Chapter 40 An Old Acquaintance
Deidara childishly tossed a small piece of clay up and down in his palm, growing bored with their waiting. How long had id been now, maybe three or four hours of doing nothing but waiting for the final addition to this assorted team to be complete?
Personally Deidara did not want anymore new members to work with, since he already wanted to kill the newest one. Speaking of said Kunoichi, he looked over and scoffed t her innocent 'mask' being put to use on the strange ANBU boy. As much as he tried to show lack of interest in the silent person, he genuinely was curious as to the boy's actions for the entire time they had been waiting.
From the moment they had arrived, all he had been doing was 'drawing' in his small book...this would not be too interesting...if the boy actually would draw something on his page. The sound of paper being torn caught his attention, as he watched the boy hand a piece of paper over to Claara, who gave what he could assume was a feigned smile of gratitude. He could not resist the chuckle when his suspicions of acting were true, when as she walked away, her innocent face morphed to its neutral expression.
"And what is it that you find so funny?" She barked, while folding the paper away, and hiding it underneath her shinobi cloak.
"Nothing in particular hmm." Claara scowled at his obvious lie, but dismissed it was a huff. Deidara gave a dismissive grunt while
looking back the boy and noticed he once again was holding his inked brush away from the book again. Curiosity was brewing, and as much as he hated the Kunoichi next to him, he did accept she was talented at getting information out of her targets.
"Listen, maybe we got off on the wrong foot here or something hmm. Can we just start again, since we are going to be working with each other hmm?" Seeing her rose eyebrow full of amusement, he decided to continue, even if he felt he was wasting his time.
"I can acknowledge you're good at what you do...even if I question your motives."
"Was that an attempt at flattery, ha...doesn't suite you at all. And if you are as interested in what is up with that boy over there as I am, you could have just asked and I would have given it to you....Deidara-san." Deidara so wanted to put the clay bird resting in his hand to use, but restrained himself.
He was trying to make peace after all, and sometimes as complicated as it was, blowing up the problem was not the solution...although it was VERY tempting.
Claara came up to him and looked into his lone visible blue eye, as if she was determining something. Deidara fidgeted nervously under her gaze, which was something he found out most surprising that such a woman could intimidate him.
"W-what is with you?" He voiced, growing annoyed by her penetrating stare.
"You can always tell so much by looking into the eyes of a person."
The artist as he called himself sighed at her ridiculous claim, "Whatever...so what do mine say then hmm?"
"You are resisting a very tempting urge to try killing me." Deidara dryly laughed at her emotionless claim and now gladly glared into her eyes.
"What gave you that impression eh?! I will put it plain and simple to you then. You piss me off hmm! I don't even know what I have done to make you feel you can treat me like some scum." Deidara's thumb traced over the fine details of the clay bird resting in his clenched hand, finding the temptation so desirable. Claara didn't seem at the slightest bit concerned as she then sighed and softened her frown.
"Honesty, now there is something you don't see much of these days in men."
Deidara snorted, curious as to why she kept relating his qualities to men in general. It was not as if he even said anything that was not taken as obvious.
"Very well then, if it satisfies you're ego so much then I was out of line and apologise ....Now what is it you would like to know?" Deidara smirked, maybe she wasn't so bad after all.
"What on earth is with that guy? This whole ANBU ROOT thing really gives me the creeps hmm."
Claara bit her tongue at insulting the ex Iwa nin for his cowardly words, and decided to break the ice, "Frankly, I tend to agree with you."
Shifting her gaze to Thomas, who was talking to Ronan, then back at the boy, she continued, "I can understand where Danzou is coming from with his strategy. A shinobi without emotional barriers would be very efficient at their duty...but at the same time, I think it would be a tremendous disadvantage."
"How so?"
"A vital factor in successful infiltration is the understanding of your target, knowing what makes them tick. What are their ideals to make them your friend, get them to trust you."
Claara ran a hand through her hair, while looking particularly at the boy, "You cannot understand your target...if you do not understand what it is they are feeling...no book will ever tell you the truth when it comes to emotional response, it is something that we must experience ourselves to understand...and to manipulate."
Deidara noticed her fixed gaze on the boy and raised an eyebrow, "And he gave you that impression?"
"It is not hard to tell the boy has minimal understanding on emotions, even you could tell if you went up and talked to him. The boy smiles for no reason, and uses it as a means to escape stressed circumstances."
"What did you ask him about?"
"His book was one thing...he was very elusive on the matter, but to my understanding, the book belonged to his brother, or so he claims at least."
Deidara grunted at the minimal information, only now adding interest to the boy, "What else did you ask him?"
"I asked about his boss of course."
"Eh?..."
"There is no harm in wanting to ensure you are not being double crossed Deidara-san...or are you to tell me one of your clients did not try and rat you out to Iwa? The price on your head should be fairly high after all."
Deidara grinned sheepishly, "Ok...I guess you have a point...can we trust Danzou?"
Claara formed a scowl in annoyance, "Unfortunately, it seems Danzou is very cautious with his shinobi...no matter how much I twisted my questions, the boy told me nothing."
"Oh...what did he give you then?" Claara revealed the paper again, while unfolding it to present a picture of herself. Deidara depicted a slight error though.
'Her eyes are far too neutral, compared to their usual cold look.' Both turned in interest when they saw two figures approaching. The old man with a cane and bandaged arm and eye was not what got him suddenly going tense, it was the man next to him that was the cause.
The man was a giant, standing at 6 foot 5. The first detail noticed was the long brown leather coat that he wore that reached all the way down to just an inch above the ground, and seemed to wave loosely behind the figure almost like a flame. Underneath the coat he wore baggy shinobi pants and large boots, along with a vest Ronan could tell was armour plated and traced the man's muscles. Behind the man was at first glance assumed to be a Zanbatou, but on closer inspection was something else entirely.
The sword had a hilt as thick as a log and roughly three feet in length, with a dimmed orb on the end that had the slightest glow of orange within the centre. The sword itself was shaped like a long executioner's blade, with even a curve that seemed perfect for pinning some poor individuals head in. Decorated over the roughly seven foot sword, was a strange pattern that seemed like petals, but on closer inspection it could be noted as loose fire sparks that lead to the open flame around the hilt, even though the sword didn't have different shadings to make it obvious.
The man's shaven face showed he was in his late 30's, and his cold, violet irises practically screamed his experience. The man had almost shoulder length hair, which was a steel blue-gray tone. Hidden mostly by his bangs, was his black forehead protector, with the Kiri symbol that could just be determined.
Claara's 'Hmmph' got Deidara to pull his gaze off the giant, "So that is Hozuki Mangetsu of the mist...I bet he must have a sky high ego."
Deidara for once agreed with Claara's assumption.
"So...we meet at last...Danzou." Ronan announced, as the old man came forward with a relaxed smirk, with his lone visible eye bared into Ronan's own.
"Indeed Ronan, it is good to see that you are still amongst us and still strong as you once were...I am regretful to hear about your old teammate Araiki's unfortunate ends however." Ronan internally snickered at Danzou's words, knowing very well that the old man did not have any regret at all.
"Thomas tells me you wish to speak to me?"
