It is imperative that you follow the instructions I'm about to give you. Suffice to know that I am a brother. Not by blood, but by…well, call it an inheritance. By the time you've awoken I will be dead, and I don't know how extensive the damage is in your mind. Go to Konoha, the Hidden Village of the Leaf. When you get there, tell them you need to speak to Kakashi. Give him the other scroll that I've left on your person - that'll explain this situation to him, and he should be able to help you.

MAKE SURE you burn this scroll after you've read and memorized it. Keep these two names in mind: Itachi, and Orochimaru. They're the cause of all this. Orochimaru is responsible for my death and the suffering you shall have to go through because of it; and Itachi, he killed my…our family. Like I said, you are considered part of my family now.

Lastly, be certain that NOBODY sees your eyes. You still have your ANBU mask; wear it when you're in public. Let nobody see your face until after you speak to Kakashi.I am fully aware that this will be a difficult task for you; however, it is absolutely necessary that you get to Konoha and that they know what has happened to me. Make certain that the other scroll goes to Kakashi before anyone else. He can explain everything that's happened to you and fill you in on some other matters that you'll need to know.

If your mind can ever be repaired, suffice to know that I'm grateful that I had you in my last moments. Thank you.

-Uchiha Sasuke

So far, following the instructions hadn't been a problem. According to the previous innkeeper, she was about two days' travel from the Hidden Village of the Leaf. As the scroll insisted, she also stayed in full ANBU uniform all the time (including the white panther-decorated mask), disregarding the fact that it was torn and battered to an extent that made her wonder exactly how it had gotten so. She'd received more than a pleasant number of stares for it, but she fixedly ignored them, steadily making her way to Konoha and the answers it may hold for her.

For now she focused her mind on less complicated matters - branch by branch, she was leaping her way through an enormous forest that, unless she was mistaken, would lead her directly to Konoha. She'd likely be intercepted by other shinobi before she actually reached it, and escorted from then on. Hence, she didn't bother concealing her chakra - best sooner than later. After all, her canteen was drier than a corpse's bone now.

She was fast finding tree-hopping to be an item impossible to focus all her mind on, and it was straying to other, more complex thoughts to draw out from the shadows of her mind. Like, what would happen when she reached her destination? What would she learn from this 'Kakashi'? What was this void she felt in her mind when she read all these names? It felt as though something should be there, but was erased. Like a long-lost memory…

A glint of steel in the corner of her masked eye brought her to an immediate stop; she had been found. A feeling of anticipation coupled with trepidation sent a small tremor through her body as three ANBU made themselves known to her immediate sight. All were ready for an attack; one on the far left had three kunai clutched between his fingers and four shuriken in the opposite hand, prepared to throw on a nanosecond's notice. The one on the right had his hand near his kunai pouch, equally ready. Only the one in the middle seemed not to be expecting an attack. She dropped to the ground, giving them the higher ground.

"You can take me to Konoha…?" Her voice, scratchy with lack of use, echoed slightly against the trees, giving the scene a sense of ethereality as the center man nodded his head. The one on the right let his hand drift from the pouch of kunai. She noticed that his posture was tensed, as though expecting something. "Is that you, Sakura?" Her voice, she corrected, the voice far more melodic and smooth than her own, although it was a higher pitch.

She made no response to the other shinobi. She slowly unhitched her katana from her waist and set it on the ground before her, intending to go as peacefully as possible. "I have a message for Kakashi. I must speak to him as soon as possible. Can you take me to him?" The man standing in the center took off his ANBU mask, revealing his face; or, at least part of it, as his lower face was covered with a black cloth and one eye covered by his hitai-ate. He nodded and spoke through his second mask.

"We'll take you to an ANBU holding cell and Kakashi can speak to you there. Is that alright?" The white-haired man kept his face expressionless as the other two shinobi turned slightly in his direction. Apparently there was something amiss in his statement, or hers. She, however, chose not to point it out; rather, she nodded silently and simply said, "Lead the way, then, if you will." Without another word, the jounin leapt to another branch, then another, gesturing for the others to follow. The left shinobi darted forward to grab her katana and followed suit.

