A/N: Thank you for your reviews and alerts. I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always I would love to hear your feedback!
The silence in the cabin was near deafening as Sakura waited for Itachi to return from scouring the surrounding area. She sat ramrod straight on her futon, hands folded in her lap and eyes downcast; however, she had never been more alert in her life. The fact that Sasuke sat across the room from her, his stare at her never wavering, would not allow her to relax her guard one bit.
It had not been long since she awoke. Suigetsu was still asleep and Jugo was leaning out of the window, a blue bird perched on his finger which he occasionally nodded to. She smiled slightly to Jugo as she stood and stretched her body out before walking across the cabin towards the bathroom. She could still feel Sasuke's hate filled eyes searching her but she refused to even turn his way. Her statements the previous night may have been out of line but they were the truth and she refused to take them back.
The creaking of the door drew her attention and she lifted her head, relieved to see Itachi walk in. That gave her a pause that had her fighting back a giggle. If she lived through all of this she would have to tell Ino that there was a moment in her life when she was glad to see Uchiha Itachi.
"Sakura-san, have you prepared everything?"
"Yes. I'm ready to leave whenever you are Itachi-san."
"Suigetsu, get up. We're leaving." Jugo said as he nudged the Mist-nin.
The statement brought a moment of panic to Sakura but she quickly washed it away. They were just leaving at the same time, that was all. There was no way they would be traveling with them.
"Yeah, yeah." Suigetsu said with a wide yawn as he sat up. He looked to Sasuke. "So where we headed?"
"To the Allied Base apparently." He said as he cast a glance at his brother.
It took a moment for his statement to register within Sakura's mind. When it did, she felt her temper explode. "Excuse me?" she bit out.
Sasuke merely glared at her briefly before turning away. She whipped her head to Itachi. "What does he mean he's going to the Allied Base?"
Itachi merely held her eyes but did not respond verbally. Sakura could see he confirmed his brother's statement though and she wasn't going to have it. "No."
"Sakura-san..."
"No Itachi-san. Why in the hell would you even think I would allow him to get to the Allied Base? Not to mention travel along with me?"
"This has already been decided." Itachi said with his usual monotone voice.
"Then undecide it! His whole goal is to destroy everyone in Konoha! Why would I lead him straight to my Hokage and my fellow shinobi?"
"There is still much you do not know or understand Sakura-san."
"Maybe so but I will not lead that bastard to the Allied Base! For all I know once he gets near the base he'll probably summon Madara or something."
The sound of wood splintering stopped Sakura's rant and she whipped her head towards the sound. Sasuke sat in the same place as before but his head was downcast like the previous night. His hand, however, was lost in the wall he just punched through. A small trail of blood ran down his wrist from a splinter wound.
Itachi's voice diverted her attention again. "Walk with me Sakura-san."
"But..." her protest was in vain as Itachi grabbed her arm and lightly pulled her through the door. He released her as they slowly walked away from the cabin. She sighed heavily and forced herself to take a moment to simply enjoy the presence of nature around her. Though she had been walking in the forest with Itachi just the day before, she was unable to look around and take in the scenery. Now she did so; the wind whipped through her hair bringing with it the scent of lilacs, leaves rustled around her, and she felt the satisfying crunch of the ground under her feet. After being imprisoned by Madara, she was very glad to be walking around the forest, even with Itachi.
"As I said before, there is still much you do not know Sakura-san and I can not give you all the information you want or need. However," he continued as she opened her mouth to interrupt. "I can assure you that, at least for the moment, Sasuke has no intentions of attacking the kages. His sword is meant for someone else."
" 'For the moment' you say, and I'm supposed to be comforted by that? He fed you some pack of lies to get you to believe that one didn't he?"
"Actually, I'm the one who's been lying to him for a very long time."
Sakura had nothing to say to that as she now understood it was true. She ignored that statement and pressed on. "Not even a couple of months ago he burst into the kages meeting and attacked every one of them! Did you know that?"
"Aa. He told me about that earlier."
