"What about what she's just gone through?"
Itachi narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean?"
"You've broken her heart, Sasuke's done the same. What do you think all this emotional pain could go to?"
"If she handled the first break, she can handle the next one."
"You put too much faith in her, I hate to say. Remember when you guys both came back from the mission for the Jinchuuriki? She nearly stabbed herself! And that was when she wasn't even thinking of her heartbreak."
Itachi was doubting himself more and more, with every word Deidara said.
"…Fine, how about we check up on her. Silently, of course, and see how she's doing."
Deidara seemed satisfied with that. Plus he couldn't wait to see Sakura again. He really hoped she was doing fine.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Kay, seriously? I'm not even quite sure if I left off here. Tell me if I make a mistake. And if you're like 'where the hell have you been?' Mmm…one answer: Exams. They'll kill you…anyways, thank god they're done, and I have a freak-load of fanfics I gotta update .'
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
The Akatsuki quickly crept in the shadows, swift and clean. They were professional assassins. Stealth was what they needed to have in order to make it out alive in some mission scenarios. They had to never make a mistake…which is why it was a good thing that this wasn't a mission, because Tobi seemed to making quite a few mistakes.
"Ouch!"
"Tobi, you idiot, that's the 6th time you've failed to dodge the senbon while not giving your hiding spot!"
"Tobi can't help it…" Tobi whined, apologizing.
"Deidara, go easy on him, he can't help it if he's a worthless kid." Kisame bluntly said.
"Thank you, Kisame." Tobi said with exuberance, starts shining from his eye animatedly.
Deidara shook his head and massaged his forehead to try and soothe the bad headache to leave. It wasn't working.
"Why, Kami-sama, did you have to give me an idiot for a partner to such an extreme that sometimes I feel like strangling myself!" He cursed, kneeling on the ground, fake crying.
"Such displays of fake drama issues truly show and elaborate how feminine you are." Itachi monotonously said while coldly walking by him.
Deidara was about to retort when Kisame gave him the 'no' signal fervently, by waving his hands elaborately. Deidara understood and caught his tongue before he was asking for a death wish. Though Deidara was very touchy and aggressive when it came to his gender issues and he did usually stand up and fight easily about it, it wasn't worth it this time. To die a terrible death from Itachi filled with torture and all that good stuff or stating your reason of you being a guy instead of a girl…hmm, tough choice.
Cursing his defeat, he continued to walk with the others. The air around them was soon tense. Itachi was definitely not improving from last time. Ever since Sakura left, Itachi was being more and more of a robot…or a walking zombie…or a cold hearted executor….or maybe all of those options into one. It was truly terrifying.
The walk was in silence which made it awkwardly quiet. Even the neither birds, nor animals made a noise.
All of them the way there other than Itachi had one trained thought on their minds.
'Oh man…this is going to be a really long walk…'
OOOOOOOOOOO
Sakura sidled to the side of the cave, trying to make a mental priority list of what things she should start first. Unfortunately, not much was running in her mind of things to do. She needed to find food, but there was a tree growing fruit just next to the cave, so finding anymore was unnecessary. She thought of getting materials around to create a sort of softer mattress, heck, anything would work better than the hard stone of the cave foundation. That left…not much, really.
"Sigh…"
Sakura looked around from where she was sitting and heaved another sigh. She supposed that she'd better get up now and do something. Her muscles were aching and cramped from never moving for an extensive period of time.
Stretching a little bit before submitting into actually doing something, she thought care-freely of what to do first. Her stomach growled so she walked to the fruit tree and plucked a couple of apples, eating them slowly. As she was digesting the fruit, she was also digesting in her mind what he just recently happened. She had realized her true feelings for Sasuke, actually made out with him, and even more incredibly by that fact; she had gotten a confession that he had said he loved her back. She shook her head a little vigorously, this was Sasuke she was talking about; SASUKE. It just didn't add up. Why on earth would Sasuke say that? Wasn't it the last time she basically saw him that he called her 'annoying' yet again? She was just so confused.
