Hello everyone. Here is the next part of the story. Enjoy!
Same Disclaimer.
Random comment: First day of University and my final year! Woohoo!
The four members of Team 7 were so tensed up and ready for battle against the one and only, Uchiha Itachi. However, the elder Uchiha just stared at each individual one by one until his eyes rested on the only female member of the team.
Sakura gulped nervously when she saw that all of Itachi's attention was solely on her. The other boys felt the heavy stare and blocked the sharingan user's view by standing in front of the Rosette, in fear that she may be a target.
"Ma ma…Isn't this a pleasant surprise?" the sarcastic tone was practically dripping out of Kakashi's mouth, but the elder Uchiha still did not say a word in reply. Instead, he focused his attention on the pink-haired woman, who was curious to as why he hadn't attacked yet.
It was at that moment that Itachi did some seals and in a matter of second, three clones were beside him, seemingly ready to battle.
I should stop jinxing everything… Sakura thought with an inward sigh as she and her teammates got ready for battle.
"Katon: Gogakyou no jutsu" the four Itachis said in unison and four different fire balls were being thrown towards the Konoha shinobi, who jumped out of the way just in time. Unfortunately, this lead to them separating, giving Itachi a perfect opening. Not wasting this precious opportunity, he started attacking them individually with each of his clones with pure taijutsu.
For the first time in his life, Sasuke's attention was more on his teammates than on his brother. Sure, he was furious enough to be blinded by rage, but he was inwardly surprised at how calm and level-headed he still was, despite that person's presence.
"You are not focusing, little brother." Itachi's voice rang in his ears and the smaller Uchiha glared at the betrayer of his family, activating his sharingan.
"Itachi, I am going to kill you," His stated bluntly, as if it was a mere fact. Through his bloodline, he was able to see his chakra patterns and cursed once he realized that he was merely fighting a clone. The biggest shock, however, was when he saw who the real Itachi was fighting.
"Sakura!"
The medic nin glanced at Sasuke, confused to as why he had a terrified expression, but her lack of attention to her own battle had cost her dearly. She felt a heavy body mass embrace her heavily, though there was no harshness in that treatment. Sakura was caught by surprise when she noticed that she was engulfed by Itachi himself and both were currently falling to the ground.
What the! Before she could even contemplate on why the hell would Uchiha Itachi literally pounce on her, the forest view disappeared from her sight and the two were transported somewhere else.
Viridian eyes opened to stare at her surroundings; she must have been transported at least a few hours away from her teammates. She didn't have enough time to think about why the elder Uchiha would do such things as she scampered away from the deadly shinobi and quickly focused chakra on her hands to ready herself for battle.
"Kunoichi, I'm not here to fight you." Itachi stated dryly and watched as she stiffened further, not daring to look into his eyes, instead finding his collarbone a safer option. His amusement escalated once he saw her concentrating a huge amount of chakra in her hands to form a shape of a scalpel, determined not to give up without a fight.
How foolish to think she even had the chance to kill me.
Though he would have enjoyed testing how strong this particular kunoichi has become, he was running out of time and all amusement aside, his went back to business.
"Look at me, Kunoichi."
What was she, stupid? Being teammates with two sharingan users over the years, Sakura knew all about that particular Doujutsu and she knew that she could be trapped in a deadly genjutsu once she glimpsed at his blood red eyes. A full minute had passed and the Rosette was growing weary from the elder brother's silence and she never looked up until…
"Sakura…" he sighed out her name tiredly. It was a tired, miserable sigh that caught her off guard and made her unconsciously stare into his eyes. Realizing her mistake a bit too late, she flinched and got ready to experience the terrible 'Tsukuyomi'. However, no genjutus was cast upon her and she was still alive, which proved that he really didn't want to fight.
Lowering her guard slightly and stopping her chakra from flowing into her hands, Sakura studied the Uchiha's expression and wondered what on earth he wanted from her. Catching the woman's questioning gaze, Itachi finally spoke.
"It is your brother." He watched as she paled so quickly he almost regretted informing her of the matter, but she just had to know. Giving her another full minute to grasp what he just said, he continued,
"He is still alive." More silence greeted him and even though he mostly preferred such moments, he was getting irritated at the mute girl standing before him.
"Wha?" the girl uttered and stared some more at Itachi. Slowly, she got her act back together and glared fully at the Uchiha.
