HOLY CRAP, PEOPLE. I AM SO SORRY.

I swear, I didn't mean to let this go so long without an update! I got grounded from my computer for a while, and when I finally got it back, I started working on Worlds Apart, Yet So Close. Please forgive me!

Well, anyway, a message to you all:

My friend Shadowstep of MoonClan has this kick-ass AWESOME story that you all need to go read, especially if you like the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. It's called Up Above The World So High. This girl, Charykit (ahem, *cough*Sakura*cough*) lives in a world of human/cat hybrids, and is part of the Blazing Fire Clan. But one day, the Clan gets destroyed by the Raging Water Clan, and she's sent 300 years into the future - to a world where only humans (ninja) live. She goes by the name Hanashina Namikawa, and she sees the reincarnations of some of her friends there, too! (Like Foxkit is Naruto and Ravenkit is Sasuke.) It's really cool, guys! You've gotta read it! :D

Please read and review!

Sakura thought she would enjoy potions class. She was a med-nin, after all, so she had a lot of experience with mixing concoctions. She had been even more excited to discover that she had a double potions class, which basically meant the class was twice as long as normal. Sure, Professor Snape was a bit of an ass, but she had dealt with difficult people most of her life. No sweat, right?

Wrong.

Sakura had liked the first half of class. Draco — while also a little asshole himself — was pretty easy to work with. He put up a strictly business mask and read the textbook aloud while Sakura did as he said. She just had to ignore the occasional barb he muttered about Harry, Ron, and Hermione (even though she really didn't like the girl). Nothing she wasn't used to.

Because of their excellent teamwork, Draco and Sakura were the first ones to finish, a fact that irritated Hermione to no end. Kisame and Deidara, while quick workers themselves, were the third pair to finish because they were forced to keep asking what the book said. Hermione and her partner came in second.

When Sakura called Professor Snape over to inspect their completed project, she could tell by the look in his eyes that he wanted to accuse them of cheating. He didn't, however, because he would have to call his prized student a cheater as well. Sakura couldn't help feeling a bit smug that Snape wasn't getting his way. She was a sadist at heart.

Not long after Kisame and Deidara finished, Snape ordered that no one was allowed to talk. So instead, Sakura sat in complete silence, staring blankly at the front of the classroom with her cheek resting in her palm. She was incredibly bored, and she almost wished a gang of enemy shinobi would bust into the room so there would be at least a little bit of excitement. Alas, however, that didn't happen. In order to amuse herself, Sakura went over all the silly arguments she'd had with Deidara and Kisame in the past. She allowed a small smile to stretch on her lips; finally, something to keep her occupied.

But, of course, Snape found a way to ruin her day in the end.

"Detention, Miss Haruno."

Sakura looked blankly at the dark-haired man for a moment before his words sunk in. She glared. "For what?" she demanded.

"For violating my rule of 'no talking'," he replied matter-of-factly. "I announced a few moments ago that any further talking would result in detention. Obviously, you were not paying attention."

"But I wasn't talking," she argued, lightly shoving her partner's shoulder. "Tell him, Draco."

The Slytherin boy shot her an uncertain look before glancing up at Snape. "Professor—"

But he completely ignored his other student. "You are talking right now. Detention at three-thirty sharp. If you're late, I will add on another hour."

Sakura gaped up at him in disbelief as he turned and walked away, at a loss for words. Then, she glowered with fury.

"Did you hear that?" she hissed to Kisame and Deidara, her voice so quiet that only the incredible hearing of a shinobi could pick it up.

"You're out of luck," Kisame replied just as silently. "He obvious doesn't like you."

"You THINK?"

Deidara snorted in amusement, and Snape halted.

"Detention, Mr. Katsu. Five points from Gryffindor."

"What, yeah?"

.

.

.

After the class ended an hour or so later, the three Akatsuki made a beeline for their next class: Defense Against the Dark Arts. They didn't want to stay in the room any longer than they had to. In the end, Kisame was dished out a serving of detention pie as well for "disrespecting the teacher". (Bullshit.) There was just one problem.

They had no idea where the classroom was.

Sure, they could've followed Harry, seeing as they had the same schedule, but they lost him in the crowd… So they were officially up Shit Creek, and guess what? The paddle just broke.

The three of them wandered around the castle like complete idiots for nearly twenty minutes before Deidara finally sensed Harry's presence and led them to the correct room. By the time they arrived, class had already started.

"So the first question we must ask ourselves," Professor Lupin was saying, "is: what is a boggart?"

