Chapter Four – Sinking into Deep Water

Blossom: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters and Please, Review.

Utter silence greeted her after she uttered Sasuke's name. Kisame's amused stare was obvious, his vicious grin revealing remains of food between his razor sharp teeth as his horrid breath blew into her face. Itachi on the other hand wasn't showing any visible emotion – as always.

She focused on his Akatsuki cloak, trying to avoid those intense crimson eyes of his.

The tension in the air was thick and nerve-wracking, and the knowledge that she might be turned into food for the dogs in a few minutes only served to fuel her fear. Her hands were shaking and her heart was beating erratically. For some reason, it felt as if Itachi could see all of that happening inside her body.

'Calm down,' Inner Sakura thought. 'This isn't helping.'

Under her inner voice, she concentrated on stopping the shaking. Itachi and Kisame were two Akatsuki members. After everything she had learned about that wretched organization, she should definitely know better than to show how scared she actually was of the both of them. Itachi especially. While Kisame was the brawl of the duo, Itachi's intelligence absolutely matched hers, or even exceeded hers. And there was no doubt in her mind that out of the two of them, Itachi was the better fighter.

A short glance at his Sharingan reminded her exactly why Kisame even was obedient.

"Your orientation seems to be off, Sakura-san," Itachi's reply sounded, cutting through the tense air. Kisame chuckled under his breath as she looked up to meet Itachi's gaze. "Sasuke is not here."

A bit annoyed by his remark, Sakura replied: "I was trying to make my way out of the Fire country first, in case ANBU squads would have been sent out."

"And what, ANBU members don't cross borders?" Kisame said, laughing louder now.

Kisame's taunting rang true. She had been too hasty in her decision to leave, not even thinking about the best route. Her best plan had been to go to River first and make her way north and finally eastward.

But as Kisame's laughing continued, Sakura realized one thing with relief: they weren't going to kill her for going to Sound. It had been her greatest fear, that either Itachi or Kisame might have attacked her on the spot for going towards Orochimaru. He was, afterall, an enemy of Akatsuki as well.

Neither of them had seemed surprised though. Perhaps she was even more transparent than she had originally thought.

As she observed Itachi's handsome face, he seemed to be mulling over something, his eyes unseeing and a million miles away from the small wooden table he was sitting at. Then Itachi blinked and returned. His eyes swept over her face for a moment, before they turned towards the hallway.

A second later, a soft knock was heard.

Kisame stood up, giving into a tongue-curling yawn, exposing all his sharp teeth and his blue-tinted tongue in the meanwhile. He caught Sakura staring and grinned widely, obviously enjoying her apparent disgust.

He swept away from the table dramatically, his open cloak billowing behind him, the tell-tale red clouds moving with every step he took. When Kisame returned, he was suddenly devoid of the gills on his face, as well as the grey-blue tinted skin and the round eyes. He looked like someone she could pass on the streets without questioning his appearance.

Shocked, her mouth fell open, until he released the transformation and turned back into the form she had come to hate during the past couple of days. "Simple henge," Kisame grinned, throwing one of the packages at her. "Can't go announcing to the world that I'm Hoshigaki Kisame, can I?"

As he sat down, Kisame glanced at Itachi. "Itachi-san…" he trailed off, but Itachi seemed to understand.

"We wait. There will be an oppertune time," Itachi said, opening his package. As he deftly moved the sleeves of his cloak out of the way, Sakura noticed his long fingers, his nails painted a dark shade of purple.

Itachi investigated the rice for a brief moment, as Kisame went towards the tap, producing a glass from a cabinet. He filled it with water and put it down in the middle of the table. Itachi picked up some grains and threw them into the water.

The confusion must have been apparent on her face as Kisame smirked. "New kind of poison. It's color and odorless, yet when you throw it into the water, infected food will change colors."

She nodded. As missing nin's, they would probably know every sort of poison or any other intoxicating medicine that could put them out long enough for the hunter nins to kill them. As Kisame mirrored Itachi's movements, and seemed satisfied that the rice didn't change its color, she proceeded to eat. Just before she could bring the small amount of rice to her lips, Itachi's hand encircled her wrist in a fashion that showed her that he could easily break her hand if he applied anymore pressure.

"I-Itachi-san, you're hurting me!" Sakura flinched as she tried to break free from his iron grasp. She had hoped that his grip would slightly lessen, but it didn't. Itachi leaned forward, meeting her frightened gaze with his fiery, red Sharingan.

