Ok so this is my first ever Naruto fic and well I hope you are kind. It's going to be a SakuxSasu 'cause well I love those two. I hope that you enjoy this and don't hate me when I make mistakes with things, I don't know names of some things, I've been researching as much as possible. So anyway here goes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I wish I did.
Chapter 1: Dangerous Liaisons
Her feet slid slightly in the wet, she slipped a kunai from the pouch on her leg, her blood and sweat were mingling with the rain that pelted against her skin in an unrelenting fashion, her green eyes narrowed slightly as the Akatsuki in front of her doubled over in pain his shark-like features hardened as he realises that she was not one to be messed with. He had, up until that moment been playing games with her, he now regretted this. His Samehada lay on the floor a few feet away from him, he tried to scramble towards it; "Don't." her voice was menacing and was not to be argued with; "I don't want to have to kill you Kisame," he looked up at her shocked.
"You speak as if that were possible." He bit back, her smirk was not her own as she moved faster than he could see to place her kunai at his throat.
"You think it's not?" she asked and she felt him jump slightly, shocked, that she was now so close and that his death could be dealt with a flick of her wrist.
"I underestimated you." A cold voice drawled from behind, and Sakura did her best not to shudder, Uchiha Itachi, she turned keeping Kisame in front of her with one arm around his neck; "You won't kill him though, what would my brother think of you then?" he was goading her, she set her face into a hard glare, what did she care what his brother thought?! She then froze realising the seriousness of her situation, these were two S-class criminals, they wouldn't think twice about killing her, so why should she? She tightened her grip on the kunai and let out a shuddering breath hoping that Kakashi, Naruto and Sai weren't far behind her. They had of course been following a lead in search of Sasuke, but had been attacked by several sound ninja, Sakura had followed one into the clearing and it was here that she had been set upon by Kisame.
"What do you expect me to do?" she asked pushing down on Kisame's shoulder so that he was now on his knees, Itachi didn't move to stop her even as he saw a trickle of blood slide down the blade that she was pressing into his partner's neck, his face remained emotionless. Sakura watched him carefully noting to herself how similar his features were to Sasuke's.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" the sound of that voice made her grip loosen momentarily she was glad for the backup.
"Let him go." Itachi had answered her sarcastic question.
She quirked an eyebrow at him; "You don't really think I will do you?" she asks trying to maintain the amused look that is masking her fear. The sound of feet trampling through the undergrowth gets louder until she hears Naruto break into the clearing.
"Sakura?" Naruto looks concerned, his eyes flit from one S-class criminal to the other, he watched as she shifted her footing nervously.
"See I was going to use one of you as bait to bring my brother in, but how about I take both of you?" Itachi isn't asking really, Sakura glances at Naruto and watches as his eyes darken and his fists clench.
"Your brother, broke all ties with us!" Sakura calls out as Kakashi and Sai burst into the clearing, she is momentarily distracted and her grip loosens once again, just enough for Kisame to thrust his elbow backwards into her ribs, Sakura feels two of them snap and falls to her knees clutching her chest as she spits out blood. Kisame staggers back to Itachi reaching for his Samehada on the way. Naruto, Sai and Kakashi step in front of Sakura and Itachi narrows his gaze.
"I could just take her you know," he said lacking all emotions; "but, I wouldn't want to get blood on my cloak." He smirks coldly as Naruto growls in the most animalistic of ways, Itachi and Kisame turned on their heals and were gone within a blink of an eye, Naruto went to follow but Kakashi reached out to stop him by placing a hand on his shoulder and pointing at Sakura who was currently healing herself.
"Are you OK?" Naruto had moved to sit beside Sakura who hand one glowing-green hand placed on her ribs, she nodded slowly.
"Hag, what happened?" Sakura's eyes shot open to give Sai her best death glare. He of course did not react to it and continued smiling his fake smile.