Hermione's hand shot up like a rocket.

"It's a shape shifter," she answered immediately, before Lupin even had the chance to call on her. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us the most."

"Wow," Sakura murmured under her breath to Kisame and Deidara. "That sounds pretty interesting. It'd be really useful during interrogations."

"Definitely," Deidara agreed just as quietly, eyeing the wardrobe situated in the middle of the room. It shook and twitched every now and then, but no noises came from inside.

"So I guess there's a boggart-thing inside it, huh?" Kisame remarked, head turned toward the other two shinobi, but eyes locked on the offending object.

"Probably," Sakura said, nodding.

"What do you think we're going to do with it?" Deidara asked, curiosity written all over his face. "All of the tables are shoved up against the wall, and the other students don't have their books; only their wands."

"Maybe we're going to be fighting it," Sakura suggested. "To prepare us in case we meet one in the real world."

"The others look relaxed, though," Kisame pointed out. "Not like they're preparing to fight something off."

Sakura frowned slightly. "Good point," she mumbled. "I forgot; they haven't been trained to remain calm in all situations like us shinobi. So then…what?"

"Dunno," the usually blue-skinned man grunted.

The aging jutsu was still in affect for all of them. Sakura and Deidara looked to be about thirteen, when in reality the rosette was nineteen and the blond was twenty-one. Kisame (who looked the same as always, except with the light blue skin and gill-like marks) could pass for fifteen, but that was pushing it; sixteen was a bit more accurate. However, he was actually thirty-four, which was a surprising age for a ninja. Most were dead by age thirty-two. Only the really powerful ones, like Madara or the three Sennin of Konohagakure, lived very long.

"—will practice the charm without wands first," Lupin continued with a slight smile.

The three shinobi exchanged a look, feeling they should probably pay attention.

"After me, please…riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" the class said together, some more enthusiastically than others.

"Good," said Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough. And this is where you come in, Neville."

A boy stepped forward nervously, shaking more violently than the wardrobe.

"Right, Neville," Lupin murmured. "First things first: what would you say is the thing that frightens you the most in the world?"

The boy mumbled something way too low for anyone — except the ninja — to hear. Deidara snorted loudly, and Neville's cheeks flamed red. Lupin shot the blond a stern look before turning back to Neville.

"I'm sorry, Neville," he said. "I'm afraid I didn't catch that."

He frowned deeply to himself, as if ashamed. "P-professor Snape."

Almost all of the students burst out laughing, to which Neville ducked his head. Lupin, however, looked thoughtful as he pushed the boy toward the wardrobe.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong," he murmured, "but I believe you live with your grandmother?"

Neville paled considerably. "Y-yes," he stammered, panicking. "B-but I don't want the boggart to turn into her, either."

There were a few more laughs, and Sakura sighed quietly.

"Tired?" Deidara guessed in amusement.

Sakura shot him a withering look. "I didn't sleep good last night," she muttered.

"Thinking about Itachi?" Kisame jibbed.

She flat-out glared at the man, and Deidara grimaced at his insinuation. "Shut the hell up," she snapped, then flooded chakra to her feet to keep herself standing and crossed her arms over her chest. "Wake me when it's over."

Sakura sent a small flare of chakra to her brain and effectively knocked herself out. It was a little trick all shinobi could use when they were going on short hours of sleep. They could concentrate chakra to their feet, which stuck them to the ground in an upright position, and then sent a tiny burst of chakra to their brain to shut it down for some much-needed rest. Very effective.

Deidara sighed and looked away from the sleeping form of Sakura, his lone visible eye glittering in annoyance. Kisame grunted and crossed his arms over his chest like Sakura had, watching the other students proceed with the boggart.

"Miss Haruno," Professor Lupin called nearly twenty minutes later, smiling at the pink-haired girl at the back of the room.

She jerked awake, head shooting up and eyes wide. "What?" she demanded, looking around wildly for any enemies. A few snickers reached her ears, and her eyes narrowed as she realized that she had just made a fool of herself. Kisame and Deidara were smirking, and she glared at them.

"Why don't you join the class?" the man suggested. "You can go next."

Sakura stared at him blankly. "For what?" she asked her fellow shinobi.

Deidara snorted in amusement, earning another glower. "Go up to the boggart, let it transform into your greatest fear, point your wand at it, and shoot a henge at it while saying 'riddikulus'."

Sakura sighed and walked slowly to the front of the crowd of students, pushing her way through.

