Dance With The Devil

The promised end come at last
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Recap: Death was the business of the nin, and business was always good; there was no use worrying about it.

Yes, she was a killer, no matter how much it made her stomach unsettle.

Kakuzu approached her and slid down beside her. He seemed tired, but not sore. His body worked well in battle, and it was as he said, his chakra coils were working perfectly. Their teamwork had also been surprisingly fluid, a sign of trust in one another. She hadn't expected such results a month ago when he was still sneaking off and shooting daggers at the back of her head. Yet, somehow, Kakuzu had danced easily into her circle of comfort and stayed there. She didn't stiffen around him anymore, and actually enjoyed his presence since the restoration of their chakara. It had taken time to build up the friendship, but she was grateful for it.

A full minute passed before the masked nin decided to say anything to her.

"When you return to Leaf, we will go with you. Do not ask us, it would be a wast of breath. Both Kisame and I have made up our minds well before this."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak but Kisame beat her to it.

"Don't bother, we're far more stubborn than you. If we want to go we're going."

She stared up at Kisame and then over at Kakauzu. "Why?"

"Why does it matter?" he countered. "If you believe your path is true, accept the help that is offered to you and don't be surprised when the others offer, because all of them will. There is no way they would ever choose differently."

Sakura pressed her finger together and pressed the sides of her hands against her face, staring at the dead ROOT nin. She knew that she didn't have much more time left before Danzo decided to stop beating around the bush and have someone more intimidating hunt her down, maybe even Naruto himself. That was his style, sadistic and effective. He had already wasted too many nin on her as it was, he wouldn't try the same thing twice. Something had to be done soon.

"Fine," she breathed into her hands. "Then when the time comes, don't complain when I drive your asses all over the known world to bring back the will of fire."

And it took a year. Days and months lasted less then they used to. With training and help each member of her house grew and developed while Danzo's forces withered. He was an old man with paranoia as long as the night was dark and he frayed his forces past their usefulness.

Sakura packed up and moved, leaving her dream and homes behind to a more secure location, one where the revived members of what had once been the Akatsuki could stretch themselves and not attract too much attention. It was still close, and still in the mountains, but their former base was ten times better hidden.

In regards to their ability, it took only the first two months before all of them could manipulate chakra again, and another two months before they were all back to their peak conditions. Itachi drove them intellectually, Hidan and Kisame ran them out physically, and Pein organized them systematically. His older bodies, Fuyuki and Ren, supported him in these endeavors, but failed to guide with the efficiency of their original controller.

Sakura didn't let her own self grow slack, but pushed and trained harder with their help each day, even if every single member under her roof refused to put her in any real danger.

Hidan got along with her well enough as another person, but he still had a shrine to her in his room, and Sasori would persistently look up to her like his own personal god. A year later and some things never changed. The others had their own quirks and peculiarities, of course, but Sakura was most sensitive to the ones about her 'godhood' since it was something she still didn't understand...even a year later she was lost to the source.

"It doesn't matter where this power comes from, as long as I have it to use against Danzo," she claimed.

Sometimes Tobi would laugh at that and then say she was being silly, but she didn't mind his laughter anymore.

If Sakura was being honest with herself, she would admit that in the deepest part of her heart, she wanted nothing more than to tear Danzo down and wipe off every trace of his reign from the face of the earth. She had wanted his death since the day he took her home from her. She had hungered from it when it drove her from the village Konoha, and raged for it when she knew what happened to her late husband.

She would have given anything, traded her very soul to have him back, but the next best thing was Danzo's death and it was a close second. Her heart still hurt at Kakashi's memory, and blood was the only thing that dulled those aches.

"What would you give for your revenge?" Itachi had asked her one night. She was awake late somewhere in the compound nursing a dark tea that still steamed in its cup.

She looked up and caught him by the doorway, lingering.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked instead.

"Long enough to know what you're thinking about."

"Really?"

He pointed to her tea. "You don't drink liquor anymore, except at parties in front of others. When you're alone you get drunk on other things."

She smiled. "I guess you do know me."

"What would you give for revenge?" he asked again.

"A great deal, I think," Sakura answered. "Are you afraid of my sacrifices?"

"I'm not worried you might throw us under the cart, if you did we would deserve it." He swallowed. "I'm worried about you...what are you willing to give up for your revenge? It's in reach. Danzo's forces are weak, and we know how to take advantage of him. We'll win, we won't take many losses if any if we play our cards right."