Okay, didn't expect that. "W-w-well then...you should understand. I can't allow him near the base. He's a missing-nin Itachi-san! One that has attacked each kage, killed a member of the council, and has openly declared war on Konoha. If you think you have some sort of valid rationalization as to why I should allow him to travel with us, please, by all means enlighten me."
"Do you really think you can just tell him no?"
Sakura stared back at him, wide eyed.
"If you tell him no than in all likely hood he will either simply ignore you and travel with us anyway or he will follow us. I do not mean to disregard your abilities but I assure you Sasuke can follow us without being detected."
Shit, shit, shit! He's right. Sasuke would be able to track us with no problem at all. Dammit! There's no way I could attack him either and have any hope of winning, without even factoring in his team mates.
"If he were with us at least then you could keep an eye on him."
"Itachi-san," Sakura began with a heavy sigh. "why are you pushing this so hard? And what did you mean when you said his sword was meant for someone else?"
"I can not tell you at this point. The situation is very complicated and I can only hope you understand that. Right now, Sasuke has been given the actual truth of many events and he is still struggling with this new found knowledge. I can only tell you for now, his rage is not directed fully at Konoha. The knowledge you possess concerning this jutsu needs to be passed on to the Allied shinobi. I understand your hesitation and unwillingness in this matter but traveling together is the wisest choice."
"Itachi.."
"Sakura-san, think about it. You know this the best option at the moment."
She turned away from him and took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind to look at the situation objectively. She knew he was right. Taking everything into consideration, this was the best course of action. Sasuke would no doubt follow his brother wherever he went right now and that happened to be the same path Saukra had to take. If she attempted to travel on her own, she would no doubt be placed into severely dangerous situations that she could potentially not get herself out of. Traveling with Itachi gave her the benefit of having an undefeatable opponent as a back up. Not to mention she would be able to sleep throughout the night without having to wake up to take a watch.
The problem was Sasuke. Isn't it always? She thought bitterly. Not knowing his true objectives now was confusing her. Even if she did know them, how could she trust he wouldn't attack everyone again. Whatever information Itachi was withholding from her must have been something significant though. Sasuke's outburst at the mention of Madara's name replayed through her mind. Perhaps he told him about Kabuto?
"Sakura-san?"
There was no time for this. Tsunade would probably scream at her for this decision but she truly could not find a better solution. Sasuke would now be traveling along side her. All she could do was keep a watch on his behavior and pray Itachi was right about him not wanting to attack her fellow shinobi. Itachi claimed he had always been loyal to her village. She could only pray that was true.
"Alright Itachi-san, but I truly hope you know what you're doing."
As she pushed herself faster through the trees, Sakura once again questioned her own sanity. Here she was, a loyal shinobi to her village traveling with three living Akatsuki members and a once-dead-now-revived-former Akatsuki. Well, she didn't really know where the three living members of her temporary traveling party now stood with Akatsuki. Before they left the cabin, Sasuke ripped the cloak from his shoulders and threw it into a corner. After a slight hesitation, his partners threw their cloaks away as well.
That was something she really could have went without seeing. It was just confusing to her system. Itachi, the dreaded missing-nin, was actually a loyal shinobi who had just been following orders? Sasuke, her former friend and team mate, had been lied to his whole life and now didn't want to murder the village he had only a few months ago open declared war on? She felt the migraine coming on from all this information and confusion, and more than ever she wished Shikamaru was here to sort this out. The man was lazy but there was no denying he was a genius.
She peeked out the corner of her eye at her former team mate. He had said nothing since they began their journey. She just didn't understand his reasoning now. Itachi assured her he was now after a different target and not Konoha but that did nothing to relax her mind or body around him. Sasuke was powerful...and dangerous. If he had only lied to Itachi about his intentions then she was leading the wolf to the sheep and she would die fighting him to protect her village.
That is if Itachi didn't stop Sasuke first.
It was an odd thing...Itachi saying he was loyal to Konoha. Though, thinking about it, he had never hurt any Konoha shinobi (besides that time he trapped Kakashi in Tsukuyomi), and he had never attacked the village. True, he had tried to capture Naruto once, but other than the massacre of his clansmen he had committed no treasonous acts towards the village.