Danzou held a neutral face as he leaned casually more on his cane "Before that, there is a matter I wish to speak of first...I hear you had a recent encounter with Orochimaru...and one named Uchiha Sasuke."
Ronan narrowed his eyes, but complied, "That is correct, what about it?"
"What exactly was the snake sannin's intention?" Danzou asked.
"Orochimaru came to me offering his services for helping kill the jinkuriki, but in return I was to teach Sasuke the basics of using the sharingan with its advanced doujutsu abilities." Ronan hissed at the memory of the old snake, but continued more neutrally.
"Sasuke was able to learn most of the basics from me within not even a couple of days... it appears that just like his brother, he is a natural genius. However he is still very naive, and to my understanding he is easily manipulated if he has stooped so low as to ask Orochimaru of all people for assistance in his training to kill Itachi." Ronan said in disgust.
Danzou lone eye held deep interest, "So what made you teach him then?"
Ronan held no emotions as he said, "Regardless of my beliefs he is an Uchiha...and my little cousin, I felt I should prepare him for his ambition, even though I now believe he will never succeed."
Danzou chuckled which made Ronan raise an eyebrow, "You don't know Orochimaru's intentions for your little cousin? That is quite a disappointment for somebody like you."
Ronan said nothing but furrowed his brows as Danzou continued, "Orochimaru has developed a forbidden jutsu that allows him to pass his body onwards to another person, through this he has partly achieved immortality from age, but he still mortal and can be killed. This jutsu also allows him to inherit any of the individuals...'traits' once he has taken over the chosen vessel."
Ronan's eyes widened, but soon narrowed as his activated sharingan near glowed with rage, "What the hell possessed Sasuke to go to him!?"
Thomas decided to answer in his expressionless tone, "The culprit to his desire was through the curse seal."
Ronan turned in question, "I do not know what exactly this cursed seal is, or what it does, all I noticed was his chakra seemed to have increased significantly, and seemed more...dark." Ronan said in annoyance.
Danzou then almost cheerfully explained to him the features of the cursed seal, causing Ronan clenched his fists, "Orochimaru will pay for trying to exploit an Uchiha to gain a power that does not belong to him!" Ronan hissed.
Danzou smirked and decided to say calmly, "Orochimaru will not be able to use his jutsu for around a year, so it is not too late to eliminate Orochimaru...or Uchiha Sasuke."
Danzou's smirk widened when Ronan radiated his killer intent, "There will be no such thing, the Uchiha clan has had its bloodshed enough thanks to Itachi...there will be no harm dealt to Sasuke!" Ronan said glaring at Danzou, who didn't even phase at the silent threat.
"Oh? And why shouldn't Sasuke receive punishment for his acts of treason?" Ronan narrowed his eyes, knowing exactly what Danzou's 'punishment' was to traitors.
Death.
With his killer intent practically pouring out through his lips, he repeated silently and as if it was the law, "No harm will be dealt to Sasuke old man. Don't think I am bluffing when I say that."
The older man chuckled lightly at the threat, "Of course Ronan, as you wish."
Deciding it was time to change the topic, Danzou got to the main point, "I trust my information on the Suna-nin was accurate?"
Ronan blinked at the topic change, but decided to play along, although a part of him still felt unconvinced by Danzou's dismissive nature.
"Yes, Senchi did confirm your claim. She has been dealt with."
"Excellent news, and it appears that Tsuta Claara accepted joining your mission. Her talents will be put to effective use then I hope...and now you have your final team member." Feeling he was now part of the conversation, Mangetsu stepped forward and offered his hand.
"My name is Hozuki Mangetsu, it is a pleasure to meet you Uchiha Ronan." The giant spoke with a deep voice, allowing Ronan to notice that his white teeth had been sharpened, making him look similar to the razor sharp teeth that belonged to a piranha, which was further enhanced with the rest of his features.
Ronan took the giants hand and gave a firm grasp, which was easily matched, "Forgive me for the sudden questioning Mangetsu-san, but I am curious as to your involvement with Danzou."
"Just Mangetsu is fine thank you. Since the failed coup thanks to Zabuza, and the passing of our previous Mizukage, the seven swordsmen of the mist are no more, and we each have gone our separate ways. I simply chose the path many of us took, and became freelance, while only one remained behind in Kiri."
"And what did the others take?"
"Truthfully it was only one of us that branched off, and to my knowledge he is part of an organisation that involves the jinkuriki you wish to kill, Ronan-san."
"Just Ronan. Does this not cause any problems for you that you are going against your fellow swordsman's will?"
The giant narrowed his eyes as he spoke more strictly, "Not in the slightest, in fact I am eager to see if I will encounter him on this mission...I wish to speak to him about something."
Feeling that Mangetsu was not going to discuss with him what that thing was, Ronan gave a dismissive 'Hmmph', "Very well...so I take it you do not have an opinion on this jinkuriki?"
"That is correct, I am only in this mission without fuss for my own concerns."
Ronan did not like the idea of somebody who could potentially go rogue, but judging by how Mangetsu handled himself, he could strongly assume with little doubt he was not the sort that would stray from mission.
"Then I bid you luck that you find what it is you are looking for on this mission."
Ronan then turned to Danzou, "We will now be moving to Wave, too much time has been wasted on preparations."
"That would be wise, however I think you may find that more of Konoha's forces have arrived."
"How many?"
"Another team's worth of members, known for their talents in tracking."
Ronan hated having to rely on this man's word, but without Araiki, he was in the dark on the situation without the older man's aid.
"They are going to be moving out of Wave aren't they?" Danzou's casual nod gave Ronan his answer.
"I don't know if that is truly the case, but knowing the conscience of most of the shinobi involved, it is safe to say that is the likely outcome."
"No matter, we will just have to do some tracking of our own."
"I wish you luck Ronan, I am sure you will succeed in your mission"
"And what is it that you will do?"
"I must return to Konoha, my substitute surely will be discovered sooner or later by the shinobi's that Tsunade-hime has watching over my quarters."
"Very well...we will meet again Danzou." Without further word, the older man turned and began walking back so carefree through the forest. Once direct sight was lost, the younger ROOT member appeared by Danzou's side and took a knee.
"Danzou-sama, what is it you wish for me to do now?"
"Your mission is done Denrei, excellent work. You will be returning with me to Konoha to begin preparation for a new mission you will be undertaking alone."
"Hai Danzou-sama."
"The mission will be code named Difference...or otherwise known as Sai."
"Hai...what if Ronan-san fails his mission?"
"If Ronan does, then I have other plans for the fate of the Kyuubi Jinkuriki."
The bridge was quite busy this afternoon, with numerous stock items being dragged by workers and traders both entering and exiting Wave, along with other people carrying out their own business. The group of shinobi were amongst the crowd, travelling down its path. Hinata and Sakura were talking about something, while Naruto was arguing with Kiba.
"You have been learning my clan's taijutsu?! I have got to see how much of a mockery you have made of my clan."
"That was before when I was using the Kyuubi...so you aren't going to see how mad it was Kiba."
The Inuzuka snickered, "Like always, you talk big, only this time you have zero proof. You can at least show us the stance eh, Akamaru?"
The dogs loud bark practically sounded like a 'Yeah!'. Naruto suddenly cringed, "I ermm, would rather not."