"You mean Pein's cards right?"

Itachi shrugged. "Mine and Kakuzu's cards as well. We pull our own weight in the planning step. We'll win. It might as well be written in the stars."

"So what are you worried about? What keeps you up at night?" Sakura asked, sipping her tea.

"You."

Sakura looked up from her tea. When he didn't say anything else she teased him with a playful smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Oh. Did you want to sleep with me maybe?"

He flushed but didn't look away. "If I said yes would you take me?" A moment later he added. "Like Pein?"

Sakura shut her eyes, holding her tea halfway to her lips. "No, not like Pein. A woman never takes two men to bed the same way, it's just not possible." She sipped her tea and returned it to the saucer.

"Then not like Pein."

She almost laughed, but her eyes were too sad for smiles anymore. "You've asked this before Itachi and you're not the only one asking."

"But you still tell me no when...when Hidan?" His face twisted in jealousy for a moment before evening out again. "I don't see how I am lacking."

"Snoop," she chastised.

"Just because Tobi hasn't noticed doesn't mean the rest of us are oblivious."

"Hidan doesn't ask me stupid questions like what I would give up for revenge, he just shuts up and shuts the door. I don't have the appetite for pillow talk anymore. Pein and Hidan both realized that long ago and neither gets upset with me when I don't promise them things I have no intention of delivering. Please, Itachi, you're almost as bad as Sasori."

"Then if you won't let me keep you warm tonight, give me something else. Answer my question."

Sakura sipped more of her tea and then uncrossed her legs, shifting to the side in her seat, drink now finished. "I'd give up a lot for my revenge, but I'm throwing away your lives. I don't know what I'd give up until its time to pay the piper. What are you worried about?"

"That there really is a piper you're thinking of paying."

Sakura grinned. "The devil?"

"Something like that."

Sakura shrugged, standing and taking her tea to the sink of the small makeshift kitchen she haunted in the dark hours. She ran the water and turned back to watch Itachi watch her. Sometimes he looked too much like one half of her husband for her to stare at. It wasn't even the sharingan, but something else, something in their faces that watched her with the same sort of softness.

"Don't worry about me like that," she said lowering her eyes so that she wouldn't have to remember anything when she saw Itachi. "I'll be fine, so will the rest of you. I'm going to bed...alone. We have a busy day in the morning, you should do the same. Get some sleep Itachi."

"I'll be fine."

She didn't look at him as she passed him in the doorway and didn't glance back when she felt his eyes on her all the way down the long, long hallway.

And it happened like Pein said it would.

Step by step, Sakura's rebel forces took over one section after another, flipping agents days in advance to spring for the final confrontation. When the entered the village it was through the main gates and no one stopped them. Only Danzo's most elite stayed by his side, and they bled just as well as anyone else.

A year of planning and years of suffering...all for Danzo's wrinkled right arm, his head, and every gut in his stomach to stain the dust of her once proud village. It was over before the noon day sun could reach its zenith.

Just like that.

Naruto and the rest of the survivors rejoiced in the streets. Naruto's forces were already calling him the next Hokage and Sakura let them. She had no use for the title and even less desire for it.

She slipped away, waving Pein's question off as she strode into Tsunade's old office and settled into the chair, exhausted in spite of all her untapped energy. They had completely overwhelmed Danzo, suffered only healable injuries on her team. She knew Naruto's cell wasn't much worse. She hadn't even reached the bottom of her chakra reserved, hadn't needed to use the quarter filled seal on her forehead.

But it was all over.

Just like that.

Sakura touched the desk and turned around in the chair, spinning absently as her vision traded out a stuffy office interior for the tall glass windows where an entire village kept drifting, back to see the office, and then out to see the village, then office, then village...

What was she going to do next?

She checked, but Tsunade's booze was gone. Danzo must have found it long ago and used it up, which was a sad fact because he never replaced it with anything else and she felt like a drink.

"What are you going to do next?"

Sakura looked up from under the death, expecting Itachi's annoying face, or maybe Pein who had been close to her the entire fight, but when she looked up ith was neither.

In fact, it was someone she had never seen before.

"Were you part of the resistance?" she asked, staying cool as she readied a kuni under the desk. She kept her posture as casual as her tone and he didn't seem to pick up on her tension.

"A mere observer, I didn't take sides, but I was rooting for you," he laughed. "Devils aren't normally allowed to interfere so directly."