After eating, she walked around and gathered some dry wood and branches near the area, thinking all the way and thinking of many questions…but finding no answers. Would the Akatsuki truly keep their word and not hunt her down? Was Sasuke truly in love with her? It hardly seemed believable… What would she tell the others-Ino, she knew, didn't like Sasuke anymore, but she would probably keep on pestering her about her choice and if it was really the right move. Ino as well as herself knew more than anyone else that Sasuke was the king of heart-breakers.
Sakura sighed once again out of both confusion and tiredness. Just what was her world coming to? She shook her head in disbelief and resignation. She gave up on this whole entire situation. Looking at the sky, she saw it becoming darker. Thinking of what to do next, the pink haired girl came to a conclusion. She'd take a bath, it would be wonderfully relaxing from all her problems.
Walking to the stream point that was nearest to the cave she was staying at, she stripped all her clothes and gingerly stepped in the water. It felt cool to her touch, but when fully submersed, it was soothing. Sakura longed for a hot bath in Konoha and missed it. Going to the Akatsuki's, she had forgotten the sensation in such hot waters. It would be nice to hopefully go there again. If what she believed was right, then Sasuke and the others were here to go fetch her back. It gave her a small glimmer of hope that Tsunade would accept her back from her betrayal. Perhaps this was what Sasuke felt? By accidentally (on her part at least) going on the wrong side-betraying the village, and not knowing how to come back. She had never had to worry about these problems before. She was the one in the village that was most known to being loyal.
She honestly felt like crying, Sakura needed a way of relieving this stress, her weak feeling was certainly a disgusting feeling to her. She never liked that feeling one bit. To her surprise her vision was getting a little foggy. At first she panicked because she thought it was symptom of a poison that at time made you become blind, but after realizing what it was she smiled a little bit-it was a little sad one. She was crying.
"Pathetic" she whispered.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Gasp! Itachi-san, can we PLEAAASEEE take a break now?!" Deidara gasped-correction, begged. He hated to admit it, but this 'expedition' they were doing, this small trip to check on Sakura, not quite what he had in mind. It was proving to be a lot harder than he figured. When he voiced out the opinion to check, he thought decent breaks, taking their own pace, stopping once in a while. Itachi had single-handedly modified the word: Trip, to back-breaking and no breaks whatsoever. That's right, they had never stopped ONCE. At times he'd even force them to speed through the forest with chakra from their feet. Itachi was cruel, all the members of Akatsuki knew this very well, they just didn't think he'd be cruel and merciless to his own comrades so easily-from a walk!
Itachi stopped dead in his tracks, causing all the rest to stop too and Tobi to run into Itachi, who was behind him, causing the others (not including Zetsu, Kisame and some of the others) to wince. They were prepared for his wrath but he uttered very quietly the word…
"Fine…."
The other Akatsuki members were relieved; even Zetsu and Kisame, though they'd never voice their opinion out.
They had all fallen asleep almost automatically. Itachi shook his head 'weak…' He knew he wasn't the one to be very optimistic about this trip at the beginning-heck, he was the one who had been the most intolerable of the rest about checking up on Sakura, but now….now he was feeling as though he needed to get as fast to her as possible. He admitted it himself; he really did like her and shunning her away was a pretty cruel thing to do 'Tch, ironic how I feel sympathetic-SYMPATHETIC! Now. That has never happened to me before' but he couldn't help but feel nervous. Something big was going to happen. He just felt that he really needed to tell her how he felt, though how totally absurd this whole epidemic had turned out and how she completely made him feel different, both to his detest and liking, he wanted to tell her. It felt as though something was about to happen-something bad.
Looking back his shoulder, he saw his 'fellow teammates'. He grimaced, regretting to even bring them. He knew they were tough when it came to fighting and sometimes even speed and endurance, but they didn't have the same type of will power he did. His mind was made up, he'd go ahead of them; they would only drag him down if he didn't.
