Chapter 10

Lose a bet

We had already left the hideout and were already halfway to sound.

It was extremely quiet in the forest, too quiet. I stayed close behind Itachi with Kisame right behind me. We were obviously thinking the same thing we were all anxious and on edge. Of course who wouldn't be, when this particular forest was usually lively and now I couldn't even hear the flapping of a birds wings.

"Stay on your guard, something isn't right," Kisame warned.

"No duh fish-face." I replied.

I closed my eyes, as we continued jumping from branch to branch, to concentrate on the sounds around us. I could hear the light taps as we landed and jumped off branches, the leaves swaying in the wind; the soft sound of the river flowing down to a steep waterfall. I could smell the soft mist from the river, the musky smell of the forest.

I concentrated even harder to hear further. The tiny bugs flying around the river, insects climbing up a tree or running across the ground; then a slight crunch as a leaf was stepped on and sunk into the ground.

My eyes snapped open and I jumped to the ground, taking out a kunai.

"On the ground five yards from the river, there are six ninjas, all male." I confirmed as Itachi and Kisame jumped down as well.

"Can you tell anything else?" Itachi asked.

"Three of them are underlings, Chunin at best. Other three are at ANBU rank at least. One medic, one with a eye related Genkai-Kenkai, and last one has a evil malic around him. Most likely Kabuto, Sasuke, and Orochimaru." I answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive, I know his chakra better than Naruto's. They've stopped moving."

"Damn she's good." Kisame complimented.

I suddenly heard a small slither in the grass from behind and threw my kunai through its head, pinning it to a tree, just as it went to bite Kisame.

A puff of smoke filled the area where the snake was just at.

"Orochimaru's summoning. They know we're here, and that we know they're here." I stated as I walked over to the tree and pulled out the kunai. I put it back into the hollister.

"Well lets go meet them, we don't want to make them wait." Kisame smirked as he jumped back into the trees with us behind him.

We ran to the river to come face to face with Sasuke, Kabuto and Orochimaru.

"Well well, she was right. There's those three alright, and the three underlings which are indeed Chunin. I'm starting to believe she is Akatsuki material." Kisame laughed.

"Sakura…what are you doing here, with those two?" Sasuke asked outraged, but trying to hide it.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, I'm Akatsuki now and I'm partnered up with fish-face and Itachi-san. Now Orochimaru, hand over the ring and we'll be off."

"Oh, so the little flower passed the test, now isn't that a surprise. Who did she have to fight?" Orochimaru asked with a hiss.

"Sasori of the red sand." Kisame grinned.

"I thought he was killed three months ago." Kabuto stated.

"Indeed he was, and who do you think killed him?"

"S-sakura killed him? Kabuto stuttered, shocked.

"That's right," I started "I told you he was dead. I defeated him and he told me about your meeting."

He stared at me as though I was standing there wearing nothing.

"Eww don't think like that!" Inner yelled.

I laughed in my head as I had to definitely agree with her.

"So are you going to hand over the ring or not?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

"If you want it, you're going to have to earn it." He said in his disgusting serpent tongue.

"You asked for it." I sneered as I concentrated chakra into my fist.

"How do you expect to beat me when the Kyuubi boy even couldn't?"

"Everyone has their own strengths, so I'll beat you my way."

He smiled as he licked his lips. "This is exactly why I chose you. You interest me greatly now. You're a medic with power and a fine woman at that. Why waste your time with the Akatsuki, join me and you can stay with Sasuke. And I can give you all the power that you'll ever need." Orochimaru said, a evil glint in his eyes.

"I think not." I smirked and punched the ground, causing the enemy to jump back to avoid the attack, and so the fight began.

Kabuto charged at me with a deadly medic chakra infused fist, as he got closer I infused my own medical chakra into my hand and jumped over him.

"Sorry, don't have time for you." I said as I ran at Orochimaru.

"Lord Orochimaru, don't let her touch you!" Kabuto yelled out in warning as Kisame stepped in front of him.

"You're fighting me boy, so you best get your mind set on me, or I'll end up killing you." Kisame laughed as he swung his sword at Kabuto, who barley dodged it.

