Inspiration: Try- Pink

"Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame. Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned. But just because it burns, doesn't mean you're gonna die..."

Pairing: SasuSaku, NaruSaku, & ItaSaku are your main pairings

Notes: Took a while to upload this, sorry about that lovelies. Reviews make me happy and i always appreciate them.

As always, Rice, you're a genius.

Theme: Romance/Drama

Rating: M for Mature: following themes are or will be present in this chapter or throughout the fic: some vulgarities such as language, sexual themes, humiliation, drugs, and other dark themes.

[You gotta get up and try, try, try~]

Kakashi was frustrated by their speed of travel. They were just moving way too slow. It would already be something like 2 days before they reached the last known spot that his team was spotted at.

Then, they would be required to search for them, which could take days more. He was worrying about their time frame now. Their window could possibly be closing, and they weren't covering enough ground.

They were moving at incredible speeds, but it just wasn't enough.

Thankfully, Sai was very adept at keeping up with his pace, and Kiba wasn't actually very far behind. They were, in theory, doing very well.

Yet they just weren't. Kakashi felt the rain soaking through his mask and clothes, and his hair was slick, stringy, and cold against his face. He had been ignoring it for their sakes. For Sakura and Naruto.

But it was becoming increasingly difficult. It had been a few hours, thus far, and they had made at least enough progress to warrant slowing down.

He cast eyes over to Sai and noticed that the pale, ex-root member was gazing back at him, as if he sensed Kakashi's thoughts.

"We should slow down," Kakashi called over the rain, casting a look back at Kiba, who seemed to be pushing the limit between the rain and his stamina. He was applying a small amount of chakra to keep up with their pace and it was beginning to drain his reserves. "Maybe in the meantime the rain will let up."

The thin artist at his side gave a nod, and they relinquished a fraction of their speed in an effort to reserve their strength and Kiba's chakra.

Kakashi peered out at the distance ahead, his sharingan eye spinning, his eyebrows knitting together. Naruto, Sakura, please be okay.

Sasuke was at his limit.

He had reached the very last thread of his tightly woven fear of being caught. Of being afraid to lose his brother, to outwardly accept the fact that he was very much still attached to his old teammates.

Deep inside, he knew he was cracking. More than just cracking, his resistance was washing away like rain washed away loose sand. He was losing the battle, standing in the middle of the meeting room with his shoulders tense and his jaw clenched.

And like so often happened, when he was surrounded by his misgivings, the darkness that sometimes made an appearance inside of him , something saved him.

"You need to go back to your room." Itachi's voice sounded. Like always, it was a beacon that drew him back from questioning himself.

He spun around, his sharingan eyes meeting the face of his idol, his family. Itachi stood, his expression the usual matte of understated emotion. Dignified and simple, his long hair laying limply over his shoulder, his arms hanging at his sides.

Sasuke honored him with a rehearsed frown, "I'm not going to do that." He said at last, his own emotions less controlled.

His older brother, lines drawn down his face making him look serious and imposing, barely frowned in response. "You are not reasoning clearly and it will cost you if you aren't careful. Go back to your room and think it over."

"What are you doing here, Itachi?" Sasuke questioned quietly.

"I intend to stop you from working up the courage to go in there and ruin the plan." His words were matter of fact and imposing.

Sasuke scoffed. "It's easy for you to say."

Itachi was an absolute exactness of reality. His lips quirked downward, this time into a very visible frown, which even that seemed clear and glorified. "You are foolish." He took a step closer, and they were standing somewhere around 5 feet from each other. A few steps away they were speaking in hushed tones. Like the moonlight over a pond, cliché, hazy and reflective of a mystery. "You do not have what it takes to save either of your friends. I will not participate in this fruitless quest any further."

A boiling rage of insecurity and fury came to the surface, the likes of which Sasuke couldn't stop even if he wanted to.

His motions were immediate, instinctive.

It was a move that would have been missed if he'd blinked, barely a flicker, just a second. His legs were extended, his ankle launched towards his brother ' s head, hands on the ground to support his weight, and his determined grimace stuck like stone.

