"Kabuto's mine."

Her words seemed to echo in Itachi's mind as he saw her slip out of the shadows, running out of his reach and towards Kabuto's unguarded back.

The woman was impossible. One second he was sure she was going to stay put and let him deal with this situation, and the next she's running out there, head first without thinking. And to think that she had been the one to accuse him of never thinking about the consequences of his actions. Which was utterly false. He always thought about what his actions would bring. That was how he got what he wanted every time.

That's also how he had kept his little brother safe from the ANBU world, had had a great first date with Sakura Haruno, always obtained the last dango for desert, had went on many other dates with Sakura until she had accepted to be his girlfriend, flawlessly accomplished his missions like demanded of him,… Ultimately, Itachi was so assured of his plans that he was ready to bet everything he owned that he could commit suicide, after putting one of his schemes in motion, and still achieve his goal after his death had come to pass.

He could also admit that some of his methods would be considered dubious from a moral standpoint, but his plans were always carefully thought through, and he always achieved his goal. Even if the little pink haired medic, currently fighting a hissing Kabuto, had a knack for messing with said plans.

A flash of memories flickered in the back of his mind as Itachi realized that his Naruto-clone had just disappeared after running out of chakra. Frowning inwardly at that, the ANBU Captain activated his Sharigan and took a few seconds to assess the situation.

From his hiding spot, to his left near the archway that served as the only access point in and out of the room, he could see that Sakura was currently dodging chakra imbued scalpels wielded by a cussing Kabuto.

To the right, in front of the still opened cage door, stood a cluster of motionless corpses. Apparently the mindless puppets could only follow one order at a time, and took no initiatives once the deed was done; which explained why they had been in 'stand-by' and gazing into nothingness when he had jumped in the middle of them earlier. That also meant that if Kabuto noticed that his little lackeys weren't doing anything, he could call them out to attack Sakura.

Focusing his attention back to the Kunoichi, he only had the time to see her land a solid punch into Kabuto's gut, sending him flying backwards. The crazy scientist went crashing straight into the pile of unmoving bodies, coughing up blood as chakra flowed into his belly to repair the damaged muscles and blood-vessels. As Sakura ran towards him, another chakra punch ready for the killing blow, the missing-nin's left eye closed as he shouted for his meat-puppets to shield him.

Itachi's eyes followed his every movements as Kabuto clumsily leaped back, discarding his brown cloak as a wave of bodies crashed head-on into Sakura's attack. Limbs and broken bodies scattered around her as she leaped over to where Kabuto was currently cowering near the cage, his left eye still closed even if Itachi was sure that Sakura hadn't wounded him there. The sly bastard was ready to order his little army to stop shielding him and to start attacking the enraged pink haired fury that was making a beeline for him.

Taking this as his cue, Itachi sent out a massive Genjutsu over the undead shinobis crawling behind Sakura and towards their master, hoping it would slow them down like his little brother had said. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kabuto stagger blindly as he got to his feet, hunched over as he poured more healing chakra into his lower abdomen. He seemed disoriented for a few seconds before opening his left eye just in time to throw a scalpel towards Sakura as he launched himself to the ground, rolling away and dodging her ground-shattering kick.

At that moment, the Uchiha knew that he had been right when he had assessed that Kabuto could see through the eyes of his creations. When the snake-sannin wannabe had opened his second eye, his control over the corpses had ceased, and the mindless puppets had stilled.

Leaving his hiding place to jump between Sakura and the unmoving threats facing her back, Itachi summoned Amaterasu to engulf the closest cluster of body parts. He felt the strain in the back of his eyes, but ignored the pain as the black flames ate away at its targets.

The grey bodies burned away as they started moving again, making their way towards him. Kabuto had noticed his presence and the flame free bodies leaped toward him, kunais in hand. Unsheathing his ANBU Katana, Itachi sliced through the decaying flesh, his eyes trained on the falling body parts as they hit the ground and fused back into the nearest body, allowing a sectioned soldier to get back onto his feet and continue his assault.

His mind was reeling as he parried attacks and dispatched more enemies. Amaterasu had done its job and had dissipated once the targeted corpses had burnt; they hadn't been able to regenerate. The lifeless bodies seemed to be taking the cell tissues they found to reconstruct their own damaged cells. This gave the illusion of regeneration when, in truth, it was just matter replacing matter.

Right now, they were fighting in a rock carved room; there was no grass, bush, trees or dirt for the corpses to 'feed off' like when they had attacked in the valley. This also explained why everything had looked so dead and the earth so barren when Itachi had found the location Team 7 had been attacked at.

It was true that Kabuto had a lot of corpses at his disposal, but not an infinity of it.

Spinning his blade in a wide arch, Itachi pushed back his oncoming assailants before summoning the deadly black flames once again. He could feel thick bloody tears start rolling down his tear ducts, but ignored the unpleasant feeling as he watched the fire eat away his enemies.

When he was sure the flames would finish the job, he wiped the blood away before deactivating his Sharigan. His vision was a little blurry, and a headache was blooming behind his temples, but the damage could easily be taken care of with a few healing sessions. Even if he knew Sakura would chew his head off for pushing his eyes like that.

*Thinking of Sakura…*

The pink haired medic was currently standing over the beheaded corpse of the scale-covered missing-nin, holding a chakra covered scalpel between her fingers. He could only see her back, but that was enough for him to notice the deep cuts marring her body as they slowly closed-up, her body healing itself as her blood dried into her clothes and onto her skin. The purple markings of her jutsu were slowly fading away as she let her weapon fall to the ground, the metallic clatter echoing through the hollow room that had gone eerily quiet now that the two Konoha-nins stood alone and victorious.

When she turned around to face him, her jade green eyes were still wide and bright from the adrenaline boost she had gotten from her fight with Kabuto, her hair was a soft pink mess with tips dipped in crimson red, just like the streaks of blood that covered her ripped clothes and porcelain white skin. She was a sight to behold, standing tall and proud, marching off towards the seal covered cage like the Goddess of Destruction she was. Itachi could only stare at the small woman tear down the metal contraption while his blood rushed south.

His Otouto might've been right. He was either a twisted sadist, or a far too clever masochist.