"Oh go on gaki, make your sensei proud!" Naruto jumped at the loud shout in his ear from behind.
"Ero-sennin!! N-N-No."
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at his student's hesitance, "Look you idiot, we have been through this, it doesn't matter how stupid you look in a fight, what matters is how effective it is in combat."
Naruto's cringe deepened, while looking around to suddenly see their commotion had attracted the rest of the groups gaze, "....No way."
"Hehe, it must suck then." Kiba's tease struck a nerve as the blond jumped to his self defence.
"It does not suck! It just..."
"For god's sake baka, nobody is going to laugh at a bloody stance. Show us!"
Naruto paled at the threatening tone from his teammate and gave in. "O-Ok." He groaned, while he reluctantly fell into his stance.
Silence filled the bridge, as even by passers turned their head to look, while everybody blinked blankly at the posture. Akamaru's fang revealing growl showed his lack of amusement.
Naruto was hunched over, in a posture that looked like he was ready to pounce either to his sides or in front of him. His fingers were bent as if his nails were like sharp knives, and positioned in a manner of a grizzly bear. The issue was though that the 'knife' like claws were lacking their sharp edge and instead were unintimidating smoothly cut nails. Another issue that had Kakashi busting with laughter was that Naruto's behind was sticking up in the air, and without the flaming chakra tail, it was a pure comical posture.
"Are you trying to insult me Naruto?" Kiba hissed at the clearly humiliated blond.
Ignoring the giggles from Sakura, Naruto mumbled, "I told you, this stance is useless without the Kyuubi...and it's bloody embarrassing too!"
"We need to work on it." Jiraiya said dryly, while scratching his head. Once everybody had recovered from Naruto's performance, Sakura returned to her conversation with Hinata.
"Where were we Hinata?"
"I was wondering how you have been coping on this mission Sakura-chan, by the sounds of what Shikamaru-kun told us, it sounds like you have had it hard." Sakura chuckled at the question that gave 'hard' so little justice.
"It's had its ups and down Hinata, but I am over the shock of it all now...dare I say it's had more good things than bad."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah..."
Hinata blinked at her trailing, while noticing her soft gaze on the whirlpool jacket of Naruto, who was arguing with Kiba still.
"Naruto-kun must be in the same situation."
Hinata was surprised by Sakura's laughter, "You have no idea...He is managing much better though, if anything he is keeping ME sane."
Hinata smiled while muttering, "Naruto-kun really is amazing isn't he?"
"He is an amazing baka that can surprise anyone, even me...And I am somebody that should be the least astonished the most." The heiress was surprised by her soft tone, and found Sakura's smile held behind it quite an amazing amount of emotion.
"Naruto-kun must be very important to you Sakura-chan."
Sakura shook her head clear to go agape at the statement, "Y-yeah Hinata...he really is." Sakura felt her sentiment from before surface again, and rubbed her neck.
"Hey Hinata?"
"Yes Sakura-chan?"
"Have you ever umm..."
Sakura shot her gaze up to ensure nobody was in hearing distance, and cautiously continued, "Wanted to tell someone how you truly feel about them?"
"S-s-sorry?" The heiress stuttered out with a blush forming.
"You know, like tell someone you like them...a lot?"
Hinata found the ground interesting as she knew the answer to that question very well, "U-Umm...H-Hai I have." Sakura grinned while giving a warming chuckle.
"Hey we are girls here Hinata, no need to get embarrassed." Hinata dismissed her sudden awkwardness with a sheepish smile.
"T-That's true...why are you asking me?" Sakura nibbled on her lip but found discussing such a topic with another girl more comforting than with Kakashi.
"I am just interested, how did you tell them?" Hinata swallowed the lump of hesitation and muttered her response.
"I haven't."
Sakura went agape in surprise at how shameful that sounded from the heiress, but soon smiled, "Shy?"
Hinata's blush flared, "U-Umm y-you could say that."
"I see." Sakura said with a giggle, while voicing something she had been thinking about in a while.
"I honestly don't know how to approach the matter. I-I mean I have tried saying it once...but I don't think my words really made any impact." Hinata now held curiosity and alarm at what Sakura was implying.
"W-Who?"
Sakura frowned, but answered, "Sasuke-kun..." The heiress mouthed a sympathetic 'oh', inwardly cursing herself for somehow feeling sparks of relief.
"I am sorry to hear that."
"It's ok, I think I am moving on...but I wonder, do you think words are enough?"
Silence fell upon the Kunoichi' as they continued walking with the others. Hinata after a minutes thought answered, "I-I am sure it is, telling somebody how special they are to you...speaking from your heart. How else could you express yourself to somebody?" Sakura smiled at the heiress's words that sounded so much like a fairytale she used to dream of such a long time ago.
'It may be how you would express yourself Hinata...but is it how I would?'
Finally the team had made it to the entrance, with the forest standing in front of them. Shikamaru sighed while scratching his head, "Well...this is where we depart so to speak, keep safe, and as troublesome as it is, not mentioning any names, stick to the plan for once."
Feeling the insult directed at him, the blond growled, "OI! I know when to follow instructions thank you!"
Shikamaru smirked, "Who said I was directing it at you?"
'Oh you-' Naruto cut his cursing off and mumbled something incoherent to the shadow user's sarcastic tone.
Ending the joke, Naruto sighed "Good luck in your searching Shikamaru, I am sure she is ok."
Shikamaru was taken aback by the considerate voice from the usual hyperactive blond, but grinned his thanks.
While the rest of the group were exchanging farewells, the sannin pulled his surprised student away from the crowd, "So Gaki, it appears we are going our separate ways then."
"Yeah...."
Jiraiya then turned serious, "You remember our route we took that time?"
Naruto cringed, "You mean that one with the river full of those gators?"
The sannin nodded, "You...should NOT take that route this time." The blond sighed in relief, not wanting to remember what happened LAST TIME they took that path.
"Agreed. I was thinking of holding out at that place we discovered, the war ruined town."
"Oh...are you sure that is safe?"
"I cleared out the bandits on that mission remember? Unless I missed some of those thugs, it should now really be deserted."
The sannin was now growing curious at his students planning, "And what about supplies?"
"There is the newly built village not far, we can go there for supplies."
The sannin now was genuinely surprised at his student, 'Naruto now actually thinking out plausible plans? Did hell freeze over?!'
"What's gotten into you gaki?"
"Huh?"
"...You have been spending too much time with that girl of yours." Naruto turned a pink hue, while gritting his teeth in annoyance.
'Not this again!'
"Ero-sennin! I swear how many times do I have to tell you, we are ju-"
"Yeah yeah, whatever you say...but it seems you're getting smarter...as hard as it is to believe."
"Did you pull me aside to insult me as you always do?!"
The sannin clicked his tongue with a smirk, "I was giving you a compliment you idiot."
Naruto staggered in surprise, but chuckled and grinned, "Thanks Ero-sennin."
"Now then...I got you a parting gift."
"Huh? But we are meeting up again soon?"
"Oh?...I will keep this thing then that was essential to your training the-"
"COUGH IT UP! RIGHT NOW!" The sannin laughed at his students one eighty turn in antics.