OOOOOOOOO
Sasuke looked out the window of the same inn he was in previously. He heard Naruto snoring on his bed, but did his best to ignore it. The stars were shining brightly outside, just like her smile had been the last time he'd seen her.
"Sakura…."
He'd honestly failed himself. He'd fallen for her, even when he said he wouldn't and said he was just using her. This wasn't how he had planned this. But deep inside…he honestly didn't even care if Itachi would think of him now as 'weak' or 'pathetically stupid' for falling for a person and actually feeling something for another human being, but…he felt that he didn't even care anymore.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Itachi skillfully jumped from branch to branch. It was graceful and silent. Though only a few people would actually be able to jump at such a speed and such expertise, Itachi wasn't even trying, in fact…he was actually thinking of a different thought, not even of what he was doing.
He was a little confused; he'd say that much regretfully. He should've never gotten so close to that girl. This was such a big mess. He felt as though he needed to Sakura as fast as possible, his legs propelling even faster to an almost inhuman speed was an evident enough proof of his urgency, but he was still scrambling in his thoughts of what he would do when he got there. It was very discomforting.
Would he kill her? It probably would settle the problem, but others would arise. He would never forgive himself. ('Jeez' he thought 'I'm getting so much weaker and stupid…') He figured he could tell her how he really felt about her, as he'd originally thought, but easier said than done. Uchiha's, apparently, just weren't cut out with all this love drama stuff.
He ripped himself from those thoughts as he felt he was getting closer to her. He could feel her chakra, there was something wrong though. Forcing himself to go faster even from the giant protest from his muscles as they were already tired from going nonstop at such a speed, he ignored it.
'The chakra almost seemed…'
Almost there….
'Heartbreakingly sad…'He thought as he'd stopped right where he saw her. She was in the stream, crying. It wasn't a crying that seemed to make you sob incoherently, it was one that just seemed to pour out of your eyes, everlasting in a way that was happy…yet sad at the same time. Itachi thought of her as beautiful as ever. Though she was in pain, he knew that if she cried it out this way, it'd feel much better in the end.
"Pathetic…" He heard her say. He snorted in his mind. The least thing he'd label her as.
After all his running and speeding through the woods-finally making it here, even without his comrades, all this way to see her like this, he agreed, it was worthwhile. Now people probably would label him as sadistic he really was. He did, it was something he wouldn't kill people for calling him (he'd kill them for other reasons…) if they'd call him sadistic for seeing Sakura crying and saying that it was beautiful, he'd stop them right there. Though he didn't know why, it just seemed peaceful and serene. It was something he couldn't explain. And he hated himself for thinking so.
He figured this would be the chance to finally tell her how he felt (A/N: OMFG! So corny and OOC! Forgive me T.T) his muscles clenched, and it wasn't from the many miles run he did previously. It was a war he was waging of himself. He wanted to go, but somehow he was unwilling to move.
He didn't really understand it, but he turned around and sad behind the tree he was using as cover. Sighing, he succumbed to sleep; let the others find him here. Though Deidara and Tobi probably were too much of knuckleheads to figure out where he went, there were Zetsu and Sasori with them.
Drifting off to sleep, he dreamt of his regretful decision and what would soon come in the future.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
His dream was of something approaching him. It seemed easy enough to overcome. But again, the same feeling that he had just recently discovered of not allowing to move came into play here as well. It was absolutely absurd.
He didn't like this feeling, and it would soon be his downfall, for that 'thing' that was approaching him was drawing even more near and would destroy him if he didn't kill it first. This 'thing' he assumed wasn't a person, rather an event, that was closing in on him. It seemed to represent some unsettling encounter coming closer to him. Again, he couldn't feel himself move. Growling in distaste, he was just about to be consumed in the black silhouetted outline of the shadows from this monster but was awakened by a rough shaking of him.
Opening his eyes faster than someone could blink, he drew his Katana from behind him and was about to swing it at the person, but stopped when he saw that it was only Deidara.
"I can't believe you were so out of it; usually you wake up before anyone could even approach you, un."