"Test it," he said, the calm of his voice deceptively dangerous. She deemed it best not to fight him over it and quickly threw some grains into the water. Itachi let go of her hand and she quickly retracted it under the table, massaging her sore skin.

Thee pairs of eyes were trimmed on the glass of water, watching for any irregular change. As none came, Sakura breathed a sigh in relief and glanced up at Itachi, mildly annoyed. But as she watched him watch the glass, something in his expression changed for a brief second, before reverting back to blank.

She followed his gaze and her eyes widened as she noticed the water in the glass had gone blood-red.

After a tense moment, Itachi spoke up: "Six ANBU. Hunters." It remained quiet for a while. "Kisame." Itachi's voice was calm and leveled, but there was something in it that immediately forced Kisame to stand up. The shark nodded, grabbed the gigantic sword that leaned against the wall and placed it on his back, patting it lovingly.

"Seems Samehada and I will be having some fun at last," he said, grinning as he sauntered off.

"Kisame," Itachi's voice was tinged with some unspoken command.

"I know," Kisame said from the hallway.

As Kisame left the building, Itachi stood up, unbothered as he grabbed his package and emptied it in the garbage bin. He turned around to face Sakura, grabbing the package he had been hiding under his chair as he walked back.

Her eyes were still fixed on the glass, shock registering in them, and also, disbelief.

Itachi placed the box in front of her, waking her from her trance. She eyed it once and looked at Itachi. "What is this?"

"Your new clothes. Put them on. We're leaving as soon as Kisame returns."

Before she could ask anything else, Itachi walked out of the room, granting her privacy as he closed the door behind him. Knowing that Kisame could return very soon, and that she definitely didn't want the both of them to see her in her panties, Sakura removed the lid of the box. The first thing she saw was the red cloud embroidered on black material. An Akatsuki cloak.

Underneath the cloak was a mesh shirt, similar to the one she saw Itachi wearing, and some dark pants. On the very bottom lay two identical white socks.

Sakura changed quickly, the shirt fitting her perfectly, though she had to roll the pants up once. She put her boots back on, sighing as she put the socks on over them. When it came to the cloak, she looked hesitant. Wearing Akatsuki's colors, even if it was for a short while, seemed to her like betrayal of her village.

She picked up the cloak, eyeing it warily before putting it on. Though Itachi was more her size, there was definitely at least thirty centimeters difference in height. The cloak dragged on the floor as she walked back and forth with it on.

Grimacing, Sakura hoped that Itachi wouldn't mind as she grabbed the ends of her cloak and tore a strip off. She continued to do so until the cloak reached until her ankles. Just as she was closing the buttons, a familiar scent reached her nostrils.

Fire. And something fresh, like rain.

The cloak smelled like Sasuke did.

Sakura unconsciously brought the cuff to her nose, inhaling that sweet, tangy scent that belonged to Sasuke, a myriad of emotions whirling through her. She didn't even notice that Itachi had returned.

"I trust you like the clothes, Sakura-san?" his deep voice woke her from her reverie and she looked up, blushing madly.

He was standing in the doorway, leaning against the threshold with his legs and arms crossed. His Akatsuki cloak was slightly opened and she could see a small, delicate looking necklace hanging around his neck. Three silver flowers.

"Y-Yes Itachi-san," Sakura stammered. "I had to take some off the cloak though, it was too long for me to wear."

'Embarrassing moment, hello! Why on earth did I sniff his clothes anyway!'

His crimson eyes strayed towards her cloak and then down towards the frayed ends of the cloak. Itachi didn't seem to mind it as he pushed himself up. Within a second, Itachi stood less than a meter away from her.

She took a few tentative steps backward, until she met the table and there was nowhere else to go. Itachi had followed her and leaned in close, his eyes calculating as they looked back and forth between hers.

"The ANBU were Leaf," Itachi said, his voice completely devoid from any emotion, yet the coolness of his tone struck her as a bad omen. He had never once used that tone on her, and this time, Sakura was sure that she would die. Surely he would think of her as a threat now that he knew that ANBU would really come for her.

"They're coming for you," he said dispassionately. "Because you ran away from Konoha. And all of this, for Sasuke?"