The sannin then pulled out of his pocket a strange object that caused Naruto's eyebrow to perk in question. The small object lying in the sannin's hand looked like some sort of vile of water, sealed with a metal cap.
"What...is that?" Naruto asked curiously, while taking the object from Jiraiya's hand, only to almost drop it in surprise to its icy cold touch.
"C-Co-old!" The blond stuttered out, as he struggled to keep a solid grip on the bottle, despite the chilling sensation running up his arms.
The sannin chuckled, "That Gaki, is the elemental affinity test." The cold feeling seemed to numb away from Naruto's touch, as he went fully agape at the small vile.
"w-w-what the hell?! THIS IS THE TEST?!"
The sannin raised an eyebrow, "Of course it is gaki...what were you expecting a written test or something?!"
'Hell yes!'
"O-Of course not!"
'Hehe, you suck at lying Gaki.'
Naruto was oblivious to Jiraiya's thoughts, as he grinned impishly at the small bottle, 'YOSHA! No written test to this elemental thing! I will ace this in no time!' that was when Naruto's inner celebrating came to a sudden halt.
"Err...how does it work?"
"....Pay me."
"w-w-WHAT?!" Naruto then growled at the innocent shrug done by the older man.
"Some parting gift this is! You give me this little bottle of water, AND THEN ASK ME FOR MONEY?!"
"Hey, a guy has to make a living." Naruto shook his head frantically in frustration, the sannin chuckling like he was enjoying his action only added to the annoyance.
"I don't have any money you stingy old fart...you took all my money, don't you remember?!"
"Oh? That's right I did...oh well."
Feeling his little game was going to make the blond crack, he decided to spill the beans, "That water is special chakra water from Kirigakure. It is what the hidden mist uses to discover their shinobi's elemental affinity. A merchant store in Wave imports them. This water reacts to chakra, and it shows you both your primary and secondary element."
'Not one, but two?!'
"AWESOME!...err...how?"
"You pour the contents into your hand, and flow chakra into the water. Depending on your elemental affinity it will either..." Jiraiya suddenly remembered who he was talking to, and as if to add to his suspicion, the blond blinked twice in anticipation.
'Who am I kidding, he will forget this the moment he is off.'
Jiraiya then noticed a curious gaze over Naruto's shoulder looking at them, and waved over the ironic suspect.
"You called Ero-sennin?" Sakura asked, seeing the vile in Naruto's hand and quickly changed questions.
"What is that?" Quickly explaining the vile again, the sannin continued.
"Now as I was saying, it shows your primary element first, then your second one after that. If it is water, the water glows blue, if it is fire, it steams and bubbles in your hand, if lightning, you will feel a tickling sensation, if earth it becomes mud, and if wind, it ripples and spirals like a storm."
While Naruto nodded his head unconvincingly, Sakura nod was more believable, "Hai, doesn't Konoha have a test like this?"
"Konoha does, but we use a paper, and it only determines your primary element. I hear Suna uses an hour glass that shows both, but Kiri is the only other village to have created a test that does both."
"How many times can it be used?" This got both to look in surprise at the blonds sudden question that seemed quite focused for the situation.
"Umm, it can be used as many times as you like, it returns to normal form once you stop flowing chakra through it. Just be sure to not lose too much water when putting it back into the vile."
"What are you thinking Naruto?" The blond shrugged to Sakura's question while muttering a very unconvincing 'nothing'.
Brushing off his questioning gaze, Jiraiya decided to address Sakura, "Oh well, since you are here I might as well talk to you now." That seemed to have gotten her attention from the blond, who still held his pondering expression.
"Hai, what do you want to talk to me about Ero-sennin?" Jiraiya inwardly sighed, beginning to get used to being called his dubbed name by both of them now.
"Even though we are not being split apart for long, I hope you will still look out for the knuckle head over here."
Naruto frowned, while muttering through crossed arms 'I can look out for myself. Sakura took the sannin's request with full seriousness, "I give my word like I did before...even if he can be a hand full."
'Sakura-chan!' He inwardly pouted at being treated like a kid.
"Do you need any more of the suppression tags?"
"No, I still have plenty."
The sannin nodded while drifting his gaze a little, "...And you have the medicine to cure the Kyuubi's poison?" The kunoichi payed a quick glance in concern to her teammate, but seeing he was handling the conversation ok, she then turn back, "I do." was all she replied with, feeling that even if he didn't show it, Naruto still was a bit itchy on the topic.
Feeling nothing more needed to be said, Sakura turned to her quiet teammate, and decided to put a smile on his stale face.
"Come on let's go Naruto, since you are leading us there, we are going to need all the time we can get."
Her tease seemed to have pulled the blond out of his predicament with a wide grin, "Sakura-chan! I know the way!"
"Heh, just don't make us end up back here in Wave baka."
"So mean!" Jiraiya shook his head at the pair's interaction and rejoined his group.
"Do you think Naruto-kun and everybody will be safe?" Hinata asked in concern to the retreating figures. Jiraiya smirked as he eyed in the distance his student receive a playful dong on the head, resulting in a chuckling pout at his teammate.
"As reckless as he can be, don't worry, he is in good hands, and he seems to be at quite more tactful now." Shikamaru responded dismissively, as the Hyuuga continued to watch the retreating group. Even in the small amount of time of their arrival, she instantly saw the change in interaction between Naruto and Sakura.
The change seemed unprecedented, and she was more than glad and happy for the blond to have developed such a close friendship with his teammate. But after her conversation with Sakura, a part of her was very curious about the Godaime apprentice's questions, and just how close their friendship really had developed to. Her heart held conflicted beliefs to her sudden suspicion, on one side a part of her wanted to be happy that there is a chance Sakura was opening her eyes to Naruto...while the other felt cold, suffocating and empty.
'Naruto-kun...' Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Hinata tried to focus back on her task.
Shikamaru groaned, "As I told you earlier, we predetermined Temari's path to travel through the least occupied areas with shinobi presence."
'Which I foolishly took the risk to send between us and Hokage-sama.' The Nara inwardly cursed at his reckless actions, but tried to not let it get the better of him.
"So we will start from the reverse and see what we find. Hinata I want you up front with your byakugan, scouting as far ahead as possible. Akamaru will be at her side to cover the long distance since he has the more acute sense of smell. I will travel behind to give out instructions. Jiraiya-sama, as the one with the most experience out of all of us combined will stay in the middle so you can respond the fastest in case of an ambush. Shino, I want you to leave behind bugs as we travel, which are to fly to us if we miss anything, and I want a bug planted on each of us in case we get separated. Kiba, you will be on alert for anything approaching us from behind."
'So this is what Kakashi was talking about with his organisation...impressive.' Jiraiya mused, as the team moved out.
The journey to Swamp was expected to be roughly five hours in length, meaning they would arrive by the evening with no breaks. It had been two hours now, and Sakura really was beginning to feel the strain of her weights with every jump she took.
'I should just reduce them.' She mused, while deciding to announce her intentions to Kakashi in front of her.
"Sensei, I am going to reduce my weights, slow down for me."
"No problem." The jounin replied, as the group slowed their pace as she stopped on the next branch to reduce the pain enwrapped around her ankles and wrists. While doing so though, she froze when her eyes caught a shadow pass over her, and darted up to see something flying in the sky, through a crack in the sea of leaves. It looked like a silhouette of a bird.