She bounded back up into the branches after the first two shinobi while the female one took a place behind her as a rear guard. They led her to her destination and, hopefully, to some answers.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

At least, she thought dryly to herself, they had the decency to leave a comfy chair. Which, in fact, was the only thing in her 'holding cell,' which was probably a cleaner prison cell. It certainly had the feel of one, with its cold iron walls and bolted door. She adjusted her vest over her new uniform; she was unused and uncomfortable to wearing it without all its pockets filled with various weapons within easy reach. They'd taken all her gear save for the sealed scroll, which she'd insisted on keeping, explaining that it was for Kakashi directly.

She hoped that the opportunity to speak to him would arrive soon - The clock placed on the wall showed her the it was nearly nightfall. She'd already been there for a full day now…If she closed her eyes she could imagine the setting sun splashing the azure sky with red and gold, astounding the gloom of oncoming dusk. It was a moment that she held vividly in her mind; if she held onto those colors as they bled across the sky she wouldn't think of where she had woken up and what revelations awaited her.

Fortunately, it seemed she wouldn't wait any longer. She opened her eyes and the brilliant oranges slid from her vision as she heard a bolt slide open on the metal door, followed by three more metallic shifts that let her know the door had been fully unlocked. The handle slid down and the heavy door swung inward to show the shinobi with two masks, the jounin who'd led her to this very village, to this very cell. She dipped her head in greeting, and he lifted a hand and uttered a casual, "Yo."

"Am I to see Kakashi yet?" She asked politely, absently adjusting the mask on her face, another item she'd refused to let be confiscated. The cloth covering his mouth shifted in what she could only assume was a smile. "You're looking at him."

She didn't let her surprise show - hiding it as she shifted in her seat to pull the scroll out of a pocket in her vest and promptly held it out to the shinobi. "I was instructed to deliver this to you directly, Kakashi-san. It is from Uchiha Sasuke." She saw the smile drop from beneath his mask immediately and he reached out and took the scroll. She sat back and exhaled slowly, closing her eyes again as she listened to, rather than watched, the scroll being unsealed and opened.

She began thinking about what exactly she needed to ask this Kakashi. First and foremost were Itachi and Orochimaru; "They're the cause of all this," the letter had said. But the cause of what? So that, rather, was what she needed to find out first: What has happened to her? Why could she not let her face be seen before seeing this man? What had Sasuke meant when he referred to 'the damage in her mind?' She was already aware that something important was missing but when she tried to remember it she only drew a blank. It was like having a picture in the middle of a room and having the light switched off when you finally got close enough to see what the picture was.

A small throat-clearing cough brought her out of her musings and her eyes snapped back open to look at Kakashi. What little of his face she could see had attained a slight pallor to it as he examined her with his one eye. "This is a predicament indeed…" He said softly to himself. He kneeled down so that he was eye-to-eye with her masked face. "Is there anything you remember that you can tell me?" He said. There was more than polite formal concern in his voice. Slowly, she shook her head.

"I only remember waking up with this scroll in my hand and my ANBU mask in the other…I'm sorry I cannot be of more assistance to you, Kakashi-san." He sighed and closed his eye. He asked slowly, "Can you remember any faces, any names? Your name?" Her gaze fell from his to stare blankly at the ground. "I remember reading that Orochimaru and Itachi were responsible for this. I remember being told to come to you to find out what's happened. That is all."

To her dismay, the white-haired jounin ran his hand through his messy tresses. "Oh, dear…This most certainly isn't good." He opened the door and said something to a passing ANBU that darted off and returned with a chair, which Kakashi placed in front of her and sat in.