"Let's see what you're afraid of, kitten," Kisame taunted. "Good blackmail material."

Sakura shot him a fiery glare over her shoulder. "Sleep with one eye open, teme."

There were a few 'oooh's and 'teme?'s circulating amongst the students, but Sakura ignored all of them and approached the quickly-warping shape in the center of the room — the boggart, she assumed. It swirled around in mid-air, flashing through thousands of different forms.

And it kept transforming.

It carried on for at least five minutes, swirling and changing, never staying in one form. Whispers echoed in the room as some of the students grew antsy. Then, to everyone's surprise, Lupin started laughing.

"Well, well," he chuckled warmly, smiling at Sakura. "Fearless, are we? I believe you've stumped our poor boggart, here."

The students' murmurs grew louder, but Sakura refused to let it feed her ego. He just stared blankly at the shapeless form before her, watching with jaded eyes as it began to shift more quickly, almost as if it were panicking. She was intimidating the boggart. Kisame gave a hearty laugh and clapped her on the back, making her stumble slightly and glare at him.

"Why am I not surprised?" he remarked with a sharp-toothed grin. "Big bad kitten, afraid of nothing. You always did have a habit of facing off against men twice your size — and age — without so much as blinking; and you'd win, to boot." He barked another laugh and shook his head incredulously, giving her another couple rough back pats. "Fearless little spitfire. You'd make Itachi proud."

Sakura stiffened and the boggart suddenly twitched, greedily latching onto her moment of weakness. And then, it transformed and retained its shape.

In the place where the boggart had been, a bloody and broken body lay on the floor: Itachi. Sakura flinched and took a step back, eyes widening. Deidara drew in a sharp breath and Kisame froze. There were a few gasps from other students.

Slowly — painfully slowly — Itachi slid his hands to his sides and pushed against the floor, raising himself up sluggishly until he hovered about two feet off the ground. The band on his hair snapped and dark black locks fell down around his face, blood dripping to the floor at an alarming rate. He lifted his head at the pace of a snail, hair obscuring his features. Then, his hand raised to his face and pulled.

The skin around his right eye was ripped off, revealing a familiar purple-ringed golden eye. A wide chilling smirk stretched across his lips and an unearthly chuckle tore from his throat. A large earth-colored snake separated itself from the skin of his back and wrapped around him, hissing dangerously at the shinobi.

Sakura was completely white, whiter than Orochimaru's revealed flesh. She stumbled back with crippling fear twisting in her stomach. Knowing that it had her, the creature slipped out a familiar impossibly-long tongue, the chuckles growing louder.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Deidara snatched a hold of Sakura's arm and yanked her back, shifting in front of her. Immediately, the boggart shifted from an Orochimaru-infested Itachi to an Orochimaru-infested Sakura. Kisame swore under his breath, knowing his comrades were helpless. He whipped out his wand (stupid thing) and threw a henge at it, growling, "Riddikulus!"

As soon as the jutsu hit it, the boggart exploded into a shower of fireworks. Relief flooded Deidara's expression as he watched the blue-and-golden sparks flutter harmlessly to the ground, and he glanced back at Sakura. She was entirely frozen, eyes wide and unseeing, breathing so fast she appeared to be vibrating in place.

Alarmed, Lupin shot a spell at the boggart that flung it back into the wardrobe and locked it in. He looked at the three shinobi with concern, and the whole class was in a shocked silence. Then, Sakura seemed to snap out of it. Her face drew into a harshly blank mask, and her movements were stiff and jerky.

"I think I'd better go," she bit out, turning abruptly on her heel and stalking toward the door. Kisame and Deidara exchanged a look before running after her. Lupin did nothing to stop them. As soon as the door slammed behind the trio, shocked mumbles and cries broke out, filling the entire room.

Sakura walked down the hallway with a ground-eating pace, ignoring Kisame and Deidara's calls for her to stop. They caught up within seconds and the blond took her arm. She knocked his hand away, but he grabbed her again and pulled her toward him.

"Let me go!" she snarled, struggling against his hold.

"Just calm down!" Deidara ordered, grunting with the effort to restrain her.

Sakura wiggled one arm free and reared it back to punch him, but Kisame grasped her fist and trapped it at her side.

"Cool it!" he said.

"I have to go back!" Sakura yelled, glaring at both of them with eyes that glowed with the tell-tale signs of repressed tears, shocking them. "I have to get to him first! If Madara finds out—"

"If he already knows, then it's too late!" Deidara snapped. "There's nothing you can do!"