I raised my hand as I got closer to the snake, when I was only a few feet away I swung my hand down aiming at his chest. Orochimaru was able to jump into the air to avoid the hit, so when my hand missed and went to the ground I refocused my chakra to my feet as I did a one –handed handstand, then using my fingers to spin my feet towards him I kicked Orochimaru in the chest and sent him flying around five hundred feet.

I stood, back to my feet, as Orochimaru came to a stop and stood as well.

"Strong willed, fast thinker, strong; stubborn…you're perfect." He laughed

"Pale skin, long greasy hair, blood lust; snake…you're disgusting. Tell me, did you end up this way because even your mother didn't want you?"

"Amusing aren't you. You stand before me, the man who took Sasuke-kun from you and you don't even flinch. You must be very brave. I remember when I first met you, as scared as a mouse."

"Ha! Only a fool would be scared of you. You have no power; you are far from being a threat."

"You dare."

"Yes I dare. You have no effect on me. I don't see why Sasuke went to you. Let me guess, all he's has learned from you is how to be gay. You're both pathetic." I sneered.

"Shut up Sakura!" Sasuke yelled as he fought Itachi.

"Oh, am I upsetting the two worthless snakes, good. You deserve a slap in the face."

"I said shut up!" he yelled again.

"But I don't want to, I feel like ranting and you're on the top of the list to diss. So deal with it Baka! And of course this…" I turned back to Orochimaru and ran at him and threw a punch, hitting him hard on the arms that he threw up to block at the last moment. It was another power punch of mine and it caused him to go flying once more. "…snake, that is the lowest of the low. Neither of you are worth my time so just give me the ring."

"Shut up! Itachi, what did you do to her!? She was never this cold. What did you do!?"

"Sasuke, your dear brother didn't do anything, it was you. The day you knocked me out and left me on a bench after saying 'thank you', you're the one who turned me cold, you're the one to blame; so don't be pushing it on Itachi, he's the good guy here."

"Good! Good! Do you know who you're talking about!? He killed his whole clan, my clan! And you're defending him!"

"Yes I do know all that, yeas I do defend him because unlike you he's token the time to acknowledge me! I will not let you blame him for something he didn't do, now take your own advice and shut up! I don't have the time for you and even if I did I wouldn't give it. Now be a good boy and run home, this isn't a place for a little baby!"

Kisame laughed as he listened in, and Kabuto, being the chicken he is, took this opportunity to run at Kisame with his hands glowing blue, and struck Kisame in the middle of his chest, causing him to fall to the ground gasping for air; affectively ending his laughter.

"Orochimaru, give me the ring."

"No. for a little girl you sure have a big mouth, that's probably your only weapon isn't it. You may speak big, but you can't deliver them. He laughed.

"Just try me." I warned.

"I plan on it, now why don't you just give up and come with me before I have to hurt you." He hissed and licked his lips again.

"Why don't you. I have better things I could be doing at the moment."

"Like what, getting fucked by the elder Uchiha."

I stared wide-eyed in horror, then started to choke when I tried to speak, it also caused Sasuke and Itachi to stop fighting as they too stared at the snake.

"Me…and I-Itachi…Ghaa the horror!" I said in between coughs.

"What nonsense are you trying to pull with that Orochimaru." Itachi demanded

"Oh, so your saying you haven't fucked her yet?" the snake asked Itachi.

"Eww! Don't say such thing, that's just plain out revolting! Don't ever say that! Eww!" I yelled totally grossed out.

"Do you wish to die so soon snake? Why would I lower my standards for this wench? How dare you even consider such a thought.

"Oh so you're both in denial how sad, well it's only a matter of time."

"What are you talking about?" Itachi and I said together.

"You'll just have to see when it comes."

"Look snake, it's obvious that I've hit you one too many times in the head, so snap out of it or I'll make you." I called as I charged at him once more and jumped into the air performing a super heel drop, but lucky for him he jumped back out of the way just in time as my heel landed where he was just at. A huge crater now lay under me.

"Now don't be rushing into something like that, you could get hurt." He laughed.

"Oh but on the contrary it is you that shall get hurt." I answered as I pulled out a kunai and threw it at his face with lightning speed.

He quickly ducked out of the way, but the tips of his hair got caught and pieces fell to the ground. He then did a few hand signs and a sword in a snake's mouth came out of his mouth and shot out at me. I jumped into a nearby tree getting out of reach.

