"Actually, it's very simple. Fake Naruto surrenders, enemy comes out unguarded, I take him down, end of story."
Was it her imagination, or had he just belittled her? She was still angry with him for the last stunt he had pulled, and his current words weren't doing anything to get him back into her good graces.
Inside her mind, her Inner was trying to convince her that, since they were still deep into enemy territory with impossible to kill shinobis just waiting around the corner, maybe it would be wiser to just kiss the guy senseless, forgive him, and work together to get out of this mess.
Unfortunately for the Inner, a scorned Sakura was also a very stupidly stubborn Sakura. So the pink haired medic stood her ground as she decided to ignore the tall Uchiha facing her, turning her head towards Itachi's clone.
A few minutes had passed since Itachi had pulled her into the fault in the wall, and Naruto's screams had finally attracted enough attention that undead shinobis entered the large room, circling around the blond and blocking the clone from her view.
Sakura knew that she was just acting like a spoiled kid right now, but she just couldn't seem to make herself enter her 'serious' mode. Not with Itachi standing so close.
When a cloaked figure finally made its way through the moving mass of grey bodies, Sakura made sure that her presence was erased before following the man's movements.
Pale hands reached up towards the hood covering his face, tilting the obstructing material backwards to reveal a disheveled head of silver hair, black rimmed glasses over a skin covered in white scales, and piercing yellow eyes that had a shiver run down Sakura's spine.
Kabuto Yakushi.
He had been a brilliant medic once, before joining Orochimaru as his right hand man. Worshiping the very dirt the snake-sannin walked on, Kabuto had lost his mind when Team 7 had destroyed his master, and had gone as far as implanting cells of his deceased idol into his own body in order to bring back Orochimaru. This had led to Kabuto's snake-like appearance and present dementia.
"Hello Naruto, so good of you to join us!", Kabuto's grin was wide, revealing two sharp canines.
"Where's Sakura you glasses freak?!", Sakura wanted to smack her head against the wall behind her, or smack Itachi for making a clone that made the same lame insults as her blond teammate when he had been 13 years old. They didn't have time for such foolishness.
"Ever the rash one, are you Naruto? Don't worry, your little teammate is safely locked up in her cell." This time, Sakura did roll her eyes at the missing-nin's words. Apparently the snake-sannin wannabe hadn't even bothered to check up on her situation when he had made his way here.
"What the hell do you want from me anyways? Wasn't the snake-bastard after Sasuke and his eyes?", Sakura smiled at that, Itachi's clone was trying to get as much information out of Kabuto before they revealed themselves.
"My master wanted to learn all the existing jutsus on this Earth, and needed the Uchiha's eyes in order to succeed. But even if I tried cloning Orochimaru, I couldn't bring him back. It was never truly him.", Sakura winced as his voice cracked over the last words, the poor soul really looked torn by the loss of his mentor.
"And even if my body accepted his cells, I'm apparently not strong enough to become his next vessel." This time his words came out laced with bitter anger as he slowly peeled off a scale from his arm, leaving behind a gash of decaying flesh before continuing with his explication in a serious tone: "So I figured that, before building my Master his next vessel, I first needed to buy myself more time."
Kabuto's eyes were fixed on Naruto, a sly grin spreading on his lips, giving way to a deranged smile.
"And you, Naruto, were my answer! You always wander around unguarded, unlike the other Jinchurikis, are brash and easy to trick, and you hold the Nine Tail Fox with it's incredible amount of chakra!", Kabuto explained, acting as giddy as a kid in front of a candy store.
"So if you'd be so kind as to step into the cage?", Naruto tensed at that, fists tightly clenched at his sides, "You'll act as a sort of chakra battery for my experiments. But don't worry, once I'm done with you I'll eventually free you… if you survive that long that is." That creepy Cheshire grin was back on Kabuto's lips.
"Where's Sakura you twisted jerk!" the fake Naruto bellowed, eyes red as the Kyuubi made itself known. Sakura was actually impressed that one of Itachi's clones could pull off such a show.
But then again, this was Uchiha Itachi, genius prodigy.
"Oh, well, she's not of any use to me now that you're here, so I'll probably open up that huge head of hers to see what secrets she holds into that pretty brain of hers." At his words, Naruto's figure charged straight towards Kabuto, a Rasengan already forming into the palm of his hand. The missing-nin started to cackle madly at Naruto's rash response, signaling his undead army to attack the irate looking blond.
Sakura, seeing how distracted Kabuto currently was, decided that she wasn't going to let this opportunity pass. Silently slipping out of her hiding place, she barely took a moment to whisper a harsh "Kabuto's mine" in Itachi's direction, before making her way towards the still laughing maniac.