Sakura suddenly felt her paranoia rise again. 'I must be losing it, it's probably just a ordinary bird.' She told herself, as she quickly tried to catch up with her now reduced weights. When she went back into formation though, her mind now began to dwell on the memory of that strange stare off with the hawk earlier. She could understand her tension on the whole situation, but surely this was being looked at too far.
It had to be a coincidence...right?
"Sensei, sorry but can we take a short break?"
'What am I doing?'
"Halt Naruto, we are taking a break." Kakashi instructed to their leader, who responded after jumping a branch or two later.
"Aww, we won't make it until night fall if we do Kakashi-sensei, and it gets cold as hell this far up north at night." The older jounin shot a look at Sakura as if to say 'Are you sure?'
Her hesitant nod was all he needed, "Sakura is tired, we will stop for around half an hour, but from then Sakura, we must not stop."
"Hai...sorry again." Naruto lost interest now in continuing their journey when he saw that his teammate was putting on an act when Lee questioned her weights being too heavy.
'I wonder what's up with Sakura-chan.'
"I will keep watch for the time up here, the rest of you relax, but stay alert." The trio of teens dropped to the dense forest floor, and dropped their packs.
"Yosh! While waiting, I will do two hundred push ups!" Naruto's sweat dropped at Lee's announcement, but he already got started with his self proclaimed challenge.
'We are meant to be resting fuzzy brow's you crazy lunatic.' The blond internally scolded, but was more interested in his teammates odd behaviour. She was looking up at the trees, squinting as if she was searching for something.
'I just feel it deep down...something is wrong.'
"Is something the matter Sakura-chan?" She dragged her gaze down to see Naruto with a quizzical expression on his face.
"Umm...nothing's wrong, I am just pushing myself too hard, that's all." Naruto perked an eyebrow unconvinced.
"Sakura-chan...You're lying, what is the matter?"
'How did he?'
"Um..." Lifting her gaze again, she desperately looked for that familiar hawk, but found nothing and moved down to see Naruto now even more confused.
"Naruto I umm-"Sakura froze the moment she looked over her shoulder, and there it was staring at the blonds back with those black hole like irises. The hawk was perched up on a branch past some trees, well hidden in the shadows of the forest, but its bronzy brown feathers still stuck it out in the shadows.
'Act dumb!'
"Yeah, I'll let sensei know you are going to take a leak...just make sure nobody jumps you like what happened THAT time."
"Huh? What are you-" The meaningful look in her emerald gaze caused him to pause, now in puzzlement. It was like she was trying to say something to him, but something was stopping her from saying it. The 'that time' drew interest to him, and then it clicked.
Sakura was talking about the time he had to go during the forest of death, only for him to be ambushed by another ninja.
Did that mean that somebody...was watching them?
"Hehe, I'm not as careless to be caught with my pants down a second time like the forest of death Sakura-chan." Sakura chuckled, while inwardly grateful he saw her underlining meaning.
"Sure...just keep well hidden." She replied, adding a glimpse of serious tone to the end. The blond then put his hands behind his head and whistled as he disappeared behind her through the trees. Sakura tried to act casual, crossing her arms and leaning against the tree, ignoring the burning eyes fixed on her.
Her eyes shifted though when to her fears, the hawk took flight, flying over her head.
'Oh my god...it is following Naruto!' She dropped her act, and looked behind her to confirm that the hawk was looking for something, flying in circles through the trees as if it was hunting for prey. The bird then swooped down into the bushes, and a loud hiss rung through her ears. The bird then revealed itself again, with a small snake desperately trying to escape from its razer hooked feet.
'It was only...hunting...for food?' Sakura shook her head, maybe she was over reacting. She tried to relocate the hawk, but it seemed to have disappeared up into the trees. Now her next question brewed, where did Naruto get to?
Wandering away from the site, she began looking for him, 'Wow...he wasn't kidding when he said he could hide well' she noticed while continuing to walk, getting a strange feeling she was walking in circles. Eventually, she noticed a small collapsed log, and decided to sit down while calling out his name.
'Really, where did he get to'
"Naruto?" She only was rewarded with her echo.
Sakura sighed while leaning back, "Seriously, where are you baka?"
"You're sitting on me."
"EEK!" Sakura bolted from her 'log' to see it poof and reveal the sheepishly grinning blond.
"Hehe, my bad Sakura-chan." Sakura shook her head clear from shock and groaned.
"You could have told me sooner!"
"Sorry...care to tell me why I was hiding though?"
"...I think I am losing it."
"Eh?"
"...I thought...no, you will laugh at me."
'I wasted everybody's time for nothing.' She internally scolded herself, while they walked back.
"Come on, I won't laugh, I promise."
"...I thought we were being followed." Sensing her teammate's sudden tense posture she quickly added, "But it was nothing...it was just a hawk, that I have seen too many times for my liking today."
"...Are you sure it was nothing?"
"I am sure...good improvising though Naruto."
The blond shrugged, "Hehe, you seriously had me completely...stumped..." Sakura wondered why he trailed off, but before she could talk, she was jammed against a tree.
"NA-"
"Shh!" She stopped her question when she felt how tense his hand was against her mouth, and his sudden fear that was clear in his eyes.
'Did he see me!?' Feeling an arm tug on his own, he pulled his hand off Sakura's mouth.
"What is it?" She whispered, now growing concerned to see the blond was sweating bullets.
'They can't be here, not now!'
"Naruto?!" She repeated a little louder, causing his serious gaze to turn to her concerned one.
"What is-"
"It has been a while...Naruto-kun." Said a calm, yet so deadly serious voice from above their heads, as she slowly looked up to see the long black cloak, with blood red clouds shining in opposing contrast, with a face that looked so familiar, but so much older.
All strength in her body and voice failed though, when his neutral, deep red sharingan eyes locked with her own bulging emerald ones.
'w-who...-'
"Uchiha Itachi!" Naruto growled, as he on impulse moved away from the tree, with Sakura lagging behind.
The Uchiha gracefully dropped to the ground without a sound, as a loud screech from a bird was heard. Sakura went agape when she saw the familiar hawk rest on the Uchiha's shoulder, and delivered the coldest glare at her.
'I-it is his bird?!' Sakura cursed herself, she should have told Kakashi, or somebody else sooner.
"What the hell do you want?!" Naruto growled, while pulling out a kunai.
The Uchiha not replying only added to her fear, as his eyes shifted back and forth between them as if he was reading their thoughts. She almost jumped when she heard a dismissive 'hn' erupt over the death consuming silence.
"...You will be coming with me Naruto-kun."
"Sakura-chan, go and warn the others, I will distract him." Sakura was pulled out of her paralysis with a sharp intake of breath.
'NO!' She inwardly shouted.
'Naruto can't fight, he is injured, and this guy....Naruto does not stand a chance!'
Where were Kakashi and Lee?! Why weren't they here?! It was then that she felt 'it's' presence. The barrier was almost invisible, but they had both been placed in a genjutsu, and she never even noticed. Was that why she felt she was going around in circles? Did Itachi know she was suspicious of the hawk earlier?