Itachi was much faster and more fluid in his simple shutdown of the attack, his digits clasping around Sasuke's shin, halting it mid-air, well beyond being close enough to do damage. Several inches from his face.

An irritated hiss emerged from Sasuke's lips and he retreated; his brother releasing his leg without a fight.

He instantly launched a flurry of attacks, all of which his brother avoided by placing space between them, or in the occurrences that Sasuke did get in close enough to land a hit—he suspected Itachi let him close enough to do so—his assaults were ruthlessly dispelled with unassuming, agile counters.

A useless battle which should have been avoided out of respect for each other. Sasuke was annoyed at himself for even trying to fight his brother in the first place. He had never had the urge to do so in the past. Doing so at a time like this was questionable of his character. He thought he was better than picking fights with Itachi.

Quickly, he removed himself from his brother's presence with his breath coming rapidly and a small sheen of perspiration coating his forehead. They hadn't done much for him to get so worked up, but just the thought of his first serious argument with Itachi was getting him heated. The fact that Itachi was brushing him off without any strain, no difficulty whatsoever, was even more infuriating.

"Just let me do this." He said, his eyes shooting to the ground, for once not meeting the eyes of his bloodline signature across from him.

The voice that answered him was vacant of annoyance, of anger , or intolerance. It just sounded surprisingly brotherly. Low and leading. "Go back to your room. She can manage herself."

Sasuke could feel the hot air deflating, like a pin cushion, stuck with needles to all of his tense muscles. Itachi's words like acupuncture.

Mostly because, he knew, without any doubt, that the words were correct. He knew that Sakura could managed by herself and that he did need to return to his room. What he was thinking about doing was absolutely senseless.

He couldn't ruin their work and he couldn't just charge in and try to rescue them. Not this time.

No matter how guilty he felt—for whatever reason he felt guilty—he couldn't just throw away logic and bust in; Sasuke was not Naruto.

His brother must have sensed his breaking point, because he closed the distance between them, until they were an arm's length apart.

A silence settled in around them for a moment as Sasuke peered unseeingly at the wall just to the left of Itachi's shoulder, Meanwhile, his brother remained respectful of this momentary dissolving of his mental disarray.

And then he nodded, straightened his shoulders, and stepped around his brother without making eye contact. His usual serious, proud demeanor back in place, as he walked away. In the opposite direction of where he had heard the scream; where he knew they were.

In order to save them, he would have to be more tolerant. He couldn't act so impulsively, just this once, he would have to realize that this wasn't something he could easily do. He couldn't just go in and save her without trouble. Pein would most likely kill him, and her, and Naruto for that matter.

He carried himself humbly forward, without looking back at his brother who he knew was watching him walk away. Itachi didn't follow him, for a reason he didn't want to think about.

He didn't want to admit to himself just yet, that he had made a mistake. Another mistake, one of a million. This time, he'd attacked his brother abruptly, without thinking.

He couldn't say he blamed Itachi for not following him.

His hands were shaking nearly uncontrollably and adrenaline was coursing thickly through his veins. So much so, that his vision was clouding.

Breath coming heavy, Naruto watched in an onslaught of dread as Pein shifted his lavender eyes downward.

Naruto stifled the urge to pull at his chains again. How easy would it be to break them? To let Kurama give him the boost of power he needed to rescue Sakura and to get them out of this stupid cell.

He could kill Pein and all the other Akatsuki while he was it. If only he could let the power pulsing furiously inside of him free.

His orange colored eyes took in the sight of Sakura, but she wasn't meeting Pein's gaze. Rather she seemed to be peering into the distance. Stubbornly avoiding him.

Her boldness , which he loved so much every day, was currently making him very fearful. Didn't she know how dangerous it was? Naruto defiantly avoided the urge to give into his rage and break free. He clung with all of his being to Sakura's frame, in it's very dangerous place.

She was being cradled in those arms, but he couldn't see her face, and how he wanted to look into her green eyes.

Pein was not looking at either of them, rather he was blankly gazing out at the nothingness of the shadowed room, his arms still supporting Sakura, and his expression as empty as ever. Yet, Naruto felt compelled to see why; why he wasn't harming Sakura, why he wasn't starting something. He didn't want it to happen, but it seemed out of place, abnormal, that it wasn't happening either way.