Sakura then recounted the story to them of how a Sound nin had lured her out here, she sighed once she had finished and looked around, it was dark night had fallen some hours ago and she was exhausted; "Do you suppose we could set up camp for the night?" she suggested trying her best to stifle a yawn, Naruto looked up at Kakashi who shrugged which meant; 'yes'. The boys then set about putting up tents as they insisted that Sakura should stay off her feet and rest, she had sighed heavily at their request insisting that there was nothing wrong with her. The tents were up within a matter of moments and Sakura yawned happily as she crawled into hers, she curled up into a ball hugging her knees to her chest and tried to go to sleep, unfortunately the sound of Uchiha Itachi's voice was still echoing in her mind; Why would he want to take her anyway? She wasn't important or dangerous, Sasuke wouldn't care if his brother killed her…right?! She kept thinking until the dark comfort of sleep claimed her.
"WAKE UP SAKURA-CHAN!" Sakura jolted awake almost head butting Naruto who had stuck his head into her tent to wake her, she sighed and rubbed her eyes. He was far too loud for an early morning wake up call. Naruto grinned at her; "Breakfast is ready." He told her before removing his head from her tent. Sakura fell backwards onto her bedding while exhaling, she was still exhausted after her fight yesterday with Kisame, she sat up and flexed her muscles they ached and she let out an involuntary groan. She just sat there for a few moments replaying the events of last night in her head before climbing out of the tent, Kakashi and Naruto greeted her warmly, Sai however did not even glance up at her, Sakura would have been offended had this not been his usual behaviour. Breakfast was slow and boring, it consisted mainly of Naruto asking if she were alright and Sakura resorted to smacking him on the back of the head when he asked her a 7th time. Once they had packed away all of their things, Kakashi called them all together.
"I think that we should split up in search of Sasuke," he left the suggestion hanging in the air, trying his hardest to ignore Naruto's gaping mouth.
"OK." Was Sakura's reply, it wasn't that she didn't like working with her team, but she felt that they would find Sasuke faster if they were to split up and search in different directions.
Naruto continued gaping at his former sensei; "You're joking right?" he asked quirking an eyebrow at him, Kakashi shook his head and his one visible eye narrowed slightly in confusion; "Uchiha Itachi!" was Naruto's explanation. Sai who had shown no signs of paying attention up until this point, nodded along with Naruto.
"He is after one of us."
"Yeah what he said." Naruto agreed.
Sakura rolled her eyes; "We won't be too far away from each other will we Kakashi?" she glared at him and he shook his head.
"Of course not, we will be within radioing distance…so we can all be further away from Naruto than from anyone else." Sakura snorted at Kakashi's joke and Naruto looked on confused. So they headed off in different directions much to Naruto's disappointment, Sakura could feel his eyes on her as she walked away, he was worried that she would get herself hurt, this made Sakura angry the thoughts that he still didn't have faith in her abilities, she'd been working so hard.
"Not good enough Sakura," she muttered to herself as she felt her fists clench, the overwhelming urge to punch something or someone made her knuckles crack and whiten, she took a claming breath; "remember what you're doing." Looking for Sasuke. "This is not a time to lose it." She muttered again.
"We wouldn't want that now would we?" that voice, it made her blood freeze. Not again. Sakura spun around to face him, her hair whipped against her face, his eyes flickered and the black was replaced with red, Sakura felt her heartbeat quicken, she knew that backup but was only a shout away, but she wanted to know what Uchiha Itachi's interest in her was. This was a reckless move at best...at worst it could cost her, her life.
"What do you want?!" her voice came out louder that she had intended and it shook slightly, the smirk that Itachi wore permanently grew and she heard a chuckle that was enough to give anyone nightmares. Sakura took an involuntary step backwards.
The smirk once again grew as he took a step towards her; "I thought we'd already discussed this, you will bring my brother to me," he paused and looked at her with hungry eyes, Sakura shuddered, she knew that look, had seen it so many times before, a look of wanting; "but maybe, first, I can have some fun." He growled, Sakura reached for the pouch on her leg, knowing that it was now or never, she pulled out a kunai and got herself into a defensive stance.