"Are you trying to mess with me! Mentioning people who are dead-"
"Your brother is very much alive." He interrupted and waited for the girl to finally accept the truth. Sakura stared into his eyes, the eyes of a murderer and couldn't help but believe that he was saying the truth, because Uchiha Itachi would not waste his time trying to deceive a girl such as herself when he could easily kill her with one single blow...or eye contact in his case.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked, her form slightly drooped from the news she had just received. Sure she was shocked, but she didn't want to hold on to that thread of hope for him to tear it away with his cruel torturing methods. However, the further she looked at his eyes, the more she believed him.
"Because you have the right to now."
Trying to understand the meaning of all this, she asked, "Why are you telling me this now?"
The Uchiha stared at her some more, before answering honestly, "Because you are of legal age."
Now that confused her and the more she turned the wheels inside her head to come up with a conclusion, the more baffled she became. Desperate to understand all of this, her mind came up with an answer that could partially explain why he knew this particular piece of information. Fury was clouding her judgement once she put one and one together.
"You bastard! Are you the one who killed my family! Sasuke wasn't enough for you!" without even waiting for him to respond, Sakura ran towards her enemy and destroyed the ground they were previously standing on. The earth split and swallowed the trees and all creatures surrounding the area, but Itachi had already jumped away from the vicious attack and stepped away from the girl.
"You will calm down girl. You don't know what you are saying." The Uchiha tried to reason, but the Rosette was far gone, jumping up in the air to try to kick the Uchiha's head and hopefully, break his skull. Unfortunately, he dodged rather easily and the only thing Sakura saw after that was pure darkness.
Setsuni… Was he really alive?
"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! Wake up!" Sakura heard someone yelling in her ear and as an impulse; she punched whatever her knuckles could reach.
"OW! What the hel- Sakura-chan?" Naruto sputtered and looked questionably at the groggy, looking woman.
The medic nin sat with the help of her blonde friend, confused about what happened in the first place. It took a few seconds until her memories finally came back to her. She whipped her head around, finding no trace of Itachi anywhere and so asked her teammate, who seemed to be the only person around.
"Naruto? What happened? Where are Sasuke and Kakashi?" Naruto smiled softly at her in what seemed to be relief and pulled her gently to him in a bone-crushing hug.
"I thought you were dead when I saw you lying on the ground like that…" he muttered. That caught her by surprise, but the slight trembling of his arms as he hugged her closer to him made her realize how scared he actually was and so, she let him do as he pleased.
After a few minutes of complete silence, the whiskered man finally pulled Sakura away from the embrace and grinned at her happily. Rolling her eyes at his sudden behavior, she looked around the forest trying to find a small trace of her other teammates' chakra signatures, since the blonde idiot didn't answer her pervious question.
"Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei are on their way here. Itachi blocked us on our way towards you so I was told to come find you while they fought" Naruto said and smiled once he smelt them already coming closer towards where they are now. Sakura sighed from relief once she felt them coming nearer as well and stood up, dusting her clothes from unwanted leaves.
Once Kakashi and Sasuke came into view, Sakura had to bite her lips to keep herself from running into the Uchiha, since his face showed signs of frustration. Kakashi looked about the same, once he greeted them happily and looked up at the female member of the team from head to toe, checking if she had sustained any injuries during their separation. However, the Uchiha was a bit more vocal with his observation.
"Sakura…Did he do anything to you?" he asked, trying to hold his anger and double checking any injuries that he might have missed on her. Surprisingly, the kunioichi smiled slightly and shook her head, confusing Sasuke even more.
"What happened then, Sakura-chan?" The kyuubi asked, aware how…dubious the situation was. The stare Sakura was receiving from the three men had her sigh and cross her arms, trying to contemplate what to tell them.
"Actually…nothing happened. I was battling Itachi with you guys and the next thing I knew, I was awakened by Naruto" she lied and tried to look as calm as possible. She didn't know if they believed her or not, but she did her best to change the subject. It was better if she looked more into the matter of whether Setsuni was alive or not by herself, without worrying her team.
"What happened when I left?" she asked, looking at each man carefully, actually surprised that there weren't any injuries on any of them either. Kakashi took the job of informing the female member what happened after they were separated. Itachi had been a clone the whole time, fooled even with the sharingan eye. Once Sasuke and himself managed to strike him with two chidori's to the chest, the (what seemed to be) real Itachi disappeared with a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, they found a completely different person instead, a missing nin from Iwa.
"It turned out that he used a forbidden technique, where you can transfer thirty percent of your chakra into another shinobi's body."
"What? How is that even possible?" Sakura asked in disbelief.
"With the help of Itachi-san's chakra, that body is able to use all of his techniques…to a certain extent. We were fighting a completely different person the whole time."