She shook her head slightly to try and remove all these thoughts. This was not the time to try and figure out what was going on with the Uchiha sibilings. There was a war to win. She didn't know where her regimen was nor what the status of the fighting was. Had her friends been injured? Had anyone been killed already?
A high pitched whistle pierced her thoughts and she dropped lightly to the ground in response to the call to rest. She followed Itachi to a small clearing and sat to rest against the base of a tree. Pulling a protein bar from her pack, she went about trying to ignore the other shinobi with her and enjoy her snack.
"Sakura-san." she heard Itachi call to her.
"Yes?"
"We are approximately one days travel from the area I first encountered you in."
"Really?" she asked hopefully. If they were so close she would be able to meet up with Kaka-sensei soon and perhaps get some help with the confusing situation she found herself in.
"Aa. We should be entering the war zone soon."
"Man, this traveling wears me out!" Suigetsu complained. "Why can't we just teleport there?"
"If we were to do that we would have no idea where we would wind up. We could find ourselves in the middle of battle and be unprepared for it." Jugo answered. Suigetsu mumbled something unintellegible but said nothing furthur on the subject.
"I've been meaning to ask you Itachi-san, do you know which shinobi Kabuto resurrected?" Sakura asked.
"Not all of them but I do know of some. Of course he began with the fallen Akatsuki members. You've already seen Deidara and myself, there's also Nagato, Kakuzu, and Sasori. There are others he revived that will be used for more of a psychological warfare than for pure fighting techniques."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Sarutobi Asuma, Kato Dan, Hyuga Hizashi, Chiyo of Suna..." Itachi watched as Sakura's eyes grew wider with each name he uttered.
Sakura was shaking by the time his voice trailed off. Kabuto, the son of a bitch, how dare he! Asuma-sensei...dear Kami, she could only imagine the pain Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji would suffer if they had to fight him. Hyuga Hizashi, though she had only heard the name once or twice, she knew it was Neji's father. Dan, her beloved shishou's fallen love. Tears burned her eyes just thinking of the pain she would suffer. Chiyo-baasama...
She was so mad...she just wanted to hurt someone so badly!
She jerked her head up and sent the most scathing look she could to Sasuke. His eyes widened briefly at the the unexpected look before he quickly schooled his features into indifference once more.
"You stupid bastard." she hissed under her breath.
"What?" he growled.
"I said you are such a stupid bastard!" she screamed as she shot to her feet. "You go and kill Orochimaru but leave Kabuto alive and well? Why? What the hell could you have possibly been thinking!" As her screaming continued, Jugo and Suigetsu crawled back from the other group members as the healers chakra was flaring wildly. Her hands were in fists by her side and the limbs were slightly shaking with rage. "Oh let me guess, I know exactly what you were thinking! 'This guy is of no threat to me. It's not even worth my time to kill him.' I'm right aren't I?"
Sasuke said nothing, merely continued to look into her livid face showing no emotion.
"Well guess what Uchiha? Now he's one of the biggest threats there are and he's gonna screw with everyone's head first." She swept her hand to the side to indicate Itachi. "And looks like he started with you. Great fucking job you asshole!"
Sasuke slowly stood and strode over to where Sakura was. She didn't look away nor back up as he approached. "I've had it with your attitude and your bitching. Keep it up and regardless of my brother's wishes, I will kill you."
Sakura stepped closer still to him, allowing their chests to brush together. "I want you to try it. If it wasn't for my misguided soft heart you'd be dead already, but remember this Uchiha, I never make the same mistake twice."
Sasuke's sharingan whirled violently and a green glow began to surround Sakura's hands. The other two members of team Hebi looked on in awe of this woman who was either one of the bravest people they'd ever seen, or one of the dumbest. Energy crackled between the pair before Itachi flashed up to them and forcibly drew them apart. He threw Sasuke back into a tree and grabbed Sakura by her hair, pulling it back painfully.
"I've already told you this once," he began in his deadly tone, "There is no time and I do not have the patience to deal with shinobi acting like children. Have you forgotten what is at stake here Sakura-san?"
