in her veins. To will it to appear so that she could gather enough to attempt a release again. Instead she remained shaking, vibrating on the ground.

Her teeth were chattering, and even though she logically knew that genjutsu was just a jutsu of the mind; she thought she could taste her own blood. She knew somewhere inside that none of this pain she was experiencing was reality, yet she was unable to separate the two from each other.

For all she knew, this was reality, and everything she'd experienced before this was actually the dream.

She tried to remember what had occurred up until this moment, but failed miserably to draw up any thoughts that weren't pleas or screams. Somehow she couldn't even manage to hold onto an image of Naruto, Kakashi, Sai or Tsunade. Everything, anything that might help grant her relief was somehow just out of her reach.

Abruptly, the pain subsided for a brief flash of time, but she could still feel its effects. As she laid there and heaved and sobbed, she curled herself into a ball.

It may have been one minute or it may have been ten years before she opened her eyes. The outstretch of gray was now a blood red color that was equally disorientating. It was the same color as the sharingan eyes that stared down at her. There must have been twenty pairs of them all gazing at her as several copies of Itachi stood around her in a circle.

She didn't know if she called his name out loud, or just in her imagination. She could no longer decipher whether she was even conscious or not.

The only thing Sakura knew was that she was in an unspeakable amount of pain, and there wasn't anything she could do about it.