"Okay," he said, with the air of a man preparing to tell a long story, "I'm going to start with you and go from there. But first, I'd like us to take off our masks. Alright?" A smile spread under the cloth again. "It's something that you tried time and time again to get me to do - an event, unfortunately, that you've lost the memory of." She nodded and took the mask off her face, letting the panther face she'd adopted lay face-up in her lap. Kakashi, in turn, untied the black cloth from around his face and lifted his hitai-ate off his eye.

His blood-red eye, which looked just like hers.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Let me in! I gotta see Sakura-chan!"

The voice jerked Haruno Sakura out of her reverie. After the almost four-hour long conversation with Kakashi, her former teacher and teammate, she'd learned all she'd needed to know and more she wished she didn't. Sasuke's defection. Her training to join ANBU just so she could run away after him. Being labeled a missing-nin. Sasuke making her promise to transplant her eyes with his as he died. The prospect of forever carrying the object of her lost love and lost memories in her eyes that weren't even hers.

The Sharingan.

Still, the memories would not come to her, except in fleeting images that faded as quickly as they appeared.

"Please, Naruto! She needs to rest! You can come back in the morning." Another voice chimed in, pleading. Sakura turned to the door with a small sigh. "You may let him in," she called out. No more than half a second later the door swung open so fast a cracked line appeared around the wall it smashed into, and Sakura found herself being hugged tightly enough to pop a few ribs out of place. She coughed and wheezed and patted a messy blond head rather awkwardly.

I feel bad that I don't remember him… She thought, biting her lip. He's obviously a friend…But I couldn't even remember his name if not for that healer outside calling it out. "Hey, Naruto…" She said slowly, "Think I can breathe now?" The blond boy quickly scrambled back up and chuckled, flashing what had to be the biggest goofiest grin she'd ever seen in her life, and it brought a small smile to her face.

"Man, Kakashi-sensei told me about what happened, told me all kinds of bad stuff…" He looked into her eyes watching very carefully for a moment. "So he made you promise to transplant your eyes with his? Why the heck would he do that? Hey, hang on…" He looked even closer, and she scooted back a tiny bit. "You've got three wheel things on yours! I thought he only had two on one of 'em! Maybe he evolved while I wasn't looking. Do you know how to use them? Did you…" His tangent continued, assaulting her with questions that he didn't give the time to let her answer.

Finally, Sakura held a hand up and muttered, "Shut up, already." He fell silent just like that. Huuu…Should've done that sooner. "Did you have any questions that you actually wanted an answer to?" The hyperactive demeanor that surrounded the boisterous teen mellowed out enough for him to stand in a relaxed position. His expression seemed uncharacteristically serious. "Do you remember anything about any of us?"

Sakura exhaled slowly. There'd be no point in lying to him. The sooner he knows, the better for both of us. She let her crimson eyes rest on his electric blue ones for a few seconds, then shook her head. "Kakashi tried to fill me in on some stuff…But he says he doesn't think the damage can be undone." Naruto's face looked crestfallen for a minute before a grin was back on his face. "Alright then," he said, confidence practically vibrating in the air. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be the next Hokage. Believe it!" Sakura couldn't help but laugh.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Sakura…Sakura…"

"I'm right here, Sasuke!" A pale hand clutched hers and gently but firmly pried it from his blood-soaked chest, which was rising and falling slowly, too slowly to keep oxygen in properly…

"Don't waste your chakra…We both know I can't survive. He's already inside, so if I die,--"

"No, Sasuke! There has to be another way to save you!" A tear fell from Sakura's face and landed on his cheek. His black hair, matted with blood accumulated around them on the floor, made it stick down in clumps so unlike his naturally messy style. Seeing the boy she loved broken in such a way tore her heart apart.

"Don't be stupid, Sakura!" He growled; the duality of his voice and Orochimaru's made her jump and stiffen.

"Take my eyes, Sakura."

"Wh…What?"

"Kakashi has a transplanted Sharingan eye, remember? Do that with mine. You've got the medic abilities to do it. I know you do."

