Chapter Three – The Red Moon Calls
Blossom: I don't own Naruto and Please Review or I just may stop writing.
The rain storm of that particular afternoon had ensured a clear, star-shot night. The moon's bright rays reflected on the wet surfaces of the stones that paved the way to the Uchiha district.
Behind her, the loud bustle of the town was getting more hushed as she moved closer and closer to the completely still area. All she could hear now was the faint sound of crickets that now inhabited the abandoned complex and the occasional sounds of birds flying over.
Though everything seemed peaceful, for some reason, it looked off to her. As though she was missing something of the utmost importance, but she couldn't identify what it was until she stepped into the Uchiha district and realized that the house to the far north was devoid of light.
Usually, Sasuke was in the room that looked over the district by this time, reading through some of his scrolls as he apparently prepared for another day. She didn't knew how many times she had watched him do that, but it was always a soothing sight to see that he was still there, especially after Itachi had shown up so suddenly a few weeks ago.
But this time, he wasn't there. The room was dark and there was no sign of life anywhere around her.
Behind her, a twig cracked.
She whirled around and saw Sasuke. He was walking away from her, his hands pocketed in his white shorts. Then she noticed the full backpack and the fact that he wasn't wearing his forehead protector.
Sakura cried out to him, but he didn't turn around.
Instead, he just walked on until she couldn't see him anymore.
"Don't!" she called out, her emerald eyes opened wide. Her hand was stretched out towards the grimy ceiling, the dream still vividly etched into her mind.
Disorientated, Sakura glanced around the room.
It was cold inside as she disentangled herself from the white sheets, sitting upright as she inspected the rest of the small room, noticing that she was completely alone.
She swore profusely as memories from the previous day flooded her mind. Itachi and Kisame were near, Sakura knew that much. Escape was not probable, but she could either make it work or die trying. There was no way in hell that she'd be kept a hostage of Akatsuki.
Hastily, she slid off the bed, noticing her boots near the window. Sakura didn't even take the time to put them on, knowing that either one of them could be back any minute now and escape would be impossible from then on.
Sakura grabbed the handle for the window, trying to lift it up without making too much noise. But the window was old and creaked with every inch. She cursed violently under her beath, trying to slide it open quickly now without pulling the entire wall out with her strength.
"Nice try kunoichi," a deep, raspy voice sounded from behind her.
Gritting her teeth, she turned around to see Kisame's face, a mocking grin adorning his blue lips. "Very unpredictable too," he said, sarcasm saturating his voice.
He was leaning against the wall next to the door, his immense sword leaning against his hip, handle in his hands. Evidently, Kisame was going to attack her if she would make one more move.
Automatically, Sakura reached for her kunai pocket, ready to attack him as soon as he came for her. But her pouch had been removed, as was the pouch filled with senbon that used to be strapped on to the back of her skirt.
"Are you going to fight me, kunoichi?" Kisame said, laughing shortly. "Amusing."
"I am," she said darkly, dropping into her fighting stance. Though she was exhausted beyond beliefs, her chakra almost completely depleted from running constantly through the countries since her escape from Konoha, the last thing Sakura would ever do was give into Akatsuki.
But before she could even make a move, the door opened again and this time, Itachi stepped inside. He quickly assessed the situation, glancing from Kisame to Sakura. He kept his piercing eyes on her for a while, observing her as though she was a mouse in a cage, waiting to be experimented on.
"Dinner," Itachi said, gesturing towards the hallway. "Follow me," he said to Sakura, his soft voice compelling, threatening.
"What do you want with me?" Sakura said as Itachi turned to step out of the room again.
He glanced over his shoulder. "We'll discuss this while eating. Now come."
She stood still.
"Kisame," Itachi said. Kisame grinned as he grabbed his sword. Within a split second, he had disappeared from the place he was standing and stood behind Sakura.
"Relax kunoichi," Kisame said as Sakura turned around, accumulating the last of her chakra into her fist. "We're not going to kill you…"
She lowered her arm a little bit, incredulous.
"Yet," he added with another grin, exposing his razor sharp teeth to her. As he exhaled, some of his vile breath fanned over her face, nauseating her immediately. She fought back the urge to hurl, took a few steps backwards until she stood in the middle of the room, Itachi on one side, Kisame on the other.
"What do you want with me?" she asked again, turning to Itachi.
Itachi said nothing as he turned to face her completely, his crimson eyes blank. "I don't like repeating myself kunoichi."
With that, he stepped outside the room and sauntered away.
Quickly deliberating, Sakura looked towards the open door and then over her shoulder to see Kisame standing there, the insane grin still apparently on his disfigured face. Clearly, she didn't have an option but to follow Itachi right now and see what they wanted with her.
Her eyes narrowed as she walked back towards the window, picking up the boots she had dropped in the heat of the moment. Kisame watched her with disinterest as she put them on quickly. "Will you be standing here all the time?" she finally asked, annoyed by his very presence.