As he retracted the jutsu back in, I ran through the trees and shot off of one of the branches and onto the ground, headed straight for him, chakra already in my fist that was ready to strike Orochimaru. He smiled as he saw me coming and did a few more hand signs and laid on his stomach and opened his mouth, hundreds of snakes came slithering out, all with swords in their mouths.

I jumped backwards into the air and with my chakra infused fists I fell back to earth and punched the ground, ridding many of the snakes. I got up and ran at Orochimaru, dodging around snakes or punching them out of my way. As I got closer I filled my fist with a deadly amount of electric chakra.

"Lord Orochimaru! Look out!" Kabuto yelled out as he continued fighting an injured Kisame, yet losing.

"You should be paying attention to your own battle medic, or this will happen all too often." Kisame called out as he slammed his sword into Kabuto's back and sent him flying right in front of me, causing me to jump back so I wouldn't get hit.

"Kisame watch where you're throwing that trash." I yelled as I continued to run at Orochimaru.

I threw a punch but the snake dodged it and sent snakes to attack me. I rolled to the left to dodge, but one of the snake's swords nicked me in the shoulder, and another was able to slice my leg. I jumped back up and continued to throw punch after punch. I would dodge a snake and try to punch him; he would dodge and send a snake to attack. This went on until finally after a few minutes I found an opening and struck him in the shoulder and his chest, oh so close to his heart, but missed.

He screamed in agony as he fell to the ground clutching his heart and gasping for breath.

"Damn I missed your heart, well either way your down, now give me the ring."

"No you stupid wench…what did you do…?" he gasped

"I sent an electric current through your body. It's what we use to restart the heart, when a living heart gets it by it, it will explode. Sadly I missed it, but I did hit a lung and since I also hit your shoulder, your blood is making more iron then it can handle and is rekilling your arm, once it's dead it will spread to your heart. I'd say it'll reach it by the weeks end, but I don't plan on letting you live long enough for Kabuto to heal you."

I grabbed out eight kunai, four in each hand, and threw them at him. Two went into his legs, two into his gut, and four into his chest.

"You bitch. I may just have to harm that pretty little body of yours." Orochimaru threatened.

"Just try it."

He charged at me, a kunai in his hand, I jumped out of the way as he threw the kunai, just getting a cut on the arm as it zipped by, and barely able to roll out of his way as he ran into the river, lost his footing on the slick rocks, and crashed into a bolder.

As he stood I saw a glint in his eyes, there was either something perverted or evil running through his mind, most likely a mixture of it. Boy was I right.

I charged at him, a senbons in hand, but stopped short as he wrapped his tongue around me.

"Ewwwwwwww! Get this off of me you sick pervert! This is so gross! I yelled, trying to keep breakfast down, which was hard as every time I struggled it got tighter and tighter.

"Is that all it takes to beat you, you're a letdown as a kunochi." He laughed.

I snapped out of my grossed-out state I was in and glared daggers at him. "Hell no! if you think you've won, you are very much mistaken." I snapped at him.

Using the senbons that was in my hand, I forced chakra into my arm and thrust it upward. Slicing straight through his tongue.

As his tongue fell to the ground, covering me in blood, I jumped over his head and into the river, and did a back hand kick to his back. He once again went flying away from me.

Out of the corners of my eyes I saw Itachi slash Sasuke in the gut with a kunai, covering them both with his blood. Then through the other eye I saw Kabuto kick Kisame in the ribs with a chakra infused foot, strong enough to break a few. He then grabbed a needle from his pouch, yellow liquid in it, and thrust it into Kisame's leg.

I smirked as I knew the liquid would cause some internal damage, and with that I would win the bet. I jumped over to them and kicked Kabuto away and stood in front of Kisame.

"Kisame, why don't you just sit out and rest. I can handle them. Like I said, Kabuto would kill you. In you condition, I win the bet, and I get to finish both of our fights. As I am the doctor here, the doctor says go sit on the sideline and leave this to me. It's obviously a woman's job." I teased as he looked at me dumbfounded, horror in his eyes.

"Yo Kabuto, your new opponent is me. I'll be fighting you and Orochimaru." I yelled as I turned away from Kisame.

"You think you can fight both of us and survive?" Kabuto asked, shock written all over his face.

"Nope, I know I can fight both you two and Sasuke and not have any severe injuries." I smirked.