How did she miss it?!
Sakura inwardly slapped her self, 'FOCUS DAMN IT!' She instructed, as she composed herself and now locked eyes with Itachi.
'This is the man...that Sasuke-kun is trying to kill...this is the man, that is after Naruto's life...I won't let you continue to drive Sasuke-kun into madness, I won't let you take Naruto. I will protect them from the likes of you!'
"...It appears, your teammate is being foolish and won't listen to your instructions Naruto-kun." Naruto went agape at Itachi's words and turned to see the burning with determination filled gaze in Sakura's eyes.
"Sakura-chan...What are you doing? Run a-"
"SHUT UP NARUTO!"
She then sprung to action and formed a seal, as the invisible wall crumbled away to reveal a completely new location. They were still within the denseness of the forest grounds, but the surrounding tree's had changed positions all around.
'...So she noticed...curious. ' Itachi mused, while watching the pair continue their argument.
"You're the one he is after! You run! I will be the one to hold him off!"
"THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL I AM DOING THAT! "
"You have no say in this, GO!" Not sensing the blond shifting from his spot, she took the risk and broke eye contact with Itachi for a second.
"NARUTO, GO DAMN IT!"
"I am not leaving!"
The amused chuckle from the Uchiha cut through the teen's argument like ice. Now feeling she should focus more on Itachi than Naruto, she continued less angered.
"Naruto...please...just go."
"...Sorry...but no."
'DAMN IT NARUTO!'
"Fine then!" She barked in frustration, as both were in ready position, but were stumped when Itachi gave a smug 'Hmmph'.
"...How impudent."
"Who cares what you think?!" Sakura retorted, while both were glaring at the Uchiha's bored filled sharingan irises.
"You shouldn't be so careless...this battle was just determined...the moment you both so recklessly glared into my eyes."
Sakura could have sworn his three tomoe sharingan was spinning in a blurring circle, but when she focused on Itachi's eyes, she found no such anomaly. She then felt herself tugged from where she was standing , and to her horror felt like she was falling in sudden pitch darkness. She was about to scream, but the sudden hard landing with a concrete like floor only let a grunt slip out.
Once recovered, she became shocked when she looked into the reflective floor to see her reflection if that is what it was. It was as if she was colour-blind in a way or something, her pink hair was black, along with her eyes, and the rest of her was coloured between shades of red and white as well as the black. Finally dragging her eyes away, she looked around to see nothing but a red and black merged mist surrounding the circular floor she was in the middle of, disallowing any means of determining distance.
'W-W-What is this place?!' She then saw a black smoke like figure 'leaking' out from the floor in front of her, and then the silhouette of Itachi formed, with only his sharingan in colour.
Those eyes stared down at her, feeling like she was getting smaller and smaller under its fixed gaze. She then suddenly felt an unimaginable pain shoot up her arm, and she snapped her view down to see from her finger tips, her arm was dissolving and breaking away like tiny pixels. Her scream echoed in the place while she fell to her knees.
'This place...it has to be a genjutsu, it just has to be!' Sakura could not believe though just how real the pain felt as her arm continued to dissolve away. Most genjutsu's she was placed in by Kurenai or Kakashi were never this powerful, never so flawless, never so...
Real.
It felt like a highly acidic substance was eating her away bone and all, and she had a dark feeling it was not going to stop until there was nothing left.
'Concentrate, remember what Kakashi-sensei told me...if you don't believe it is a genjutsu, you will not even stand a chance of breaking free to begin with.'
Genjutsu seemed to be something she had a knack for outside her medical talents. She understood their qualities and strengths very well, and at one point, had a 'unique' way of countering them as Kakashi put it. She frankly didn't understand how it happened, but she had developed an alter ego during the academy and throughout the times of team 7.
She always heard 'her' voice speak loudly when she chose to go against 'her' beliefs, as if to scold Sakura for never going with them. Over the course of her training with Tsunade, she no longer resisted 'her' words that went only to Sakura's ears, and instead showed them to the world. Sakura could admit it somehow felt great to do so, but somehow 'her' purpose withered away, and that voice in her head long went silent when Sakura spoke out the 'truth'.
With her loss, she had to focus in countering genjutsu's the conventional way, 'This pain...is not real.'
The figures eyes narrowed, as if sensing her resistance, 'So she seems to have knowledge about genjutsu's.' Sakura felt a dry tear run down her eye, but she had suppressed her whimpers as she felt the burning sensation crawling up her arm begin to numb away. It didn't help that she had no sense of what was up or down in this 'world' as she beginning to call it, but she refused to give in, not when the still in colour picture of the blond flashed in her mind.
Itachi's left eyebrow rose slightly in surprise at her calming demeanour, as if she was feeling no pain, and it appeared that the arm was dissolving at a slower speed.
'Easy...breathe.' She instructed herself, feeling her anxiety settle with each controlled breath, while the burning now almost felt like a tingling sensation.
'By remaining composed and calmed, you can reduce the effectiveness on some pain inducing genjutsu's, since your mind is not as active as it is when stirred...so it appears I underestimated her abilities.' Itachi mused, while forming a seal.
"Hey, wake up Sakura!" Sakura shot her eyes open when she heard as clear as bells ringing the voice of her blond teammate.
"Na-Naruto?!"
'W-what's going on?!' She looked around to see the forest she was pulled from, with no signs of the Uchiha. She looked in worry at her arm, only to see it was intact.
'I'm...out of the genjutsu?' She must have fallen over when Itachi hit her with the genjutsu, because her head was resting against his lap.
"W-what happened?!"
The blond chuckled, "When he placed you in a genjutsu, he couldn't move, so I was able to hit him with a rasengan to free you...but he then escaped." Sakura mouthed an 'oh' while sitting up.
"Are you injured?"
"He bashed me around a bit, and slashed at my arm pretty good here." Sakura's eyes fell on the bleeding wound and got to work, but she felt like something was not right.
Once she was done, Naruto spoke, "We should report this to Kakashi-sensei, quickly."
Sakura nodded, although her confusion did not leave her. Journeying through the trees was proving no avail, as every turned she was making felt like she was retracing her steps. She was lost, and it did not make any logic to her as to why.
"What's the problem?"
"I think we are lost."
"Damn it, let's just keep looking then Sakura."
Sakura now genuinely felt something was wrong, but she didn't know what it was.
"Hey Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you think Itachi wanted?"
"I guess he made that pretty clear...Itachi was after me."
"Yes I know, but why-I mean-why now?"
"I don't know....perhaps he is now after me because Akatsuki is starting early?"
"...Possibly." Sakura began to feel she knew what the problem was and abruptly stopped.
"Eh? What's wrong Sakura?"
Sakura spun around and glared at the confused blue irises she did not recognise at all. The problem was clear, and she was looking at it right in the face, if it really was a face.
"Are you trying to insult my friend you bastard?!"
The blond went agape in surprise at how much venom rolled out of her tongue, "w-what do you-"
"Firstly, Naruto does not talk ANYTHING like you have made him, a genin could fool me better than you. Secondly, Naruto NEVER openly tells me he is injured unless I hassle him to death. But by far the most unforgiveable mistake you made...was that Naruto has never...EVER! Addressed me as just Sakura!" The blonds' shock morphed into a dark smirk that did not suite Naruto's usually cheerful self at all.
