…I have not owned, do not own, nor ever will own Naruto…
Chapter 3: The Decision
Sasuke's eyes bore into Naruto with such vehemence that the very air around them seemed to crackle with the force of it.
The Uchiha had known that they would come for him again. He wasn't so foolish as to think that after 3 years of searching they would just give up. He had hoped, though, that Orochimaru would have completed the body switch before they found him again.
For those years away from Konoha, all Sasuke had felt was hate. Hate for his brother. Hate for himself. Hate for Orochimaru. The drugs Kabuto gave him only served to increase that hate and his drive for power. They had also effectively blurred many of the memories he had of Konoha and kept him unhindered by any other emotions.
But the small part that remained of Sasuke's old consciousness instantly noted the person who was not present with his old team.
But the new Sasuke pushed the realization into the back of his mind.
His glare intensified. "I would have let you live, Naruto." He whispered ominously. "If you had just stayed away, you might have had a chance at a longer life. But now I can see that there is only one way for this to end—"
"Shut up you asshole!" Naruto's blue eyes blazed. "Didn't you hear what I said?! I'm not here to take you back to Konoha!"
Sasuke, though outwardly stone-faced, was inwardly surprised by this outburst. They weren't here to take him back?
Naruto continued on. "Right now, if we left here without you, it wouldn't matter one bit to me. I'm only here because I thought that this was the best chance we had of…of…"
His fierce gaze dropped to the floor. "…of saving Sakura from Itachi."
Itachi.
That last word seemed to hang in the air.
"Itachi?"
Naruto nodded, but it was Kakashi who spoke up.
"Sakura was taken from her home a few days ago. ANBU had known Akatsuki were in the village, but they couldn't track them fast enough to figure out what was going on. By the time they reached Sakura's home, she was gone. And since your only goal in life is revenge against your brother, it was decided that both our parties might benefit from this. Sasuke will get to kill Itachi, and we will have the strength we need to rescue Sakura."
"You cannot be suggesting that I let Sasuke-kun go with you," Orochimaru's eerie voice interrupted. "I would hate to think that you might take him and then never bring him back."
Kakashi's temper flared. "Oh, don't worry about your precious body—"
"It doesn't matter!" Naruto yelled over them. "I don't care how you do it. I don't care if all of Sound has to come with us. If you won't help me rescue Sakura, then you're going to have to accept the fact that I will be the one to kill Itachi!" He directed his gaze back to his old friend. "If you don't go, you're going to lose whatever chance you have."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "And then what, you haul me back to Konoha in the end?"
"You bastard! Stop making this about you. It was never about you! Don't you get it?" Naruto was becoming dangerously angry.
Yamato placed a calming hand on his shoulder.
"Whatever," the blond grumbled. "I'm waiting outside. If you are coming with us, we're leaving first thing in the morning." He pointed at the Uchiha. "But whether you're there or not—we're still leaving."
Orochimaru motioned to one of the sound ninjas and the man turned to lead Naruto back the way they had come.
The rest of team seven stood uncertainly for a moment before they also turned left the large room.
No one had said another word.
Sasuke watched them leave and then stormed out, ignoring the snake sannin's attempts to speak with him. Orochimaru was his teacher and there was nothing beyond that. He despised the man on a personal level and it irked him to have to listen to him as much as he already did.
Once in his own room, he lay down on the bed and stared up at the low ceiling overhead.
Itachi. The name itself filled him with rage.
But a new image sprung, unbidden, into his mind. An image of Sakura the last time he had seen her.
She'd been angry that day, and had been ready to punch Sai, not realizing that he was watching her from the ledge up above. He had said her name—why he still didn't know. Had he wanted to get her attention? Or was it just the shock of seeing her after so long?
He just didn't know.
And then when he shocked them with his new chidori, he had left her untouched. On purpose? He shook his head, frowning. He couldn't piece that event together in his mind.
And then there was the other man…Yamato, he had heard him called. He had jumped in front of Sakura as she charged at Sasuke. And Sasuke had rammed his blade through the man's shoulder. Would he have done that to Sakura if she had gotten close enough?
So many questions raced through the sharingan user's head. But it was strange, almost as if something was blocking him from acknowledging those thoughts and feelings. Something was throwing up a wall in his mind.
He thought about her face again. She had intended to attack him. Of that, he was sure. She must have changed so much. She would never have done that back when they were teammates. She clearly had become more self-assured over the years.
And now his brother had her.
Sasuke's jaw clenched. He had seen many horrible things in his time with Kabuto and Orochimaru but nothing compared to the mental damage his own flesh and blood was able to inflict.
He had known as soon as it had been explained, that he would go with Naruto and face Itachi. He had spent most of his life training towards that one goal, and he wasn't about to let his rival take that away from him.
But as Sasuke lay there, staring up at nothingness, he knew that he had to go for another reason—
--a reason he couldn't put a name to yet, but he knew it had to do with a certain pink-haired young woman.
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Kabuto prepared his pack, taking special care to make sure that the pills and special powders were sealed away in tight containers.
He smiled to himself as he worked.