"Okay girl, I'm getting real tired of your mouth moving and sound coming out of it. You don't know what you're saying. Not even your dear Itachi-kun could do that." Orochimaru said angrily.

"That's because I, unlike Itachi, am a medic. So I can heal during a battle and still fight." I said.

Then all of a sudden a shuriken shot right past me, skimming my right cheek. I turned to see Itachi's hand lowering, but as I was opening my moth to retaliate Itachi beat me to talking.

"What are you implying with that statement? Do you really think you're a better fighter than me?"

"No I'm only implying that if I get injured in battle I can continue to fight and heal myself at the same time, while you would have to wait till the end of the battle to tend to your wounds, if you even get any." I quickly explained.

He only glared for a second then went back to beating the shit out of Sasuke.

"Now are you going to hand over the ring or do I have to do to you what Itachi is doing to Sasuke?"

"You can't do anything Itachi can do, so I guess you might as well as surrender, and I'm not handing over the ring." Orochimaru said as he was still trying to get control of his breathing.

"Then get ready." I called as I ran at them

Kabuto and I met in the middle; both with chakra infused fists, and began an intense battle. It looked a lot like the Hyuuga's gentle fist, but far from it, and much more deadly.

I would throw a hit, but he would block it with his own hit, then our chakras would cancel each other's out. We were both aiming to kill, always aiming at the organs that would kill if one didn't have it, but no matter what, we could never land a hit, and when we did we would just heal it.

This went on for several minutes until we jumped apart to catch our breath.

"…You're…good for…a lackey…" I said between puffs of breath.

"…You too…Tsunade…Hime…has taught you…well…very well…"

"But of course, she is the legendary Tsunade." I replied, still a little breathy

I ran at him once more, catching him off guard, he was barley in time to block my attack.

"Move or I'll kill you along with your Lord Orochimaru." I threatened as he only continued to fight me. "Okay you asked for it."

I jumped back, and slammed my fist into the ground, causing a crater to form under his feet, he lost his footing as I ran at him, and with electric chakra I struck him right at the heart.

In a millisecond his eyes grew large, horror struck, and then he fell dead to the ground.

"I warned you, but you didn't heed my word. Now look at yourself, dead. Well you died a fine death, just on the wrong side." I said as I stared into his lifeless eyes.

I kneeled down and pulled his eyelids down, closing his eyes, now he only looked like he was in a really deep sleep. One he'll never wake up from.

"Orochimaru, hand the ring over or you're next." I yelled, standing back up.

"I'm smart enough to know when to call it quits. Sasuke." Orochimaru yelled.

Sasuke looked mad, but nonetheless jumped back out of his fight and landed next to Orochimaru. The said snake then reached into his robes and pulled out the ring and tossed it to me.

"You've won for now, but I will have you on my side." He claimed as he and Sasuke were surrounded by flames and disappeared. As I turned I saw that Kabuto's body had also disappeared.

I turned to look at Itachi and found him staring at me.

"what are you looking at, I'm not some animal on display you know, so turn around and stare at something else why don't you." I said as calmly as I could.

He did not turn or look away, instead his stare intensified. "Do not be ordering me around girl. I'm still ahead of you when it comes to Akatsuki order. Crimson is second while sky is at the bottom. You best learn your place and fast." Itachi replied in that emotionless tone of his.

"I know my place, and it's no beneath you. I could even say it's right with you, if not above."

Before I knew what had happened I was thrown back onto my back, arms pinned above my head, and a larger body sitting on top of me.

"You think so; you didn't even see me move. How can you claim to be a ninja, your skills are pathetic if you can let one win go to your head…what are you doing!?" he demanded as he jumped off of me.

"Well I knew you would never let me heal your wounds, so I provoked you to come to me, and when you made contact I sent in my healing chakra into you and the rest you know. Now of what I can see, I sent in enough to stop the bleeding and close the wounds, so my job here is done. Only person left is fish-face." I explained as I stood up and dusted the dirt off my clothes.

I made my way over to Kisame and laughed when I saw him. He had tried to crawl over to the battle, but ended up tangling himself up in leaves as his foot got stuck in a hole. It was obvious he had tried to roll out, but that had only made it worse.

"Are we having some trouble?" I asked all too sweetly.