"So...you aren't as gullible as you look." Like a light switch was flicked, Sakura felt herself back in the 'world' she was in before, the image of the blond tearing away like paper to reveal the shadowy sharingan figure.
She wished death on the neutral gaze. He had deliberately made Naruto so unbelievable just to test her?!
"Get the hell out of my head!" She spat with venom towards the figure, as she tried with all her will to break free. From the corner of her eye, she began to see through the mist of red, traces of the green forest she came from.
'I am doing it.'
As if to mock her, the mist's density returned tenfold, blinding her vision completely until all she could see was the lone Itachi figure, "...It appears you are quite talented with combating genjutsu's...however-" Sakura lost concentration when the figure broke apart into thousands of crow silhouettes.
"Only an Uchiha can truly combat another Uchiha's genjutsu...as amusing as your struggles are, they are hopeless and meaningless...you are out of your league...every time you have the delusion you are succeeding, you will only meet failure when you just see how powerless you are against these eyes." His law laying words hit her will hard, as she gritted her teeth and dropped her seal and clenched her hands till she felt a liquid ticking between her fingers.
Lowering her gaze, she looked back at the reflection of her de-saturated self, and jammed her eyes shut cursing the pathetic coward in front of her. She began to feel the mist's entangling like presence creep around her skin, but at the same time, heard a strong voice call out in an echo.
'I believe in you Sakura-chan. You can do anything you want to do...the only thing that is stopping you, is not lack of chakra, nor talent...it is yourself... There is only one limit that we all have... That only limit is the sky!' Sakura grew a smirk on her face, as her eyes opened, revealing they were their true emerald colour, and were gleaming with determination.
"I don't care if an Uchiha can only defeat you...I don't care if you are a genius of your clan...I don't care if I have no chance of breaking free...I DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT MY STRUGGLES BEING HOPLESS! I WILL NOT LET YOU CONTINUE TO DRIVE SASUKE-KUN INTO MADNESS, AND IT WILL BE A COLD DAY IN HELL BEFORE I LET YOU TAKE NARUTO, SHANNARO!" She screamed with new found strength as she snapped her hands back into a seal, causing the fogging mist to almost scurry away from her as if afraid.
'I can't counter attack, but as long as I have the strength to slow him down, I damn well will give it all I have.'
On the outside world of the genjutsu, Naruto was completely at a loss of words. After Itachi's statement, Sakura had fallen to her knees, and hadn't responded to his calls.
That was when it made sense, 'She is in a genjutsu!'
And to even confirm his suspicion, the Uchiha was standing still while holding a seal. The blond was about to free her from the jutsu, except a sudden bone cracking fist connected with his lower jaw made him go far in the opposite direction. When Naruto stumbled to his feet, he was met by another sharingan pair of eyes from what he guessed was an Itachi clone.
"Kage b-" Naruto never was given the chance to form his seal, as the clone in a split second flashed to in front of the blond and began a raging onslaught of strikes. Naruto tried to break out of the assault, and tried again.
"Kage bun-"
"You shall not interfere." Itachi stated as an order, when he once again was on top of the blond.
'Damn it! He is too bloody fast!' Naruto cursed, as the blurring hits broke through his guard with ease.
Itachi then landed a finishing blow to his chest, which almost felt like something inside had burst, as Naruto once again went airborne, and on impact of a hollow tree, blood splurged out of his mouth as he fell.
'HE WONT LET ME DO ANYTHING!' He cursed, as the clone looked down at him from the distance.
'I am too slow...I am not strong enough to even defeat a bloody clone!'
"...It appears you are seriously injured Naruto-kun."
"SHUT UP!"
"Don't tell me to shut up you pathetic mortal!" The familiar growl echoed out. Naruto in surprise bolted his eyes open to see he was standing in front of the Kyuubi's chamber.
"w-what do you want?! GET ME BACK OUT!" The fox's laughter only infuriated Naruto.
"What is so funny?!" The demon 's amusement died down, and he replied with pleasure in his red eyes.
"I cannot force you into this place you pathetic fool unless you are near death. You have come here on your own will!"
Naruto went agape, "N-No...."
The Kyuubi's sharp teeth shone in the darkness of his cage as it smirked, "Yes...You came here...because you need my power to save your crush."
"N-...."
'I am too weak...I am getting tossed around like a rag doll by a damn clone, and god knows what he is doing to Sakura-chan in his genjutsu...'
As if the Kyuubi heard his musing, his smirk widened, "You see...you are useless without me, and now you are paying for your stupidity to admit it with your 'friend's' life in danger."
Those words stung, but to Naruto's horror, they were starting to sound like fact. Pushing himself to his feet on the watery floor, Naruto took a step towards the gate, his footstep rippling the water that was starting to bubble.
"Yes That's right...come, embrace my power!"
'You're really amazing, Naruto-kun!' The blond froze on impulse to the sound of Hinata echoing through the chambers walls.
'Naruto...You...are supposed to trust your comrades. if you do not show trust to your comrades with secrets, how are they meant to trust you in battle-'
'...That is not something that you have a choice with, we would do it simply because we want to...it's the will of fire that flows in our veins that makes us do these actions...for our comrade...you'
"You...are such a baka, you know that?"
Sakura's last statement brought a grin to Naruto's face, which made the Kyuubi's eye widen in new found shock.
"Don't listen to their attempts at deceit! They will turn their back on you, and curse the day you were born!" Naruto's face exploded into a wide smirk.
"No...They won't."
"Yes they will!" The blond felt his choice was made, and turned and began walking away from the now roaring Kyuubi.
"Even so, you are powerless against the dreaded Uchiha!" Naruto paused in his spot, while the Kyuubi took his opportunity to continue.
"He has hunted you for two years, he knows your pitiful limitations like the back of his human fleshed hand."
Naruto smirked, "Then I will just have to show the bastard something new then wont I?"
Itachi raised an eyebrow when he sensed demonic chakra flowing from the crippled boy, but further raised it when he sensed its sudden disappearance.
'He is suppressing the Kyuubi's power by will...' Itachi snapped back to attention when he saw the blond smirk and look at him with his determined blue eyes.
"You are going down!"
"What a childish claim to make." Naruto burst towards the clone, with a kunai in hand. Itachi scoffed at the poor attempt, and grabbed the wrist of the weapon wielding hand inches from his face, while locking the other fist with his larger hand.
The Uchiha did not speak while looking into the blonds fixed gaze, but Naruto could easily read that Itachi was thinking his efforts were 'pointless'. The blonds' chuckle caused the Uchiha to narrow his eyes in question. Itachi's eyes widened when the kunai fell to the ground, and spiralling rapidly in his face was a violent ball of chakra.
"RASENGAN!" Naruto roared, while driving the sphere into the clones face, making a satisfying 'poof' to the blonds' ears. His sights then locked on the still stationary Itachi, and he was concerned when he saw how much Sakura was sweating.
"LET HER GO!" Naruto demanded while he dashed with all his strength to the Uchiha, the sphere out in front of him to connect with Itachi's face.
