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Naruto

Chapter 17

The Sharingan was part of Sakura's best kept secret. Usually she could count the number of people that knew she had it on one finger. Right now, with a group shinobi attempting to attack her, she couldn't use just one finger. A stunned silence filled the room momentarily before the shinobi began to advance again.

Sakura lept nimbly over her enemies and, as she was coming down, charged chakra into her fist. The chakra-charged fist slammed into a man's chest. He flew backwards while Sakura landed on the ground and immediately flipped backwards to dodge an incoming demon wind shuriken.

She threw some wire at the shuriken. The wire wrapped itself around the shuriken several times, securely attaching to it. With a tug, Sakura took control of the shurken and spun it above her head like a mace and chain. When she got it to spin fast enough, she launched it at a particularly large group of ninja. The smarter ones dodged; the less than smart ones let it hit them.

Sakura attached wire to a kunai and threw it at a man. As expected, he raised his hand in defense, and the kunai wrapped around his wrist. While he was trying to unravel the kunai and wire, Sakura sprinted at him and slid between his legs. She tugged on the wire, and the man flipped over landing directly on the kunai wrapped around his hand.

A man with a battle ax came charging at her while she was still on the ground. She tried to get to her feet to avoid the man, but she was suddenly stuck to the ground. She looked around and saw a man with his hand planted on the ground and a sticky substance extended from his hands all the way to her body. She struggled pointlessly against the muck as the man with the battle ax prepared to swing.

Taking a deep breath Sakura prepared herself for her next move. As she released the breath, fire flowed from her mouth and into the mans face. He let out a scream of torture, but Sakura ignored him and turned to the man gluing her to the floor and made eye contact. He blinked and was suddenly the one stuck by his own jutsu with Sakura before him with his comrades ax. She swung the ax and let it sink into a vital area.

She loved the Sharingan sometimes.

Another man came at her from behind performing hand signs. A wall of rock rose from the ground and began sliding quickly towards her. Sakura backed up towards a wall while trying to find the rock wall's weak point. She smirked and punched the rock wall when she found the weak point. She watched satisfied as it crumbled to the ground.

Fifteen ninja began attacking her with hand to hand combat. Sakura dodged, kicked, punched, jabbed, and flipped. It was like watching a deadly dance as the men around her slowly dropped to the floor.

Sakura felt a sting in her arm. Looking at the point of stinging she saw an empty vial attached to her arm.

"Crap," Sakura thought. She had been poisoned.

That would slow her down for sure.

Sasuke tapped his finger on the newly changed bed sheets. He felt nauseous and feverish again. Where was Sakura with that medicine? She said she would be gone for fifteen minutes and it had been forty-five!

He wasn't worried, he was just frustrated that she was taking so long when he felt so awful.

Why did he feel so awful anyway? Sakura had cured him. The poison was out of his system.

Another thing, if Orochimaru had truly made him immune to almost every poison, why did he still feel like he was dying?

Something was off.

A rumble shook the building as if to confirm Sasuke's suspicions. He threw the blankets off of his person and leapt to his feet. A stinging pain began to attack his head, threatening to tip him over, but he ignored it and kept walking to the door. Keeping a hand on the wall for support he made his was down the hall.

He had to find Sakura and get out of here.

The last man fell, and Sakura could feel the poison sapping her strength. She still had to get rid of Mazui.

"Too cowardly to fight me yourself?" Sakura panted, taunting Mazui who had stayed sitting throughout the entire battle.

Mazui let out a laugh. "I find it best to tire my enemies out before fighting them myself."

Mazui began to get on his feet and pulled a long katana out of a sheath hanging on his hips.

"You think I'm tired?" Sakura asked standing up straight and breathing normally again. "I haven't even broken a sweat, Mazui."

Mazui's eyes widened in fear momentarily before he checked himself and put on an indifferent mask again. "You've been poisoned, Sakura. This fight is already over."

"You're right," Sakura agreed causing a confused expression to pass over Mazui's face. "You've already made a crucial mistake that has lost you this battle, Mazui," Sakura called across the room.

"Oh?"Mazui snorted.

"You aren't avoiding eye contact," Sakura said as she activated her Sharingan and trapped Mazui in a genjutsu world. Sakura strolled slowly forward. She grabbed Mazui's katana and ran him through with it.