"But Sasuke, how will you see?"

"I won't need to where I'm going."

"No, Sasuke, don't make me…" She hated how her voice broke and pleaded, she was so useless at such an important time!

His grip on her hand tightened and he fixed her with a glare, the most severe glare he'd ever given her. "Promise me, Sakura. Promise to replace your eyes with mine." Another tear trailed down her cheek; she bit her lip and nodded. His grip eased slightly. "I might die, but I'll have what revenge I can against Itachi…He won't have the satisfaction of being the only person with the Mangekyou…

"Thank you, Sakura…"

Sakura's eyes snapped open and she bolted upright in bed, instantly awake and with the feel of Sasuke's blood-soaked head still in her lap. She sat still, allowing her heart to slowly come back down to its normal pace. That must have been one of my forgotten memories…So, that was Sasuke? I could remember him while I was dreaming…Another question crossed her mind, one that troubled her in that something big had been left unanswered.

If he'd been dying right then, how did he survive long enough to write those two scrolls?

She was certain she wouldn't get back to sleep now, at any rate. The memory-slash-dream had shaken her too much to allow herself to rest again. While a part of her wanted to know the truth, something else about it made her think that some of her questions were better left unanswered. If Sasuke had known how she would lose her memory, then there had to be reasoning behind it. If, after all, he'd wanted her to remember, he would've known some way to keep it from happening.

Then again, maybe he simply wanted her to forget about him and the mistakes he'd made.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Keep in mind that our only goal right now is to isolate and retrieve the target for which the Kyuubi will follow us."

"The one at the hospital, yeah? He threw a fit at the healer just to see the shinobi."

"The target is also a member of ANBU. Chakra signature identifies him as a medic-nin. Don't underestimate him."

"Something was wrong with him - remember?"

"Mm."

"He must have been a missing-nin…yeah. He probably gave them some valuable information to be released from HQ to a hospital."

"For now, let us focus on phase one: target isolation."

"Got it."

Two men were slowly making their way toward the Village of Konoha's gate; both were clad in matching black cloaks and both wore hats obscuring their faces. A tiny bell on the straw hats released a haunting yet soothing chime with every step. For all intents and purposes they seemed like nothing more than weary, tired old travelers trying to find a comfortable inn. The chunin guard gave them a wary once-over before telling them the direction to just such an inn to rest: Across the street and two doors over from the medic tower.

They saw that a pair of jounin - casually disguised by the shadows - were making sure the duo arrived 'safely' at their 'intended' destination. One of the men smirked slightly at the small irony of it. Unknown to the two Leaf jounin, they too were being watched, by another pair of eyes even more obscured than theirs.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

A prickling on the back of her neck drew Haruno Sakura out of bed in a rush to hold a weapon, any weapon, in her hand. She could feel four distinct chakra signatures, all concealed, converging at an uncomfortably short distance from the medic tower. If she looked out the window, there would be the possibility of being seen, both for her and the other shinobi. However, she would have the advantage of high ground, being on the third floor. She weighed her options, shuriken in hand, before silently making her way to the window.

Those two shinobi…They look familiar somehow. The thought to herself, rather idly. Hidden in the shadows between the buildings were two Leaf shinobi, who were following the newcomers warily. Wonder where they're from…Augh! Why do I recognize those cloaks as trouble? It registered in her mind that they'd come to a stop right in front of the medic tower and ducked her head back inside before they looked up to her window; something told her that what they wanted had something to do with her.

"What are they here for…?" She whispered to herself.

"They're here for you…yeah."

She whirled and brought the shuriken to a face but a kunai had already caught her at the neck. Her first reaction would normally have been to use the shuriken to bat the kunai away and commence an assault, but, with a grimace, she noted that she'd been backed against the wall and wouldn't have the time necessary to leap out of range after the kunai was batted away.