"Go away bitch, I don't need your help!" he yelled

"You sure? If you keep rolling like that you're going to break your ankle."

"I'm not going to break anything except your head!"

"Sure you are, just keep rolling, see what happens." I warned.

"I am." He yelled again. Indeed he rolled and rolled, trying to loosen his foot, but it never happened, instead there was a snapping sound and he immediately stopped rolling.

"You broke your ankle didn't you?"

"No!" he answered all too quickly.

"…"

"I didn't"

"…"

"I didn't break my ankle!"

"…"

"Okay-okay I broke it, now stop glaring and fix it already!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Fine, please fix it."

"Much better." I happily replied and walked over to him.

I carefully lifted his foot out of the hole and set it in my lap. I then concentrated healing chakra into my hands and sent it into his ankle.

"Now this is going to hurt, I need to reset the bone." I warned as I grabbed his foot and twisted it forward, placing it back in place.

"Damn it bitch, that fucken hurt!"

"I warned you." I answered as I healed it. "Okay now I have to do the same to your leg and arm. They need to be reset so bear with me."

I grabbed his leg and without giving him time to protest I twisted it, setting it back to normal, then grabbed his arm and did the same to it.

"Damn it! Enough, I have no other broken bones now heal them already you stupid wench!"

"You best watch how you talk to your medic; we don't take well with that type of talking."

"…Just heal them."

"…"

"Please."

I sent healing charka trough his leg and within five minutes it was healed, then did the same with his arm. Once that was done I was able to set my hands on his chest and begin healing his internal injuries.

"Kami, does it have to hurt so much? He complained

"Stop your whining. It's annoying, and I won't put up with it."

"Well if you would just dull the pain…"

"You're Akatsuki; pain shouldn't be anything new for you. How in the world did you even become Akatsuki?"

"You're one to talk…Ow! What was that for?"

"You know how I became one, and why I did it, so no I'm not one to talk."

"Stop bickering already. Hurry up and finish healing him. I want to head out as soon as possible." Itachi ordered as he jumped into a nearby tree to keep watch.

"Okay you heard him, stop your complaining so I can concentrate, if you don't I'll have to knock you out."

"Just make it quick."

I smiled a devious smile and set back to healing his lung, ribs, and stomach.

"Owwwwwww! You're…doing that…on purpose." He yelled between breaths trying to deal with the pain.

"I'm just trying to heal you quickly, so just deal with it."

After several long minutes, and a lot of fish complaints, I was able to heal the internal bleeding and get everything back into working order.

"Take off your shirt, I need to bandage you up." I ordered.

"What for, you've healed me."

"Everything is still tender, and this will keep your movement in order so that you don't rebreak anything. And it'll lessen the after pain. Now stop questioning the doctor."

He gave a glare, but gave in as he pulled off his shirt.

I pulled out wrappings from my medic pouch and wrapped him up good and tight.

"There all done, now I need you to take this pill. It's a blood pill; you've lost a lot of blood so we need to restore it."

He popped it into his mouth without any question and stood up, before doubling over in pain.

"Kisame, get over the pain or hide it, we're leaving. You best keep up, we aren't slowing till tonight." Itachi explained as he took off towards the base.

"Damn Uchiha. Always pushing me around, telling me what to do. One of these days I'm going to take his place as favorite and beat him."

"Well until that day, just try and put up with it, you're not alone anymore. I'm here too and I just used up most of my chakra, how am I supposed to keep up with him. Geez all Uchiha are crazy slave drivers." I agreed.

We looked at each other and laughed, just the thought of dissing the older Uchiha was scary funny, but when you find two people that agreed about the same thing on said Uchiha and not get caught was hilarious.

"Well let's get going before Mr. I-said-it-so-of-course-it's-the-law comes back and yells at us." Kisame said wisely.

"Yes, lets. I don't want to be on the receiving end of that explosion." I laughed.

I quickly helped him up to his feet and we set off after the elder Uchiha.

"This is going to become fun." My inner self said.

"I couldn't agree more Inner. I can't wait to get back to base."

"Yep we finally get to give Kisame back a piece of what he's been handing out."

"Tee-hee."

I came out of my head to see that Itachi was just a few yards ahead of us.

"Let the fun begin!" Inner and I said at the same time.

A/N: Yay another chapter up for you all, I hope you enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter.