Yup! I'm back from the dead! I FINALLY got around to updating! Thank you kind reviewers for not hating me for the slow updates, I REALLY appreciate that!!! Enough of me, onto the chapter!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxooxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxooxox

"Naruto, you still haven't figured it out?" Sakura asked him. Itachi and Sakura were still standing opposite of Naruto. Naruto continued to have a confused look on his face while staring at Sakura. She wasn't quite sure of what to do in this situation, since attacking a ninja when he is in a similar state to Naruto's was beyond low.

"Itachi-san..?" Sakura never dared to add the kun honorific in battle. He appeared not to hear her and was watching Naruto intently. In other words, wait.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto looked like he was having trouble believing what he saw and was trying to deny it. "Dooshitte?" Sakura smirked. That wasn't exactly what she had been hoping he'd say, but it would work.

"Why what?" She started to evaluate the area for the fight ahead. It was a simple dirt road with the edge of a cliff on the left and a forest of trees on the right. The road was small, and there were to guard rails on the cliff side. Naruto seemed to be favoring the side with the trees, probably to escape, she guessed. Naruto was a close range fighter, and because the area was small, this seemed to be a good place for him. Sakura was a close to mid range fighter, but the trees would be problematic. Itachi was also a close range fighter, so he should have little trouble. There was no water around, so Suiton attacks were out of the question; it would take too much chakra. Katon would be the way to defeat Naruto, because fire is stronger than wind. That also meant that any Raiton attacks weren't going to be an option, since wind is stronger than lightning.

Sakura then started to think of a battle plan. First off, those trees would have to go. They made her style of taijutsu more difficult. A little fire should take care of that. If Naruto used Kage Bunshin, then Sakura could mimic that. Her Rasengan was nowhere near as strong as Naruto's, so she would have to counter that by grabbing his wrist when he attacked. Her thoughts were interrupted when Naruto answered her question with one of his own.

" Why are you doing this?" He asked it much more gently than he probably should have. Instead of looking at Sakura, he appeared to be much more interested in watching Itachi, though he seemed to find his chin more intriguing than his eyes.

Sakura found this to be a rather unoriginal question, but she still had to think a little to come up with the answer.

"I was weak, and I fixed that." Naruto had torn his eyes from Itachi's chin and was now looking at Sakura in shock.

"The Godaime was training you! You've become so much stronger since we were Genin dattebayo!" His voice now sounded as though he was pleading with her.

She sighed. "For a while, yes. Then Tsunade started having Shizune train me more, because she was too busy. After a while, I hardly ever trained with Tsunade. To top it off, my number of missions had been declining the entire time. I was a toy that Tsunade got bored with and she tossed me aside." She straightened her posture and her voice was stronger as she continued. " So I left."

The surprise was plain on Naruto's face. Even Itachi didn't know this much about the matter of Sakura leaving Konoha, so his eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

Naruto would not give up, so he tried to make Sakura's decision sound stupid. "Baa-chan has sent ANBU after you! For five years people have been looking for you! Team 7 and Team 10 were sent after you! And you know what? He killed them! Yet you still stand by his side!" He had become more passionate about his speech, so much that he was yelling by the end of it.

"No…"

"What do you mean no, Sakura-chan?!"

She had said it so quietly she was surprised that anyone had even heard her. "Itachi-san didn't kill them." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Oh yeah? Then who did? Kisame? Deidara? Hidan? Kakuzu?" Naruto was still as loud as ever, only now he was getting angry.

"I did."

Naruto chuckled a bit. "Sakura-chan, you have no reason to take the blame for what he did!"

"I did it."

"Sakura-chan there is no way you-" He stopped talking abruptly. While he had been talking Sakura had stuck her hand under her cloak and shirt, until she felt the delicate chain around her neck. She hesitated for second before pulling it out to where everyone could see. Both Naruto and Itachi were staring at the beautiful charm.

"S-Sakura-chan…"

"Sakura."

"I did it!" Sakura's voice was strong and she sounded sure of herself. She could tell from Naruto's reaction that he knew exactly what it was. His eyes were the size of dinner plates as he processed the information revealed to him. The fact that one of his best friends in the world had killed his other best friend was a lot to think about.

Although his reaction wasn't as noticeable as Naruto's, Itachi's eyes were noticeably wider. Unlike Naruto, he didn't know what the necklace meant, or why Naruto was acting the way he was, so he was trying to figure it out. To a passerby, he looked impassive. To the people who know him, he looked flat out confused.

She hadn't wanted Itachi to know about it, but Naruto had left her with little choice. She figured that this would put a stop to Naruto's questions.

"Sakura-chan… so you really…?"

"Yeah."

"Kiki, and Ino too?"

"Yeah."

Naruto's mouth was opening and closing, but no sound was coming out. He looked like he was getting angrier and angrier and was having trouble controlling it. Itachi was still staring at Sakura's neck, even though she had tucked the necklace away.