Itachi ignored him and looked to see that all the members were around him.
"It wasn't very nice to leave without us." Kisame commented, also ignoring Deidara's comment, though he did keep it in mind. It was very rare whenever you'd catch Itachi off guard.
"You guys were slow." Itachi blandly put his excuse up.
Kisame and the others got the idea to abandon the conversation, they knew it would be a futile attempt anyways.
"So what do you suggest we do now, since we've reached the Haruno girl." Zetsu asked in his normal quiet tone.
"What else?! We go up to her and see if she's alright!" Deidara burst in the conversation, none too subtly.
Itachi inwardly winced, seeing as from the night yesterday, walking up to her and asking if she was fine was not a walk in the park.
It was going to be a rough day…also he needed to think of what his dream really meant, whatever it was, it seemed to be a very strong omen.
OOOOOOOOOO
Sasuke decided he should confess to the others. It wasn't as much of a confession, more seeming of a…well whatever, he should tell them the truth anyways. As the others gathered around him, they shifted impatiently and in anxiety. Sasuke actually TALKING in a group of people was something that definitely didn't happen everyday.
Once everyone was gathered, he told them about Sakura (he didn't include the part of them making out or the part where he actually said he liked her, no…he had a limit to where his pride lay) Though he did find it agreeable to have Ino knowing, after all she would probably be the first to know and he also needed some help and advice on things. He had never even tried to be in a relationship with anyone. For the longest time, he had thought of relationships as preposterous and stupid.
He left the other members of the group, partially shocked of Sasuke talking that much in a day and also of Sakura actually being found.
Pulling Ino to a side, he took a deep breath and told her the other parts of the story.
Ino blankly blinked at him a few times and then did something quite unexpected. She started bursting out laughing, actually so hard that she was on the ground. Finally breathing a bit deeper a couple of times, she re-collected herself.
She lightly punched Sasuke at what he winced at. Not from it actually hurting, no, it was more of the fact that she had actually made physical contact with him. He still wasn't very used to others being so close to him.
She shook her head and smiled wistfully saying "I had no idea you could be so romantic and sickly sweet."
He scowled but quickly erased it. If he wanted Ino's cooperation, he'd need to not piss her off. He took a deep breath, for if he thought that his pride was lost a lot from telling Ino the whole story, there was more to be lost…
OOOOOOOOOO
At those simple 5 words, Ino was completely shocked all the way to the core. She was torn from mortification, denial, absurdity, and many other feelings. She just didn't see this happening.
Her major pull was to either laugh so hard that everyone from the whole village would hear this, or to either faint right on the spot. Her brain was hurting from the absorption of those 5 words.
"Ohhh my god, oh my god." Ino kept on repeating.
Sasuke looked at her funny. Maybe he should've beaten around the bush instead of coming straight out with it. She seemed to be having a problem with processing.
Her world was fading black, crap…guess it was fainting over laughing… she thought before she made contact with the ground.
OOOOOOOOOOO
Scrunches nose well then…I think the ending was a little obvious, curses!! I was trying to make it so no one would ever know what it meant, but APPARENTLY…well doesn't it look a little obvious? Can anyone guess the 5 words?
As I'd said in the middle of the story (yeah, sorry about that, I feel like I'm disrupting a movie right in the middle whenever I do that .) but everyone is terribly, TERRIBLY OOC in this story, I feel so baadddd!! DX it's turning out to be so freaking corny and disgusting, I'm…disgusted with it myself! Anyways, the next chapter will be the last one. I'll possibly put an epilogue (though I seem to hate putting one up) I haven't tried putting one up though, because this is my first fanfic I've completed and started, so I wouldn't mind trying.
ALSO: I went through like….20 minutes straight trying to figure out the difference between sadistic, masochist and some German but also an English word, Schadenfreude. Finally! I now know the difference between all…perhaps I took my research a bit extensively, but at least I now know what they mean!
PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK? GOING DOWN-HILL OR WHAT?