She nodded once, briefly, afraid to make any more gestures. Sakura closed her eyes, trembling ever so lightly as he leaned away from her, his hand trailing up until he cupped her chin between two fingers. For the first time since leaving Konoha, did she regret her decision.

What would happen now? Itachi would kill her. She would have died for nothing. She hadn't even gotten to Sound village. The pathetic end to the life of a mediocre ninja. Bitter bile surged up through her throat. Even swallowing it away seemed to be the most difficult thing she had ever done.

"I see," Itachi said finally. She opened her eyes, wide with fear, but Itachi's face betrayed nothing as he let go of her chin and walked away from her. "Leaving Konoha for a missing nin out for revenge. Very noble."

Sakura massaged her chin and glanced at the bruises that were blossoming on her pale skin of her wrist. Still shocked, she molded some chakra to her fingers, healing the bruises.

Concentrated as she was, she missed the intrigued look that graced Itachi's face. Frustration overtook her as soon as she healed the bruise. Sakura had never been one to live in fear. Sure, it was normal in a shinobi's life, no matter how hard school tried to teach you to live without emotions. But to have someone hurt her and not being able to do anything in return was unbearable.

Adrenaline flowing through her veins, she turned her most murderous stare onto Itachi, who looked up from her wrist. A flicker of emotion passed his face as she marched up to him. "Please don't do that again, Itachi-san," she said, and for the first time, there was no fear or anguish in her voice, just genuine anger.

"My future is not where my dream is."

Sasuke's deep voice resounded through the tiny, dark room. It was as if he were standing there, right next to the bed as he said those damning words.

Naruto gritted his teeth, trying to fight back the tears as they threatened to spill over his cheeks.

Over and over again, Naruto sees Sasuke in front of him, standing on that small plateau in the middle of the Valley of the End. Those eyes that had turned yellow and those marks all over his face and arms. And then, he transformed into a monster. Just like Naruto did.

And now…

"This time… we'll get him back together!"

"Liar," he whispered hoarsely. "Liar, liar, liar. Sakura-chan, you're a liar."

And just like that, Naruto was bawling like a little child. He pressed his pillow against his face, stifling the sobs while his entire body shook with still unshed tears. But there was also anger, and a lot of rage. Hatred for Orochimaru and for Kabuto and Itachi and all the others that took Sasuke away.

How Naruto wished he hated Sasuke like he had always proclaimed to. That Sasuke meant nothing to him, just another genin ninja who turned out to betray his village to join their greatest enemy. How he wished that Sasuke was never paired up together with him and Sakura.

How Naruto wished he was enough. Both for Sasuke and for Sakura. That it wasn't all meaningless. That there was more to life than constantly trying to save those you've forged a bond with so powerful that it's impossible to let go of them anymore.

Sasuke was right all along. It hurts because of the bonds.

The crying continued until the early hours of the morning. When he finally crawled out of his bed, his eyes were red and puffy and he looked a complete mess. After a quick shower and some breakfast, he put his Jounin uniform on and made his way towards the administration building, hoping to learn more about their situation.

And also hoping that they would be sent out today to get both Sasuke and Sakura back.

Resolve burned in his cerulean eyes as he stepped inside the building.

While she had been healing her wrist, Itachi had buttoned up his cloak again. The only thing she could see right now were those penetrating crimson eyes. It remained deathly quiet for a while. Her adrenaline rush was subsiding, leaving her vulnerable again to Itachi's intimidating presence. She tried to decipher whether he was angered or amused, but his usual blank eyes gave no indication of his current mood.

Then, Sakura heard a chuckle.

Her eyes grew the size of saucers as she watched Itachi, before realizing that it was not his voice. She whirled around to see Kisame standing in the doorway, a bloody Samehada in his hands. Kisame grinned again and as he stepped into the light, she could clearly see the wet stains of blood on his Akatsuki cloak.

"I disposed of all of them," Kisame said to Itachi. "Konoha, as we thought."

He was rewarded with a curt nod. Itachi didn't even look him in the eye, but kept his eyes on Sakura at all times. Kisame grinned at the younger shinobi's back and stared at Sakura as well.

"But kunoichi, you should be happy. You're the first one to ever use that tone on Itachi-san, and he hasn't killed you yet," Kisame started laughing as he walked out of the room, unaware that the tension had thickened in the last seconds of his stay.

As he closed the door, Itachi spoke: "Sit down."