"Sakura-chan…Baa-chan won't even consider taking you back." Naruto said this sadly, as though he finally realized what he would have to do.

"I know." She responded gently.

Naruto swallowed before he said anything else. "I can't allow you to walk away with him. Actually, I can't allow you to walk away alive.

"Then come with us Naruto-kun." Itachi finally spoke up. He knew that if a fight broke out it had to be as quick as he and Sakura could make it. If it dragged on, the Kyuubi might make its appearance, and that would push Itachi to the limits. He said it calmly, but he knew what Naruto would say.

He was right.

"Never dattebayo!" Naruto started yelling again. "I would never betray my friends like that! I know what you did to Gaara, and there's no way that's happening to me! I'd rather have to fight until I die!"

"So be it." Sakura sighed and pulled her gloves on. Naruto put his hands in a very familiar symbol.

"Kage bunshin no-"

He didn't get a chance to finish because he felt a cold metal against his neck. Itachi and Sakura were still standing in front of him, but while he had been preparing to mold his chakra, Itachi had had a kage bunshin of his own appear behind Naruto.

"Surrender, Naruto-kun."

"Hell no!"

Itachi pressed the kunai into Naruto's neck to have him turning into a cloud of smoke. Instinctively, he activated his Sharingan when he looked up. Shockingly enough, Naruto was flying towards him with a Rasengan in his hand. Itachi leapt backwards and where he had been a second before was a huge crater. Naruto sprang out of the crater towards Itachi. Both Itachi and Sakura bean forming seals.

Two voices rang out at the same time. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Two ridiculously large fireballs flew towards Naruto. He jumped to the left and watched the fireballs devastate the forest. Instead of a lush, green, beautiful forest there was a field of black.

Naruto now had another Rasengan in his hand, only this time he was charging towards Sakura. She just stood there until he was within her reach. She grabbed the wrist he had the Rasengan in and it was held uselessly in front of her nose. He was struggling to get it to hit, but to no avail; his hand was not going anywhere. Naruto glared at Sakura. His eyes bored into hers, until the world started to swirl. The blues and greens of this world turned into the blacks and reds of Itachi's Tsukuyomi world. After a little, the swirling stopped, and everything was red and black. Naruto as tied to a stake and Itachi was towering over him.

"This isn't real! This isn't real! Sakura-chan doesn't have the Sharingan!" Naruto shook his head the entire time. He quickly put his hands into a seal. "Kai!" Nothing happened.

"It may not be real, Naruto-kun, but the pain will be." Itachi, not Sakura, still stood in front of Naruto. "Sakura and I both preformed a Henge no Jutsu before we even encountered you. There would be no reason not to look Sakura in the eyes."

Naruto refused to believe it. "This can't be!"

"But it is, Naruto-kun. Now you will watch your friends fight to the death for 72 hours." As soon as he finished speaking, Sasuke and Sakura appeared before Naruto.

"Sasuke-teme! Sakura-chan!" Both appeared to have not heard him.

"Neither of them can see, hear, or feel us, Naruto-kun. Crying out is useless."

Naruto then had to watch Sakura's encounter with Sasuke in the Akatsuki base. He heard their entire conversation. He saw Sakura kill Sasuke, but not what Sasuke had given her. After he had survived watching it once, Naruto was forced to watch it over and over and over again, like a CD stuck on replay. By the third time, he was screaming for mercy. By the seventh, he wasn't even conscious anymore.

After the 72 hours, true to his word, Itachi released him from the genjutsu. Sakura watched as Naruto's figure suddenly slumped into Itachi's arms unconscious. From Sakura's perceptive, it appeared that Naruto was struggling to hit Itachi, then had simply stopped moving. Less than a second later, he had become limp.

Sakura and Itachi needed to contact Pein about their defeat of the loud Jinchuuriki. They need to get to a more secluded place before they did anything, because people traveling on the road would recognize there cloaks, and that would be awfully troublesome. Another reason why is if Naruto woke up, he would have to be knocked out again, and Sakura had the feeling that he wasn't going to let them do that without putting up a fight.

"Itachi-san, we need to get to a more secure location before sealing the Kyuubi." She said suddenly business-like. "I can carry him."

"Hn."

Itachi handed Naruto over to Sakura. She threw him over her shoulder and proceeded to carry him like a sack of potatoes. She frowned at the new weight. 'Geez, he really needs to lay off of the ramen!'

"Itachi-san? Where would the best place be for the sealing? I don't know my way around the Waterfall Country all that well." She started tapping her lip with her forefinger while looking a little embarrassed.

He looked at her impassively. "The place I know of is at least half a day away."

Sakura groaned. Itachi was in a bad mood, and not happy with her, not to mention Naruto was heavy, and there was no way she'd admit that to Itachi.

"I can tell this will be a fun trip."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxox

And that's the end of this update. As you can see, I really cannot write battles very well, nor do I like writing them, so please forgive that. Reviewing would be nice too! Tell me what you think, and tell me what you didn't like as well! Cookies for everyone who reviews!