"No!" Sakura objected, though it sounded more like pleading. "Madara— he'll kill him! I can't let him! I can't let him kill Itachi!"

"Sakura!" Kisame growled. "Sakura!" She stopped at his tone and glared up at him. "Itachi made his own choice," he said slowly, jaw clenched. "It was his decision to leave, and he had his reasons, I'm sure. But you can't do anything this time, kitten. If Madara knows that he went back, then Itachi's already dead. And if not, you could get him found out by following. And then you'd be killed, on top of that."

Sakura swallowed slowly, eyes pained. She seemed to be fighting an internal battle.

"Let it go," Deidara murmured, forcing her to meet his gaze. "There's nothing you can do to change it, so just let it run its course. For all we know, Itachi could be fine."

Sakura bit her bottom lip and looked away, shoulders shagging in defeat.

"Fine," she mumbled quietly. "It's just— …I can't let him die…"

"I know," Deidara sighed, pulling her into an awkward soft of hug. He wasn't so great at the whole 'comforting' thing.

Kisame ran a hand through his unruly blue-gray hair, releasing Sakura's now uncurled fist. After a moment, the rosette pulled away from her blond-haired comrade, muttering a quiet 'thanks'.

"I don't want to go back to the class," she said, daring them to argue. "I want to train; it'll help me get rid of my frustration."

Deidara suddenly gave an unholy grin, the gleam in his eyes promising that someone was about to be very, very horrified — namely, the professors of Hogwarts. Sakura felt herself grinning back, his enthusiasm infectious. Kisame gave a snort, but smirked as well.

"I've got some clay on me," the blond remarked with deceptive innocence. "And I'm sure we could slip out of the castle pretty easily, yeah. Maybe the Forbidden Forest? Blow up and beat up some weird-ass creatures, hm?"

Sakura laughed, surprising herself. She was usually quite and withdrawn like — Don't say his name, stupid.

"I'm game," she agreed. "Kisame?"

He flashed a row of scarily-sharp teeth. "Count me in. I've been itching to fight something for a while, anyway."

o o o O O O o o o

The man with long brown hair and ice-blue eyes from the dango shop glanced around suspiciously, body tense. The rain had stopped less than an hour earlier, and he had successfully slipped into the Akatsuki base located in the center of Amegakure. He kept his chakra completely repressed, knowing the consequences for being caught.

His eyes flickered for a moment, the color in them blurring, and they suddenly sharpened. He pressed himself flat against a wall with a cloaking jutsu hiding his form and peered cautiously around a corner. Just because he couldn't sense any chakra signatures didn't mean that someone wasn't hidden there.

Deciding that it was all clear, he slipped quietly around the corner and flashed down the hallway, his cloaking jutsu blending him in with the shadows on the wall. He was so close. Just two more turns, and then he'd be in the correct hall. Using every once of his concentration, he focused on his instincts and swiftly made his way to his destination. Five doors down, on the left — there.

He darted across the hall and, after quickly checking for the presence of any chakra, opened a door and slipped inside. He shut it gently behind him, eyes flying in every direction before he deemed it safe.

It was the room Uchiha Sasuke was bunking in for the night. He and his team were staying another day at the base to rest up and gather supplies before they set off to capture the kyuubi jinchuriki — Uzumaki Naruto of Konohagakure.

With the carefulness only a trained shinobi could obtain, the man retrieved an item from the pouch on his hip: a Konoha headband with a slash through the symbol. Keeping the cloaking jutsu in place, he poured a little of his chakra into the steel plate and took out another item from his pack — a sheet of paper. He placed the headband gently on the center of Sasuke's temporary bed and raised his right hand to his mouth, biting down on the tip of his pointer finger. Blood welled on the digit, and he used it to scrawl a quick message on the paper before placing it beside the headband.

Then, feeling his cloaking jutsu — and henge — begin to slip, he escaped the base as quickly as he had come.

Later, when Sasuke would come in his room to find the two objects on his bed, he would be shocked beyond belief. He would stare at them wide-eyed, and then growl furiously to himself. When he read the message, he wouldn't believe it in an instant, but once he felt the chakra pulsing from the headband — That Man's — headband, he would be convinced. But until that moment, hours from the present, Sasuke would remain ignorant that anything was wrong.

The headband glowed slightly on the bed, the strong chakra within it swirling forcefully. The blood-written message at its side held a foreboding message:

Madara helped kill the Clan.