Kisame answered by laughing, following her as she followed Itachi out of the room and steered her towards a larger room to their left. She didn't even get much more time to inspect the place they were lodging in as Kisame pushed her into the room.
A large wooden table stood in the middle, Itachi seated at the head. There were some bags with a restaurant's name on it; take out. She almost snorted, realizing that she never even thought about Itachi and Kisame cooking for themselves. It sounded almost silly and she nearly broke into hysterical laughter as she imagined Kisame with a frilly apron standing in front of a stove.
Itachi evidently noticed her barely concealed laughter as he raised his eyebrows slightly, obviously under the impression that she had completely lost it.
"I'm surprised you find this entire situation laughable, kunoichi," Itachi said, gesturing to a chair on his left side while Kisame sat on the opposite side of the table.
Sakura sat down on her designated spot, eyeing Kisame as he dove into one of the bags, hunger displayed clearly in his round eyes. "I was just thinking about Kisame in an apron. He seems to be your dog so I assumed he would cook for you too."
Kisame looked up, the grin gone from his mutated features. He didn't seem to appreciate the jibe.
Inner Sakura cheered her on.
He threw the smallest package towards her and she caught it midair, slowly removing the lid from the plastic cup, noticing the noodles inside. She eyes them warily and then looked at Kisame as she replaced the lid and slid away from food from her, ignoring the sounds her stomach was making.
"You're rude kunoichi," Kisame said, grinning widely as he opened his own package.
Sakura choose to ignore him. Instead, she looked at Itachi as he opened his package calmly, grabbing one of his red dumplings. He turned the full force of his intense red eyes on her as he took a bite, unmistakably waiting for her to make the first move.
"Deidara isn't here?" Kisame asked, oblivious to obvious tension as Sakura struggled to formulate a good opening sentence.
"No," Itachi said, his eyes still focussed on Sakura.
"Deidara?" she queried, trying to sound disinterested. If she was to be a hostage for Akatsuki for the time being, or whatever it was they wanted with her, it might be best to win as much information about their organization as she could muster.
With a slight pang, Sakura also realized that it might be a good bargaining chip to try and get back into Tsunade's good graces.
"Damn," Kisame swore, rummaging through the remaining bags. "They forgot half of my order again."
Cursing pungently under his breath, Kisame stood up and dashed out of the room, abandoning his food and present company completely.
Sakura pulled her eyebrows together. Granted, she had never actually interacted with any S-Class criminals, but Kisame seemed to be a comedian, rather than a true member of Akatsuki.
"Kunoichi," Itachi woke her from her reverie, demanding attention with his deep voice. She turned to meet his gaze, holding his eyes as she fought back the fear that bubbled up inside of her. It was only natural to be fearful of this man; he had killed an entire clan single-handedly, but it wouldn't be wise to show exactly how scared she was of him.
Shinobi rule number twenty-five; never show emotions.
"Sakura," she said, keeping her voice neutral. "Haruno Sakura."
He cocked his head slightly. "I apologize for being rude, Haruno-san."
She nodded, satisfied. At least he seemed to be somewhat dignified still.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Itachi said in that deep baritone voice of his. "You're a medic kunoichi who has been trained by the Fifth herself."
"Correct," she said after a short pause, knowing that lying would get her nowhere.
Itachi nodded, taking another bite of his dumpling. "And you've left Konoha."
She remained quiet. It wasn't a question anyway, more a statement. Naturally it was clear to him that she had left Konoha. She was alone, without a team, without any other Konoha ninja with her. Sakura had been hungry and tired when he had found her. It was obvious.
Her silence apparently was enough of an answer to him.
Kisame took that moment to stomp inside again, a small bag in his hand. He grumbled something under his breath, seated himself and grabbed the rest of his food before. Without saying another word, he started shoving large quanities of food into his mouth, apparently still upset over the fact that he had to run after whoever had brought the food.
"Little brat ran off with the rest of my food," Kisame grumbled at Itachi, pieces of fish between his sharp teeth apparent.
Itachi was quiet for a moment. "Kisame, the matter I asked you about?"
Kisame swallowed. "Handled that already."
They ate in silence while Sakura sat silently, still refusing to eat her food. Itachi sometimes glanced at her, apparently mulling over something as his crimson eyes scrutinized her. Kisame was staring at her as well, a horrifying grin playing around his thin lips as he chewed on his fish.
It felt uncomfortable for her to be there, in the presence of two extremely strong criminals. They were strong enough to defeat the strongest Jounin from her village and now she was sitting across from them, watching them eat. Part of her wanted to run away as quickly as she could, but common sense told her to stay put, knowing that they would finish eating soon and she would finally get to learn why she was there.
Itachi finished first. He turned his powerful gaze towards her, searching her eyes for answers as he puzzled together his words. "Sakura-san," he started softly.