"I cannot believe I just did that." She tossed the shuriken to the ground, angrier at herself than her attacker. "What a blunt tactic, and I didn't even think of it." She sighed in exasperation and rubbed her left temple.

If her reaction surprised the other shinobi, he didn't show it. He almost reminded Sakura of a longer-haired, more feminine Naruto. Blond hair, blue eyes, slashed hitai-ate…Well, minus the slashed hitai-ate. Still…

"At least you're being calm and quiet…yeah. Wouldn't want to have to knock you out." A casual grin spread across his face. "You know, this is a pretty high-caliber Replacement jutsu…yeah." He stabbed his kunai into her neck, hitting bone with a thunk. His grin grew slightly wider and he pulled the kunai out and threw it to his right, landing with a more sound shift of metal hitting real flesh. Smoke dissipated around the replacement, which turned out to be the wooden nightstand. Said nightstand had a deep scar in it where the kunai had struck it.

Sakura held her arm with a grimace; sure, she would heal it without a problem, but having a kunai stab through one's arm and pinning it to the wall still hurt like hell… She squeezed her eyes shut, as though blindness would lessen the pain. Unfortunately, it didn't. "Okay…You've got my attention. You obviously don't intend to kill me."

"Yeah…" His voice drifted slightly as he turned his gaze from her to the window. A long, slow sigh was heard, even though she could only see his back. How's he so easygoing…Perhaps it was a matter of position versus situation; She was far from easygoing at the moment. Blood pattered against the floor.

"He thought you were a boy, though…Surprise surprise…yeah." He turned and walked over to her, resting his hand on the handle of the kunai. "You can come peacefully or I can knock you out and you come peacefully…yeah. Okay?" Before she answered, he pulled the kunai out of her arm. She winced and shuddered before putting a hand to the wound, applying her healing chakra as soon as her mind set the pain aside enough to do so.

"Decisions, decisions…" She said softly, sarcasm more than evident in her voice. Her eyes were still closed. "But where are you taking me?"

"Can't spoil the mission details!…yeah." The guy chuckled. "Hey, why do you still have your eyes closed…yeah?"

"An eye for an eye, if you'll pardon the pun. You at least tell me who you're taking me to, and I'll tell you why my eyes are closed." After a moment of silence in which her soon-to-be kidnapper pondered his options she added, "Or I can cause a big ruckus before you knock me out…"

"Aw, okay, okay…yeah. I'm taking you to Itachi…yeah."

Keep these two names in mind: Itachi, and Orochimaru.

'Itachi is Sasuke's brother.' Kakashi's voice echoed in her mind. 'He killed the entire Uchiha clan to "test his powers." At least, as far as we know…'

'Itachi? As in Uchiha Itachi? Ha! You're not very smart for a shinobi. He's an S-class missing-nin from your village. He killed off his whole clan!'

Sakura stood still for several minutes. She certainly hadn't been instructed by Sasuke on what to do to his brother should she meet him, but he'd made her transplant his eyes for revenge…Should she try to kill him? 'Itachi had mastered the Mangekyou Sharingan. He's extremely powerful; even Orochimaru admitted that he was afraid of Itachi.' These words made her shudder again. Such power…what would he want with her? Did it have something to do with Sasuke or is it because she now possesses the Sharingan herself?

She opened her eyes and looked to her kidnapper, whose grin fell from his face.

"Very well. Please take me to Itachi-san."

-Aha! And I end it here! This is an idea that I've had swishing around in my head for awhile now and I simply couldn't wait any longer - I HAD to get it typed out! And now my brain won't stop churning out ideas. I recently saw one story, The Devil's Trill, and it made me very sad cuz that was the EXACT idea that I was gonna use! -cries- I'll still incorporate music somehow or another...but still, I'm devastated. -sigh- But, in the next chapter; Meeting Uchiha Itachi and Co...and the Troubles that Follow.

Oh, yeah...A forewarning: This is an Itachi/Sakura fic...