Sasuke development had been putting a strain on his supplies. Orochimaru had the Uchiha on a strict regime of chakra and mind-altering drugs. Most of these, the youth was not even aware that he was taking. They were slipped in powdered form into food and even water. And as Sasuke's power grew, so did the need for more drugs.
Without the suppression the chemicals provided, the young man would be unstable. He already spoke with contempt when he addressed Orochimaru-sama. If his memories hadn't been hindered slightly, the thoughts of his friends and what he had given up could have possibly caused him to defect back to Fire Country.
While the memories were not gone, they were not easily accessed—the same way any feeling other than hate was suppressed as well.
The sadistic medic shouldered the heavy bundle.
It was time to go.
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Kakashi was on edge as the large group made their way through the forests of Sound.
A year ago, if someone had told him that he'd be tracking Akatsuki in the company of Orochimaru and Sasuke, he would have thought them to be out of their mind.
The two groups stayed parallel to one another as they traveled through the countryside. And Naruto and Sasuke stayed on opposite ends of the line.
Kabuto looked over at Yamato, who was traveling closest to him. "Sakura, eh?"
The former ANBU member glanced at him, remembering how he had healed her at one point in time. Still, he was uneasy sharing any information with the creepy young man.
"I hear Itachi is extremely skilled at torture." The man seemed to be talking to himself. "I can't even imagine the potential the sharingan could hold for that sort of thing."
Yamato ground his teeth in irritation but he ignored Orochimaru's subordinate.
Kabuto continued on anyway. "Just think, he could do anything to her. Anything."
The implication of that sentence was not lost on Yamato…but nor was it lost on two other members of the group.
Kabuto had expected Naruto's scathing glare, but it was Sasuke's cold look that wiped the smile from his face.
Hmmm. He thought. Perhaps we need to up the medication again.
In between them, Orochimaru frowned slightly.
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Within the darkness of her cell, Sakura felt along the wall, stretching her arms out as far as the chains would allow. To an outside party it would have appeared that she was just trying to pass the time, but it was in actuality a way for her to gage the amount of reach she had in the cell.
Sakura had eaten her last bowl of food off the floor. Just as she had the previous two before that. She was not going to eat another one that way. Now, she knew that if she were to find a way out of this mess, she was going to have to use what was provided to fight back.
And that brought her to the chains.
They were unbreakable, yes. But that also meant that they would make a formidable weapon if she chose to choke someone with them.
Unfortunately neither Itachi nor Kisame had ventured that close to her. She knew that Kisame was unafraid of her. His strength matched hers well enough that he would approach her without caution. And she knew that Itachi was not afraid of her either—but the Uchiha was much more cautious of her than his large, blue partner.
While she was grateful that they hadn't attempted to harm her again, she was looking for an excuse to get a few good hits in.
She sighed. Escaping would not be possible if she didn't figure out how to get those chains off. Even if she managed to use them as a weapon, what good would that do if she were still pinned to the wall?
The flickering light in the hallway did little to illuminate her area—and it conveniently concealed the person that was watching her.
From the shadows, Itachi watched as the young woman felt around the cell. She walked from one end of her range of motion to the other—and back again. She raised her arms up and she stretched them outward. And even though his eyesight was not the best anymore, Itachi could see the raw areas on her wrists where the metal had rubbed.
He stepped out of hiding, amused as always when her startled eyes met his own. He walked into her cell and stood a few feet away from her. It was well beyond where she could reach him.
The one thing that continually surprised him was they way she glared at him. While there was a sensible amount of fear visible, there was also a huge amount of rage. Rage that could not have stemmed simply from her being captured.
"Your wrists," he pointed at her arm hanging at her side. "Why haven't you healed them?"
She turned away and walked back over to the wall, leaning against it and sliding down to a sitting position. He couldn't force her to talk to him.
Itachi's eyes narrowed. He hated stubbornness. It served no purpose. Those that knew their fate should just resign themselves to it.
"Sakura-san, you may think yourself brave but that will only serve you so far. You're hoping that I have underestimated you and will leave you with an opening for escape."
He stepped up to the edge of her reach. He knew her exact limit as well. "That is not the case. I have spent my life measuring my own abilities so that I might use them, in the end, for the ultimate cause. And because of this—I do not underestimate people."
She absent-mindedly ran a hand through her pink hair. Her eyes still held that murderous rage.
Itachi just stood, watching her. There is something more to her. Something she is hiding. He considered it for a moment—how easy it would be to invade her mind and figure it out. But he wasn't ready to expose her to the mangekyo world yet. If she forced him further, he might just do it.
But he could break her will without using it, of that he was certain.
So he sat, still beyond her reach, and folded his hands in his lap. He could have watched her from the hall or even from the shadows again, but it was so much harder for her to endure him staring at her from a few feet away.
Sakura fought the urge to lunge at him; yell at him; fight him with everything she had. Instead, she forced herself to stare right back at him. If he wanted to play that game, she was more than ready for it. She had been staring at the walls for hours; it would be no different with someone in front of them.
Itachi almost smiled as he saw the resolve in her eyes.
After a while, he would think of a way to surprise her and give her a new reason to be afraid of him.
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Coming soon: Chapter 4: Harnessing the Kyuubi