Centimetres away from connecting, the Uchiha in a blink of an eye grabbed the offending wrist, as the sphere went over his shoulder and dispersed violently. The soft 'thud' from behind him brought true concern to Naruto, who looked back in response.
"Sakura-cha-" Big mistake on his part, when he was back handed away from Itachi, crashing next to the collapsed Kunoichi.
Ignoring his pain, he looked in worry of his teammate. She was gasping for air, and barely moving.
'What the hell did he do to her?!' Naruto glared at the standing still Itachi, but then regretted his action, but it was too late.
In his anger, he had fallen into Itachi's doujutsu. Itachi's smirk said it all, as if he read Naruto's panicking mind, while crows began to tear off the Uchiha's cloak, as they swarmed around the blond as if he was standing in the middle of a twister. Naruto tried to break free, but only succeeded in dispelling a few of the crows. He then saw the crows 'morph' into the razor sharp ends of Kunai's.
"It is over...Naruto-kun." Once Itachi had finished speaking, all Kunai froze for a moment, then shot like bullets towards the blond. Seeing no way to escape, he closed his eyes ready for the worst.
He began to wonder though, why did he not feeling the jabbing pain he was used to when struck by a kunai? Why was the only pain he was feeling was a death like grip around his leg? Itachi was even surprised by the sudden cancelling of his jutsu, and then his gaze lowered to see the barely conscious Sakura, gasping for air.
"You...will not...take him!" She slurred with no traces of doubt, glaring so carefree into his sharingan eyes like a dare.
'Outstanding, even after so much psychological stress put on her through her desperate attempts to break out of the genjutsu, she still has the willpower to not fall unconscious.' Itachi silently praised the girl for her achievement, but then brushed off her efforts as a waste.
Naruto gritted his teeth in deep frustration at the situation. Sakura was on her knees barely conscious next to him, his chest felt like it was on fire...and the Uchiha in front of them did not even have a scratch on him. Itachi didn't even look like he had even dropped a sweat, which was the opposite in their cases. How could the gap in strength still be so large?! How strong was Itachi really in comparison to them?! As much as it crushed his pride to do this, only one solution came to his mind, grab Sakura and run.
Jamming his hands together as fast as he could, he poured in all the chakra he could muster while screaming, "TAJU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"
A gigantic dust cloud covered the area in response, soon clearing to reveal hundreds of doppelgangers, all glaring daggers at the one not phased Uchiha.
"GO GO GO!" The swarm chanted in union, as the swarm of orange and blond dashed at the still stationary Itachi. Sakura yelped in surprise when she felt a hand scoop up her knees, and was pulled in to a panting chest.
"Hang in there Sakura-chan, we are making a break for it!" Sakura tried to mumble a response, but he already was off, with the sound of at least dozens of clones falling prey to a tremendous fireball.
Feeling her world spinning at their speed, she gagged, "Na-Naruto, wait a second, PLEASE!"
The blond barely stopped and put her down in time as she spewed on the tree branch they were resting on.
"L-Leave me...he doesn't give a crap about me...go, now!" She staggered out through her gasps for air, while her vision started to blur. She felt light headed when she was lifted back up into a warm chest.
"I would rather die than leave you behind like this Sakura-chan!" he retorted back, while they were off again.
Sakura felt some kind of liquid drip onto her face, was it raining?
Cursing her vision continuing to blur, she shakily brought her hand up to her face, and touched the oddly warm liquid, and pulled it in front of her. She didn't need to see clearly to know that it was not water, or even tears, since neither had such a strong reddish hue.
"You're hurt! Naruto put me do-...down...-" Sakura could not finish her sentence, as her head spun again in a blur, and her vision blacked out. Naruto panicked when he felt her sudden weight against him, her head dangling back lifelessly.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" he shouted, only to be rewarded by nothing.
'Shit, shit! What do I do!?' The corner of his bulging eyes caught a glimpse of red and he inwardly shouted.
'HE IS STILL COMING!!?' To his horror he was right, as parallel to him, following his jumps through the trees in sync, was an unscratched Itachi.
'Break sight with him now!' Naruto ordered to himself, as he struggled to pull out two smoke bombs and dropped them at his feet, while hitting the forest floor.
'Hide, hide!' seeing some bushes nearby, he dived into them, being careful not to harm his unconscious cargo. He then quickly formed a seal.
'God this better work'.
When the smoke cleared, Naruto could only see the grass floor in his hiding place, with the unconscious Sakura still in his grasp. The soft 'thud' hitting the ground almost made him jump out of his skin, while his heart was racing in terror. Was this truly what it was like to be hunted? With no other means other than to hide, as the predator prowled around searching for you.
The familiar sandals of an Akatsuki member could be seen walking past them, making Naruto tremble.
'Get a damn grip!' He scolded his cowardly form, while tightening his protective grasp on Sakura. His heart stopped when the feet stopped and began to turn to their bush.
'Now damn it, now!' a rustling behind him got Itachi's attention, as he span around and saw 'Naruto and Sakura' once again running. It took a full second for it to register when the sandals blurred away in Naruto's paced mind.
'He...fell for it...' Naruto could not resist the silent laughter, while resting his chin on top of Sakura's head.
"We got away...ha-ha." he whispered, but received no response from his teammate.
The sudden rustling sent a chill down his back, as he snapped is gaze to see a paw like hand bursting through the bushes to grab them.
'HE CAME BACK!?' Naruto screamed internally, while desperately reaching for a Kunai, or anything to protect themselves with, but it was too late. He froze though when the blurring hand rested on his shoulder in comfort.
"Calm down Naruto!" Came the commanding voice from what he recognised as Kakashi. Naruto recovered from his shock with a long sigh.
"S-Sensei?" Kakashi pulled the bushes clear to reveal himself.
"It's me Naruto..."
"Naruto-kun! What happened to you and Sakura-san?!"
Naruto cringed at their concerned looks, but tried not to break down,"...Akatsuki."
Kakashi's lone eye widened, but then narrowed in concentration, "...What happened?"
Naruto felt his eyes watering, and was cursing it. He said a long time he would not do this anymore, he was done with crying because things were getting tough...but this... this was too much. Naruto tightened his grasp unconsciously on Sakura, and all his will to not break shattered apart like glass.
"I-It...Itachi." Kakashi kneeled down and decided it was best to talk about this when the blond was calmer.
"Ok, I understand...can you move?"
The blond whipped away his weakness and nodded. Kakashi then looked at the unconscious Kunoichi resting her head underneath his neck and inwardly winced. She didn't have any physical injuries, but she looked completely drained.
As if sensing his sensei's thoughts, Naruto asked, "Sensei...is she-..."
Kakashi's nod brought unimaginable relief to the blonds' dull eyes, "She is just exhausted, let her rest and she will be ok." Kakashi then decided that it was time to get out of this now dangerous place.
"Lee-kun, carry Sakura, and we will conti-"
"I will do it." Both looked in shock at how protective the blond sounded.
Kakashi questioned his student however, "Are you sure?" "Yeah...I will be fine."
Naruto stood up, and ensured he had a solid hold on Sakura.
"Ok...let's go."
The group then continued, unaware of the two fixed eyes snapped to their backs, that belonged to a hawk somebody had claimed she had seen too much of in one day.