His intense eyes were making her anxious and Sakura could nearly feel her heart stop completely while Itachi deliberated on what to say.
Itachi was a man that seemed to think everything over, even shortest of sentences were thought over before he finally uttered them. It was disheartening to know that she was now, seemingly, the hostage of a man whose intelligence might be surpassing hers. Not to mention his physical strength. It was as if she were up against some kind of machine that could predict her every movement, especially with his Sharingan.
"Why are you here?" he asked finally, voice void of emotion.
She held her breath momentarily, quickly thinking about her options. If she lied to Itachi, he would kill her. There was no doubt in her mind that Itachi did not like to be lied to and the threat was clear in his crimson eyes. He definitely knew that lying might be part of her plan.
Hesitantly, Sakura answered, trying her hardest to keep her voice under control. "Sasuke."
Kisame looked up, chewing slowly on his food, now interested in whatever Sakura had to say. Itachi said absolutely nothing, he just blinked once, slowly, as he took in the information.
"I'm here because of Sasuke," she said quietly.
It was a grim day. Though it was the middle of summer, the usually azure sky was now grey, little to no sunlight penetrated the thick layer of grey clouds. The entire sky just seemed murky, depressing and certainly did fit Hatake Kakashi's current mood.
He glanced outside as he readjusted the mask around his mouth and nose, ignoring the small itch as the fabric wrapped tightly around his heated skin. Kakashi glanced at the grey fabric of his ANBU vest, toying with the roughened texture between his calloused fingers. If he looked more closely, some light red stains still remained on the vest, an eternal tribute to his work as an ANBU member.
When Kakashi had taken the vest off for the last time, he had hoped that it had been for the last time. ANBU, though most of his good friends were from that time, was horrible. Days of strolling around the border and tough fights with incredibly strong shinobi were daily business, as was patrolling every 10 minutes, over and over, until they had no more chakra left.
And yet here he was, pulling the vest over his head once more.
But he wasn't the only one. Due to recent developments in Konoha, namely Sakura's escape and Sasuke's current situation, Tsunade had been forced to take action. Thus she had sent out the best of the best, knowing that if the worst came to pass, they would have to fight Orochimaru, and unless the shinobi she sent were amazingly well prepared, it would end disastrous.
Thus Kakashi had been sent out, together with Lee and Gai, Konoha's presumed taijutsu specialists. Also, Nara Shikamaru had been put into the team as well, providing to be a great help when it came to distracting the enemy and help out with stategic decisions. Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru for the tracking, Hyuuga Neji for the scouting and Shiranui Genma as one of the all round shinobi Tsunade sent along.
Naturally, Naruto had insisted on coming along, though Tsunade had planned to leave him out during this battle. The Fifth knew precisely that Sasuke and Sakura were Naruto's weak spots and that it might make the entire operation even more complicated than it already was. But there was no stopping Naruto on this. Kakashi knew, Tsunade knew.
To Naruto, this wasn't an act of courage, like Sakura's had been. In Naruto's eyes, this was the logical decision; there had not been any other options and for Naruto to let go of the both of them… well, Kakashi was sure that would never happen.
He tied his scarlet scarf around his neck and placed the mask over his head. Momentarily, he stepped towards the picture of Yondaime and his team, allowing the tops of his fingers to touch the cool glass of the frame, moving over Obito first, before moving on to Rin and finally Yondaime – Namikaze Minato.
With an odd sense of clarity and déjà vu, Kakashi moved the mask until it was covering his complete face and hastily made his way out through the window, towards the Hokage's administration building.
"He always complains about me not being on time and how he hates making others wait, but now look at the time… yeah," a dark shadow on top of one of the many mountains that surrounded the Hidden Village of Stone said, as he looked down upon his former village with one sky-blue eye.
He made a fist with his hand, and reopened it, inspecting the hungry mouths on the inside of his hands, their tongues darting outside, hoping to get some more clay. The blond smirked at them as he stuck his hands into his pockets, allowing them to eat off one of his most precious versions of his chakra-infused clay.
"Deidara…" an ominous voice said from behind him. Deidara didn't even tense anymore. Sasori's distinct way of moving was impossible to be irrecognizable. It was probably the slow strut and the dragging of his cloak on the ground as he made his way to his partner.
"Yes, danna?" he said, turning around to see Sasori coming closer.
"Kisame called in. They need you in River."
Deidara raised his eyebrow. "Why me?"
"Leader wants it that way. Now go. I'll handle this," Sasori rasped.
"I'm always missing the fun… yeah," Deidara said, shaking his head as he retracted his hands from his pocket. "Don't go too crazy."
Sasori simply smirked before accelerating. He rushed past Deidara and jumped off the ridge, landing a good twenty feet underneath Deidara. Without even as much as a final glance, Sasori moved away in his usually calm pace.
"Well… I'll be going then… yeah."