"I appreciate the sentiment all the same, sir."

He made a face at her formal address. "No need for that. What use is there for manners between two halves of a whole?" he laughed. "But i suppose I am the one at fault, since I didn't introduce myself to you. My name is Madara, and I'm like you."

"Tired and in need of booze?" she guessed.

"A god," he corrected. "One of the Kami."

"That's neat. I'm not sure why you're telling me that, since it has nothing to do with me."

He smiled, black braid sliding down off his shoulder. "You didn't think it was odd how you could suddenly wake up one day and resurrect the dead? You always had the potential for it, but you never could do nearly so well before my influence."

Sakura let her head roll from one side to the other, eyeing him critically. She thought back to her academy days, of the statues and the history books she was always so fond of. "Madara Uchiha?"

His smile widened.

She narrowed her eyes. "What do you want, Uchiha?"

"It sounds like you have some sort of bias, did my relatives try your nerves in my absence? I'll apologize on their behalf. I'm not allowed to walk on he world's surface except during certain times. I'm sure they got away with more than they should have."

"Relatives...who's the other one?" Sakura asked, already knowing Itachi was an Uchiha.

"Obito was an Uchiha once, you call him Tobi. It doesn't matter now. I'm here for you, naturally."

Sakura let her brown raise in surprise. "Oh really?" she sarcastically bit.

"It's only fair. I gave you what you wanted, the power for sweet revenge. I gave you Danzo's death when I woke up the powers in you to make the resurrection of all my Akatsuki possible."

"Thanks for that, but I never asked for such a thing," Sakura interjected, eyes flinty as she watched him. He didn't move, but she would know when he did. Her kuni was ready and waiting under the desk and she still had almost half her chakra plus reserves.

"I wish I could have been more clear about it, but it happened here," and he tapped his heart, "deep down when you thought you were the most alone you would ever be. You weren't alone. I was there. I heard you and I gave you half my power so that you might come with me one day. A bargain was struck and this is the end of it."

"I don't think I consented to any of that."

"Even if you don't remember it doesn't matter. A deal is a deal."

"Not to me it isn't. What's to stop me from killing you here the same way I killed Danzo. What's to stop me from calling Pein and the others from rushing in and killing you themselves?"

"Gods can't be killed."

"I don't believe in gods."

"Heathens bleed the same as saints. Your belief changes nothing."

Sakura moved, throwing the kuni straight into his throat where it sank into flesh. She held her breath when he didn't even flinch. He blinked once and then seemed to notice the knife. Reaching up he grabbed it at the ring and tugged it free. Blood bubbled and then turned to crystal in the wound, sealing up and turning back into flesh. He smiled wide.

"That tickled."

Sakura had seen regeneration and knew she could pull herself back from death, but it never looked like that.

"You're not touching me, monster," she snarled, pulling out a new kuni.

"Call me what you wish, love. It matters all the same to me. Eternity is long enough for even the hottest hates to dull. I'm willing to wait." He blew a kiss in her direction. "You're worth it."

"Sick," Sakura snarled before launching herself backwards out a window.

She slipped out through the opening and unfolded in time to land a three point landing that turned into a sprint. Plenty of people were in the streets, but none of them were her people. She needed to find either Tobi or Pein or even Itachi. Someone who could-

"Boo."

Sakura reeled, just out of Madara's reach, cursing. He laughed at her, seemingly delighted by her efforts to try and evade him. He teased her with a smile that someone would wear only when face with an inevitable win.

"Get away from me," Sakura screamed, throwing her kuni out behind her. Madara didn't try to avoid them, and they all landed doing no damage.

"You're adorable when you try to run. Keep at it, this is fun," he laughed.

Sakura threw out her senses, searching with chakra frantically. Somehow everyone was on the other side of the village. She had told Pein to give her some space and that she wanted so alone time after the fight, but they never left her that alone...someone was always still nearby. So why-

Her thoughts were interrupted by his shadow cutting into her line of vision. She swerved sharply and used her hands on the walls to keep herself upright as she slipped down another alley and leapt up onto the rooftops. She ran the way she always did to the bridge where Kakashi met them as kids, a place she-

A hand around her ankle yanked her down and she crashed through a cloths line into the garbage between two town houses. It hurt, but not nearly as much as it could have it he had thrown her instead of just trip her.

Madara loomed, kneeling down over her body, still smiling. "You've delighted me, but I'm tired of your fear. Show me something new before I take you away."