She risked looking up into his angry face as he still had a tight hold on her short, pink hair. She knew they didn't have time to be fighting internally but every time Sasuke opened his mouth the urge to hit him became overwhelming. Because of his arrogance her fellow shinobi were in danger, not to mention the emotional suffering she knew they faced. She felt tears prick her eyes once again and they had nothing to do with the painful tightening in her hair.
"No, I'm sorry Itachi-san. I know we don't have time for this right now."
Itachi let go of her hair and she resisted the urge to rub her hand across her tingling scalp. He turned to face his brother who stood watching him with his sharingan activated. Neither of them said anything nor moved for a few moments and Sakura realized they were in a genjutsu. It was probably the only way they would talk to each other openly. As she waited for them to finish she checked her pouch to make sure everything was secure and accounted for. The Hebi members stood as well and walked over to her position.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you got a pretty deep problem with Sasuke huh?"
Sakura couldn't help but to laugh at the Mist-nin.
"Yeah, that's kind of an understatement."
He grin his shark like grin for her. "Well, that's a nice surprise. A chick who doesn't fawn all over him."
She turned to walk back to the spot she occupied before the incident with Sasuke. "Like I said before, I never make the same mistakes twice."
The other members of Hebi didn't say anything to her statement but did come sit closer to her position. Not long after, both Uchiha's emerged from their genjutsu on each other, Sasuke looking more pissed off than before his talk with Itachi. He stalked out of the clearing while Itachi came over to them.
"We leave in five minutes." he said coldly and faced away from the group.
Sakura had to bite back the apology on her lips. Every word Itachi said and every move he made now was one of an ANBU captain. Though she had never worked with ANBU in a mission situation, through her work at the hospital she became familiar with several of them. Their mannerisms commanded respect and having Itachi scold her as if she were one of his subordinates had her feeling the same shame as when Kakashi reprimanded her.
Sasuke stalked back into the clearing, leaving his eyes on Itachi and saying nothing to anyone else. Sakura stood at Itachi's command and the group left the clearing.
The tension of the past two days was getting to Sakura. Sasuke had not even glanced her way after he returned to the clearing the day before, which was a good thing, but she could still feel his anger at her. His other team mates kept mostly silent as well in response to his anger, giving the atmosphere surrounding the group a deadly feeling. Itachi seemed non-plussed by the situation, but for Sakura, who was not used to such a hostile traveling party, the aura was enough to set her nerves on edge.
"Sakura-san."
"Yes Itachi-san?"
"This is the area we fought in."
Sakura looked around her and did vaguely remember the scenery. "This way." She said and headed in the direction she was sure she traveled the day they fought. In a few moments, she came upon the clearing where the battle with Haku and Zabuza took place. Though no one was about now, it was obvious a fight took place there.
"The fighting seems to have moved onward towards the base." Itachi said as he came to rest beside Sakura.
"Seems so. I guess we should head on."
Sakura walked onward, now at the head of the group. So far during their travels, Itachi had been in the lead with the others following. During this time, she made sure Sasuke was never at her back. Unfortunately now, there was no choice but to have him following her. Having the Hebi team leader behind her left her more uncomfortable than before. She made sure none of the emotions showed through her exterior though. Never again would she give him the satisfaction of knowing he scared her.
The group traveled for a few hours, occasionally seeing the remnant's of a battle. They were nearly two days travel from the base and should be coming upon the war soon, leaving everyone's senses on alert. That's why the large eagle soaring silently overhead was not able to get close to the group before Sasuke threw a shiruken into the air catching the eagle on its left wing. Sakura's eyes grew wide as the creature did not fall to the earth as they expected it to, yet it exploded in a shower of dark black ink.
The shinobi atop quickly conjured another, smaller, hawk and descended safely to the ground a few meters in front of them. The group surrounding Sakura pulled their weapons free, ready to attack the intruder.
"No! Wait!" she screamed as she threw herself in front of the group with her arms spread wide. A few eyebrows raised at her actions but they halted their movements. She turned around slowly, gazing at the silent shinobi for a moment before running forward and throwing her arms around him.
"I'm so glad to see you Sai."