A beep sounded from across the room. Sakura threw a shuriken behind her and turned in time to see a man slide down the wall after pushing a self destruct button.

The entire building began shake, and Sakura let out a curse.

Sasuke's vision was clouding. He hurt everywhere and could feel himself losing consciousness. Darkness was surrounding him on all sides. Whatever the man he fought in the woods had given him was going to kill him. He was certain of that now.

"...ke..." he could hear a voice calling him distantly. Was he underwater? He really couldn't remember. He just wanted to give in and let the darkness take him, so he could escape the pain.

"...give up..." the voice said distantly again, but this time more urgently.

"Yes..." Sasuke thought weakly, "Giving up would be so easy..."

"Sasuke!" the voice called louder. If the voice wanted him to give up so bad, why wouldn't it just let him?

"Please... give up!"

Why was the voice so annoying...?

Sasuke felt his body begin to move. Was the person dragging him somewhere? He felt so far away, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Come on, Sasuke," Sakura urged while she dragged Sasuke's unconscious body towards the supply closet. The entire building was collapsing around them. This wasn't the time for him to be unconscious, especially since she was losing her strength due to the poison. "Wake up, Sasuke!"

He had stopped responding to her. Earlier he had at least moved his head slightly in response to her voice.

"Don't you dare give up on me!" Sakura shouted.

His skin was so pale, and his breathing was very shallow. Why had she been so blind? She should have recognized his symptoms immediately! The sickness he had was so painfully familiar. How could she have not noticed it?

Sakura had to struggle to keep her head. She couldn't break down now, Sasuke needed her. But, seeing Sasuke like this was like seeing her grandfather, aunts, uncles, grandmother, brother, and father dying all over again. She could feel her throat constrict and the tears she had been fighting began to flow freely down her face as she continued to drag Sasuke to the supply closet.

"Come on, Sakura," Sakura said aloud to herself. "Keep it together, you can do this..."

A support beam collapsed from above her. Burning rubble knocked her off her feet and sent herself and Sasuke tumbling to the ground. She could feel the burn forming on her back and scrunched her face in pain.

The temptation to stay on the ground and just cry was so irresistible it was suffocating - or was that the smoke? So many emotions were going through her right now. She couldn't concentrate. It was already too late for Sasuke anyway, wasn't it? What could she do to help him when he had already entered the coma stage?

Besides, she had failed so many times, why not just stay on the ground and let the building collapse on top of her?

She looked over at Sasuke's face and her heart-wrenched. She couldn't just give up on him, could she? She had to keep trying, right?

Even with that thought in mind Sakura found it hard to get up. Whether it was the poison going through her or the desire to give up keeping her down, she didn't know. All of her nightmares about the illness had come crashing back. Her body was shaking in fear, and her heart was breaking at the memory of all of her lost family members.

She turned to Sasuke again. He had dark circles and lines under his eyes that reminded her of someone.

...Itachi...

The sickness had taken everyone she loved, and she was not going to let it take Sasuke, too.

A new sense of determination overtook Sakura. She grabbed Sasuke under the arms and threw him over her shoulder. Despite the poison, she easily carried him the remainder of the way to the supply closet. She kicked the supply closet door open and tried to ignore the explosions all around her while she searched for the correct ingredients to her antidote.

It was almost too late for Sasuke, and if she didn't already know how to make the antidote, he would have been done for.

Sasuke blinked his eyes open and found himself staring at stars. Hadn't he been in a building trying to warn...

"Sakura!" Sasuke remembered sitting up quickly. He was slightly surprised when his body didn't retaliate against the sudden movement. Hadn't he been feeling like he was dying a few hours prior?

"I'm right here," Sakura responded to his exclamation.

Sasuke turned to his right and saw her sitting with her back to him and her body silhouetted against a burning building.

Wait... Why was there a burning building?

"What happened?" Sasuke asked utterly confused, but making sure that didn't show in his voice. "I remember being sick, trying to warn you, and then, nothing."

"The whole thing was a trap. Mazui tried to kill me, so I killed him, a subordinate self-destructed the building to try and kill me, and I cured you," her back was still turned to Sasuke and that bothered him. Almost as much as her dead-sounding voice.

"What's wrong?" he asked without thought.

"Nothing," she shrugged.

"So why won't you turn around?" Sasuke asked.