"Take me away where?" Sakura snarled, eyes alight with anger.

Madara chuckled at her expression, running a thumb over her lips. "I'll take you to where I am, where the gods like us live, and all your little dead boys can stay behind and try to make new lives for themselves. It's been the plan for years Sakura."

"Since when did we agree to that?" a new voice cut in.

Madara turned, an annoyed scowl on his face to see Itachi, standing close enough to step on Madara's shadow. But Itachi wasn't how Sakura remembered him from only hours earlier, before they split up for Pein's plan. Madara's expression soured when he saw the blood drawn seals on Itachi's body.

"What relic is this?" he snarled, standing up and turning towards his descendant."

"A vessel," Pein interrupted from somewhere up high. Sakura looked up to see him standing on the ledge of a nearby balcony, arms crossed.

"Heretics," Madara seethed. "You dare defy me after all my forgiving, after all my kindness, this is how you repay me?" He snarled when he looked at Pein. "You especially, defiler. I should have snapped your neck the first time you touched her."

"You didn't and that's your mistaken," Hidan cheered from a new doorway, dressed in blood and seals of his own making. A wild look was in his eyes that came from one of two things.

"I don't have any fear for your plans. You are all ignorant ants," Madara huffed, straightening and fading out the anger from his words. "You have no power over me."

"They don't, but I do."

Sakura turned with Madara to see Tobi, mask discarded, holding up a cut strand of Uchiha black hair. His mouth was twisted into a grimace that Sakura could see for the first time. Half his face was scarred and he was missing an eye...the same eye Kakashi had in red.

"You would betray me?" Madara breathed.

"It's for killing my friend." Tobi glanced to Itachi, a wild look in his last eye. "Now, do it now!"

Madara reached but Itachi touched him first, and at the contact Obito's stolen hair went up in flames as Madara's immortal body cracked and burned. Itachi screamed as his seal lit up with old and ancient power, power that came before chakra and lived in the land before gods fall from the stars. Sakura watched it all with her mouth wide open, tasting the electricity with her teeth.

The world went black and hen red and then white and then the smoke lifted.

Madara's body was gone, the things he wore lay discarded in the dust. Itachi panted with his seals still glowing. Sakura could smell the charred flesh and knew his brands would always be a part of him.

"What was that?"

"The transference of a curse from one body to another," Obito explained. He smiled fondly over at Sakura. "You don't have to worry about him anymore. We've been planning this almost as long as he's been lusting after you."

"Itachi?" Sakura called as Kisame and Kakuzu appeared at the end of the alleyway, watching on. "Are you okay?"

He stood on shaky legs, nodding numbly. "I'll be fine," when he looked up at her he managed a smile, "or I will be."

"I think it best we head back home," Obito sighed, reaching into his cloak and finding the orange mask. With a sigh he tossed it into the garbage. "We have much to explain. I'm sorry we kept you in the dark so long but we'll tell you all you want to know once we're back home."

Somehow the words sounded strange.

"Home?"

Itachi offered her his hand and she saw Sasori and Zetus amble into the alleyway.

"Yeah, home," she breathed, taking his hand and ducking her head as he pulled her up. She felt hesitant and shy, but forced her eyes up, seeing each and everyone, even Ren and Fuyuki. She felt like she was seeing them all for the first time. "Let's go home."

FIN

AN: You thought this was dead, didn't you? I did too, but I got a couple of comments from lovely people on tumblr about how this fic haunted them and I wanted to try and wrap this up. Thank you to worlds-okayest-necromancerand itachifangirl185 because if it hadn't been for their comments I would have let this story stay buried. I didn't know this unfinished piece was haunting so many as badly as it was.
Eeeek!

It's been five years since the last chapter, and eight years since it was started. I was a very different person at the beginning of this fic. I am not the same woman. I don't have the same mindset or the same schedule. So this might not have the exact same ending, the original plan was for a longer fight with Danzo, and a more gradual reveal of Madara's involvement, but I don't have the energy for more than what you see here.

End pairing? Take it as you will. Harem style. Poly style. Whatever you want, it's up to you now. Death of the author and all that. When I started writing this I was so squeamish about things like sex and attraction. I had to cringe reading parts of this, but I'm glad to see I've grown a little bit. I'm more excited about my current projects if you want to try your hand at something a little more mature.

Thank you lovely readers. I am so blessed by you guys. Thanks for making this community one I feel comfortable falling back into.