With Itachi
Many miles away, Itachi opened his eyes and tried to focus his vision to the figure beside him. The tall mist nin, Hoshigaku Kisame, grinned at his partner once he saw him wake up from his deep meditative state, asking if he was done with his "personal mission".
"Kisame. Let's go." The Uchiha genius ignored the question and made his way towards the akatsuki base. The shark nin shrugged and followed his silent partner. The elder Uchiha unconsciously gripped his chest in slight pain, trying to ignore the urge to cough out in front of the Mist nin. He just hoped his time will be up soon…
Team 7 stayed hours trying to search for any sign of Uchiha Itachi after he disappeared. They looked everywhere but after four hours of constant search and after a few sputters and curses from Naruto, they gave up. They decided to rest in a small village in order to "restore their chakra supply", not that they actually lost much, but the three members shrugged at their teacher's lame excuse (yet again).
At the Inn...
"Sasuke?" Sakura asked once they separated from Naruto and Kakashi and got to their own room. The sharingan user was quiet ever since they began the whole search, worrying Sakura greatly as she touched his forearm softly. He jumped slightly from the touch and caught his eyes with her. Both sat on the bed, one with worry and the other just staring right through her. Unable to take the silent treatment, she placed her hand on his right cheek, looking straight into his black, onyx eyes.
"Sasuke? Are you okay?"
Sasuke lowered his head and let his forehead touch hers gently. He breathed in her scent as he closed his eyes and held the hand that was slowly caressing his cheek, relieved that she was alive.
At first, he kissed her cheek and then went lower and lower until he reached her collarbone, grazing his lips with butterfly touches. Finally, he rested his unoccupied cheek on breasts and pushed her down with his body weight until they were both lying flat on the bed. They stayed in that position for quite a while and Sakura didn't do anything but run her hands gently through his jet-black hair, soothing him slowly.
Sasuke heard her heart beating strongly and couldn't help but marvel at how the sound calmed his own. She was alive and right under him, she was here.
"I love you" he muttered and raised his head when he heard her breath hitch. He rested his chin resting in between the valley of her breast and watched her so much intense and passion in his eyes, he made the rosette blush like a silly little girl again. It was one of the very rare times where he voiced his affections for her and so, she treasured moments like these.
Sakura knew then that he was afraid…afraid that he might have lost her had Itachi been keen on killing her.
Unaware by her own actions, the pink-haired woman grabbed Sasuke's face and pulled him towards her in a rough, desperate kiss, which he returned back just as aggressively.
The moment Sasuke's lips captured hers; Sakura felt her whole body shiver from pleasure. She parted her lips for her lover once he slowly prodded her lips with his eager tongue. Grabbing a fistful of her hair to hold her in place, the darker of the two pushed his tongue in and started sweeping it over her perfectly even teeth, emitting a shuddering moan from Sakura.
Once they broke the kiss, with both of them panting, Sasuke ran his thumb over her plump lips and smirked with smug satisfaction once he saw the dazed look coming from the medic. His lips found their way to her neck as he sucked gently on her pulse, hearing another beautiful mewl of pleasure.
"Sasuke…" Sakura moaned as she grabbed a fistful of Sasuke's hair, trying to get a grip of something before she went insane. She was so distracted to hear the sound of her zipper being opened as she tried her hardest to quiet her moans. Kakashi and Naruto were in the other room and knowing their sense of hearing was higher than average, she just hopped that she could be quiet enough to finish their…activity.
The next thing she knew, she was naked from the waist up and staring at a very hungry looking Sasuke. Blushing from the attention, she shyly tugged at her companion's dark shirt, urging him to take off his top. Chuckling from amusement, the Uchiha complied with his lover's plead and once again, trapped her between the soft mattress and his hard, warm chest. Gasping in pleasure, the Kunoichi started running her hands over Sasuke's broad chest, forcing the Uchiha to close his eyes in peaceful bliss. He pulled her in for another breathtaking kiss, battling her tongue and winning in the end as he nibbled her lower lip and sucked gently on it.
"S-Sasuke-kun…more" Sakura pleaded and Sasuke smirked at her impatient-self. However, he wasn't in the mood for foreplay as well and so, started descending his way downwards as he took off her pants.
"Sasuke…I love you, too" The rosette moaned and Sasuke's heart started beating tenfold as he thanked her for her love with his actions.
A couple of hours later...
"Oi! Teme! Sakura-chan! Why the hell are you both asleep at six in the afternoon!"