A silence filled the field only interrupted by the occasional crackle of fire consuming the building.

"The poison you were given was never meant to be fatal," Sakura said, her voice barely audible.

Sasuke waited for her to continue.

"It was meant to distract me from the real issue until it was too late," she took a deep breath. "You were infected with the same illness as my whole family. You almost died, Sasuke."

She finally turned to him with red-rimmed eyes. Sasuke was more surprised that Sakura was actually crying than the news about his near-death. She seemed so unfazed by everything.

"And I almost let you," Sakura admitted in a whisper.

Sasuke didn't know what she meant, but a small wave of anger washed over him. How could she have almost let him die?

She stood up and brushed the grass off of her pants before heading off towards the woods opposite of the building. "It's time to go."

"Aren't you forgetting the base is that way?" Sasuke sighed pointing in the opposite direction.

"I know it is," Sakura responded. She was purposefully looking away - avoiding eye contact. "I'm not going back."

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks. "What?" Why did the notion of her leaving even affect him?

"Madara tried to have me - both of us - killed. It's so obvious... Besides," Sakura turned to him looking him straight in the eye. Any sign of joking was gone, "I've told you everything. I did what I was supposed to. Now it's time for me to go back."

"Sakura..." Sasuke said, his voice like a warning.

"You can't have both of us and the time has come for you to choose. You can choose me or you can choose them. I'm not going to try and sell my side to you. I want you to see the benefits on your own and not just because I had to point them out to you. I don't want to live with you knowing I had to convince you to choose me; I deserve better than that. Itachi deserves better than that"

"I am not choosing," Sasuke growled. He was tired of her using Itachi against him. "You're being ridiculous."

"Then you choose them," Sakura said. Her voice sounded strained and defeated, like it wasn't just her being discarded. "I just wish you would stop letting other people control you, and that you would make your own decisions."

"I do-"

"No, I can assure you that you don't. You wouldn't be going back if you did."

"What made you think for a second I wouldn't go back?" Sasuke growled. He was getting angrier with her by the second, and he wasn't entirely sure why.

"Well, the obvious reason that Madara tried to have you killed, and I thought that you... Never mind, that doesn't even matter."

"Go ahead and say it," Sasuke sneered.

"I thought that maybe for once in your life, since your parents' death, you actually cared about someone other than yourself."

He snorted, "You mean you?"

"Maybe I did," Sakura ground out, pretending his comment didn't hurt as much as it did, "but that requires you to actually have some semblance of a heart."

"Why would I choose a liar that just admitted to almost letting me die?"

"I won't pretend that I didn't," Sakura sighed, "I was overwhelmingly reminded of the fact that everyone I ever cared about had been taken by the disease you had."

Did she really think that was a valid excuse?

"And as to the liar part," Sakura's voice brought him from his thoughts, "I have told you the truth in everything, except about what my Kekkei Genkei is. The one thing I can't tell you is the one thing you use against me to call me a liar!"

"I call you a liar because you've lied to everyone your whole life. Don't pretend like one moment of honesty excuses you from all of that."

Sakura could feel the tears brimming in her eyes, but she fought against them. "Madara is a man with no morals and no mercy - I would've thought you learned that when he gave you the same sickness that he used to wipe out an entire clan. Just try to remember that when he tries to kill you again."

With that Sakura turned and began walking away from Sasuke.

Sasuke resisted the urge to Chidori her through the back and began to walk away as well.

Both went their separate ways.

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Sakura collapsed at the mouth of the cave she had called home for two years and finally let the grief overtake her.

"I'm so sorry, Itachi," Sakura cried out, "I failed you again! I'm so sorry..."

That's a wrap! For this chapter, not the story. Another part of the story I've had written for a long time. Sasuke may be more than a little out of character here. I apologize.

There's a twist coming up in the next chapter! And then in the chapter after that (I'm pretty sure) Sakura's Kekkei Genkei shall be revealed. Any guesses as to what the twist and her Kekkei Genkei could be?

Thank you to my marvelous, wonderful, story favoriters, followers and reviewers! More specifically: anya2011, CJ122, OracleOfTheShadows, LadyMartel4000, MusicOfMadness, InfinityXisXme, Jasmine-.-Momo-chan, mdtiger, Petale de Rose, summergrey, and Whadeby!

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