She stared at Itachi for a moment longer, her usual, stubborn self bubbling up inside of her, urging her to keep her self-control and not be afraid of this man. But as Itachi glared at her, her resolve quickly faded away and she reluctantly took a seat.

Itachi took a seat across from her. "You left Konoha for Sasuke."

"Correct," she said defiantly.

"You're aware he will not come back with you."

"Yes," she said. It was the truth. There was no way that Sasuke would come back to Konoha now. Not while Itachi was still breathing.

A pause. Whether Itachi was puzzling together the tiny pieces of the huge puzzle that centered around the former team 7, or whether he thought she was a lunatic, Sakura didn't know.

It was amazing how the two of them looked alike during brief moments like these. He was just like Sasuke—that intelligent brain of his always working full-time, analyzing, storing every little piece of information that he finds.

Yet there was a world of difference in their manners as well. Sasuke would fold his hands together while brooding and thinking, Itachi just seemed lost in his own world for a split second, though his eyes were always aware of every single movement around him. Always calculating his movements and incalculably dangerous.

"You are aware that he'll never do this for you?" Itachi said after a moment of consideration.

"Yes," Sakura answered. Truthfully speaking though, she wasn't sure if Sasuke wouldn't do the same for her. Perhaps it was just her imagination speaking, but during team 7, Sasuke had been part of the team. One third of it, as strong and fierce as Naruto had been, protecting the both of them. Even when Itachi had so briefly appeared, Sasuke had run towards Naruto.

Naruto thought it was simply for revenge.

She wasn't so sure about that.

Would he come for her?

Sasuke's face flashed before her, the arrogant half-grin he used to wear playing around his lips. Another Sasuke, broken and miserable in the hospital bed, dazed as he woke up. Sasuke and the curse mark spreading over his face. Sasuke activating the Chidori against Naruto on the hospital roof… Sasuke on the road that led out of Konoha, smiling almost gently as he turned around.

"Thank you."

Suddenly, she was angry.

"It's been six years since he left," Sakura said finally. "Searching power from Orochimaru nonetheless, all for his revenge against you. You broke us. All three of us. Team seven is non-existent thanks to you."

Itachi watched her as she inhaled for the second part of her speech.

"This is your fault. Six years of living in uncertainty, not knowing what might happen next. You destroy lives. You started with that on the night of the massacre. Sasuke's grief became a prison for him. It ensnared us as well and we went down, entwined with him," Sakura said, gritting her teeth together as she finally got her act together.

"Sasuke could have ignored his instincts for revenge," Itachi said simply.

Sakura shook her head. "No. He could never. Even if we tried to divert his attention, and we did, the scars from the past reminded him that everything that had happened that night was real."

Itachi said nothing. His exquisite eyes watched her every moment, taking in the set of her mouth and the way her chakra was moving, almost pulsing with anger, towards her hands and legs.

"I left Konoha for him. And do you know why, Uchiha Itachi? Because the most important people are worth everything."

"Nice speech, kunoichi," Kisame said from the doorway, wearing another cloak. She clenched her jaw as she went over his appearance, wishing he had been hurt in some way so that she wouldn't be interrupted in the middle of saying everything she had ever wanted to say to Itachi. Kisame noticed the rage directed at him and grinned. "Give it up kunoichi. You can't do anything."

"Just wait," she thought, glancing at Itachi as he stood up. "I'm not going to be here forever."

Kisame stepped towards Itachi and Sakura. "Ready."

Itachi gave his trademark nod once as he straightened himself and stood up, straightening his Akatsuki cloak. He walked into one of the rooms, presumably his own, and came back with a straw hat. A small bell rang as he put it on, obscuring most of his features. Kisame did the same and handed her a straw hat as well, though this one seemed quite dilapidated.

"Emergencies only," Kisame smirked as he glanced over the frayed edges of the hat. He was smirking still, his obvious amusement annoying her greatly. Again she went over her thoughts and over both of the shinobi standing in front of her.

Escaping was never impossible.

Itachi stepped out of the room, his bell ringing with every step he made, the Akatsuki billowing softly with every step. Kisame lingered, making it clear that she should follow. One last glare was exchanged as she followed Itachi out of the room, Kisame following her closely.

"So where are we going to?" Sakura asked casually, trying to find more information about their precise whereabouts.

Itachi ignored her, but Kisame was gracious enough to answer: "The Hidden Village of Rock."