Sasuke woke up at the fist knock and glared in annoyance at the door. He could feel the chakra signatures behind the door and stood up to quickly wear his clothes before the idiot thought they were dead and knocked the door down. A shift in the bed had the Uchiha look over to his pink-haired angel, who woke up with tousled hair and glared at the door as if her eyes would quiet the dumbass down.
"Ugh, We're coming Naruto! Keep your pants up…" She muttered the last part and went to look for her clothes that were spread all over the room. Once they were decent, Sasuke opened the door to see one impatient Naruto and a lazy looking Kakashi, reading his infamous porn book.
"Come on you guys! Stop acting all lovey dovey and let's go have dinner! I heard there's a ramen place here" Naruto said impatiently and grabbed Sakura's thin wrists the moment she came out of the room.
"Naruto! Slow down!" Sakura pleas…demands were ignored as the whiskered man dragged his pink-haired teammate downstairs and outside the inn they took temporary residence in. Sasuke smirked as he followed his lively companions with Kakashi, who was busy giggling like a girl.
I can't believe he was an ANBU Sasuke thought, rolling his eyes at his teacher's behaviour.
"Ah! I am so full!"An enthusiastic and very full Naruto exclaimed as they all exited the ramen restaurant.
"Dobe, be quiet" The Uchiha muttered once he took his steps beside the blonde idiot.
Kakashi had excused himself a long time ago, once Naruto was in his fourth bowl of ramen, succeeding in escaping his three students when they were too distracted to notice and so, they were going back to the inn alone.
Smiling at her boys, who were busy arguing with one another, Sakura took her time to look around the small village since she never actually had the time to before. Their missions were always done with tight schedules and they never had the time to walk around and meet new faces until now.
The Kunoichi would have continued on with her silent musings if she hadn't caught sight of familiar red hair. The person had already rounded the corner of a building, but that didn't stop the medic from following him and forgetting completely about her teammates, caught in a trance.
"Sakura?" Sasuke called out when he noticed her going to a different route.
Both boys stopped and stared at their teammate's back as she walked into a neighbourhood, oblivious of her name being called.
Sakura's silent walk turned into a full out sprint when she focused on that same person's chakra, it was painfully familiar.
Once she was but a few feet away, she called out the name, the name she had rarely mentioned ever since her tragedy.
"Setsuni!"
Panting slightly, she watched as the small figure stopped in his tracks and turned around slowly with surprised, emerald…no…viridian eyes.
She waited for him to get over his astonished expression and come running into her arms. She waited for something, anything but the words he had just uttered.
"Who are you?"
Sakura just stopped breathing a few seconds, not knowing what to do. Why was he staring at her like she was a complete stranger?
"Sakura-chan!" she distantly heard someone call her, but she ignored him and focused her energy on just standing up and not breaking down in confusion and grief. The wound she had slowly been closing up with the help of Sasuke and Naruto over the years had been brutally torn and opened once again, bleeding more furiously than the last time.
Once she felt the warmth of her two closest people on either side of her, she heard them gasp out loud (in Naruto's case. For once, she didn't care what Sasuke's expression would be like).
"Sakura-chan…is that…Setsu?"
Naruto's nickname for her brother brought her back from her rigid posture as she, once again, stared at the boy.
Red/maroon colored hair that resembled her father with his sharp pointy nose and high cheekbones. Striking green eyes that he took from his mother, there was no doubt in her mind that he was her brother.
'Your brother is very much alive.' A distant voice said in her head and she wondered how Itachi knew about all this and what happened for Setsuni to be right in front of her, very much alive and…without any memory.
The nine-year-old boy stared at them with confusion and a small trace of fear, noticing the Konoha Signature in their hitai-ate. Slowly, her brother went closer towards a door, his hand raised to grip the handle nervously.
"It's okay. We mean no harm" Sakura found herself saying, raising her hands to stress her point. The fear in his eyes brought up the protective side of the young medic and she forced a smile on her face to ensure him that they weren't the enemy.
Before anything else could be said, the door opened from the inside and a grown woman with brown hair and eyes showed up. She looked down the boy who inched closer to her and asked, "Keitaro? You're home early…"
The three Konoha ninjas went rigid once they heard the stranger talk with Sakura's brother, who was holding on to her dress while staring at them fearfully.
What the hell was going on?
And we leave it at that, hehe. I hope you were surprised with this sudden turn of events. Everything will be explained in the next chapter, about why Setsuni was still alive and with memory loss. Also, since I started university today, I will not be able to update as recently as I have been this month. Sorry for that :)
I also may write a new one-shot about Itachi concerning his illness, please read it when I do. I hope you will be able to review this chapter as well!
Sabird