"Not if I can help it you won't." her voice held more conviction than it had done before, but the slight shake of her hand gave her away.
The sigh that came from his lips was a testament to the fact that he couldn't be bothered to fight her; "Must we? You are simply delaying the inevitable, and I really don't want to have to kill you." For some reason Sakura believed that he didn't wish to kill her, but she had something to prove, she wasn't weak and the outcome of this fight was notinevitable. It wasn't as if he was able to predict the future but neither was she, and she honestly would never have guessed what was to happen next.
Itachi's eyes narrowed until they were little more than slits, he charged at her and Sakura was taken by surprise she had been expecting a jutsu of some kind, she only managed to jump out of the way at the last second, she felt his Akatsuki cloak brush against her thigh, she skidded to a halt and readied herself for another attack, he spun around and then did Sasuke's favourite trick, disappeared in a puff of smoke, Sakura closed her eyes listening for the smallest of noises, left? No, right? No, above? No, below? No…behind…she spun again this time thrashing out violently with her kunai, she caught him and he cried out. There was a momentary pause where Sakura stood in utter shock, surely Uchiha Itachi had not just screamed?! He then growled in a most dangerous of fashions, which told her that he had, and that she would never hear that sound ever again. She would be lucky if she heard any sound ever again.
"So Kunoichi, you think you can beat me?" so he had gone back to talking, he spoke so much more than his brother did, it was annoying.
She laughed and Itachi looked stunned; "Never," she whispered taking a step towards him; "but, you never know today could just be my day." Her cocky laugh soon had him riled; she wasn't about to get out of this one with all of her limbs still intact. He would personally make sure of it.
From high above them, a pair of red eyes watched their banter with bated breath, she was being foolish and brave but he didn't know if he admired her for that, those bright green eyes that had often looked at him with love and devotion, looked determined and slightly scared, she knew how dangerous the man in front of her was, and how stupid it was to taunt him, but if it meant that she would be closer to finding the person who her heart still yearned for, no matter how much she told herself that it didn't, perhaps she would be able to find some peace. Little did she know that he was watching her every move and when his brother made his next attack he winced as the kunai that had been hidden beneath the black cloak pierced her side. 12 year old Sakura would have cried out, screamed, gripped the gaping wound where her blood was seeping from, but Sasuke noted that this girl was nearly a woman and had left that weak persona behind. She examined the wound briefly and ascertained that it was not life threatening before placing her kunai away and cracking her knuckles, they glowed with blue chakra, she swung her fist backwards whilst running towards Itachi at such a pace that there was no way that she would miss him. When she made contact the sound of his jaw breaking was audible even to Sasuke high above them, Itachi shot through the trees behind him, if that wasn't enough of a signal to Naruto Sakura wasn't sure what was. Sasuke felt his stomach lurch at the sound of his brother's jaw breaking, she was sure to be for it now.
"I'm not sure if you are brave or extremely stupid." Itachi's voice sounded strange due to his broken jaw; "I think I might get you to heal this before I kill you ne?"
It was time for the man up in the trees to act, he couldn't let his brother kill her. Itachi had been right, he still cared, he hadn't severed the bond between them entirely. He shifted down jumping from branch to branch, he noticed Sakura look up, she could sense him, he'd done his very best to hide his chakra but it was almost as if she could smell him when he got too close. When he landed between Sakura and his brother he heard her gasp slightly.
The earpiece in Sakura's ear had the sound of Naruto's voice calling her, but she couldn't bring herself to answer him. "SAKURA-CHAN? ARE YOU OK?!" he was screaming, he sounded desperate.
"I…"
"SAKURA?!" that was Kakashi, he could tell something was wrong.
"Sasuke." Was all she could say before she succumbed to the fatigue, blood loss and the shock of seeing him after all of this time.
Cliffhanger, don't kill me. So right, tell me what you think? Review please! No flames thank you.