His golden orange eyes flitted around the room, trying to peer into the darkness, to crack this code. The code of why Pein was being so very quiet.

Too quiet.

Too calm.

And then, the storm hit, like a tornado. His blood whirring in his ears as those orbs landed on the shape in the distance.

When it had gotten there, he didn't know. How or why it was there he didn't know.

But Naruto realized, very frighteningly, that they were not alone with Pein.

Someone had appeared, just over the shoulder of where Pein was, and just far enough beyond the reach of the light that Naruto couldn't pinpoint who they were.

It appeared they were right exactly where Sakura seemed to be gazing. As if she were looking straight at the person in the shadows. Naruto wondered if she could see them too.

Everything was oddly still, disturbingly quiet.

In contrast, Kurama was fighting inside of him, like waves crashing against a jagged cliff side, quickly wearing his resilience thin.

He suppressed it only because Pein began moving just then.

Slowing, like a setting sun, he turned lavender eyes towards Naruto, and afterwards, they shifted down to Sakura. Intentionally unhurried, almost taunting.

And the pink head of his best friend didn't raise to meet him, it seemed she didn't even notice that he'd moved. Rather she was peering out into the darkness still. Unmoving, barely breathing.

Naruto held his own breath as he worried for her. As he released the heavy puff of air, he said her name, like he always did. "Sakura?"

It was miserable, a horrible feeling, when she didn't stir. Not even slightly.

"Sakura!" He called again, more desperately this time, but it produced no results.

It was with great pleasure that Pein's arms slackened, and she slid further down his chest. Still entirely unresponsive.

The shape in the distance which Naruto had almost forgotten about, became quickly impossible to ignore.

Moving now; it was ghosting forward and Naruto removed his eyes from Sakura only for a moment to peer on at it. Tall, slim beneath a billowing Akatsuki cloak and with features that were shrouded in shadows coming to light, very familiar.

Naruto watched in stricken incredulity as the sight of a face he had thought about many times, appeared just behind Pein. They were walking briskly, and arrived quickly at Pein's side.

The frown that was on his face melted away, and instead Naruto just gazed on in disbelief, his arms finally going limp by his side, the chains rattling.

"Itachi?"

Long hair, heavy lines down his face and bags under his eyes, still the same aloof expression, reserved and indistinct.

Sasuke's older brother stood at Pein's side, his sharingan eyes spinning through the darkness, spiraling into Naruto's soul.

He could read nothing in those eyes, not one thing in that stature that would seem friendly, just an apparent detachment.

Pein didn't speak, didn't command or make any protest as Itachi reached forward and quickly swooped in. Effortlessly, he plucked Sakura out of the orange haired man's arms.

She went willing, stock still like a doll, her head still angled away from him so that he couldn't see her crystalline eyes.

Seeing Sakura curled up in Itachi's arms was an entire different feeling than seeing her in Pein's.

This was a different kind of pain and foreboding. There was also jealousy now deep inside of Naruto and a heavy disapproval that made his frown return. His fighting spirit began burning again with vengeance.

Just like he had done already, he took a step back, removing himself from the light. Itachi faded back into the shadows as if he was born from them, taking Sakura with him, without a word, without a glance or a moment's hesitation.

And Pein took no part in explanation.

Naruto reared up, his muscles fighting against him. "Where did she go?!"

Pein finally seemed to be acknowledging him at this point, turning with a void expression. "We have business to attend to."

It was like a bucket of cold water; utterly silenced, ignored. His question left unanswered, disrespected.

He only managed to calm himself by attempting to remind himself of what the blue skinned man said.

He had to trust that Sakura would be fine and he had to somehow accomplish containing his anger. If he wasn't careful, something might happen to Sakura, especially now that she was out of his sight.

He couldn't manage to spot Itachi in the darkness anymore and it was tremendously worrisome.

The darkness shielded him from view, and just as he'd never heard the Uchiha come, he didn't hear him go either.

He could only assume there was some reason Itachi was being included in this, some greater scheme.

And he still couldn't quite give up on hoping that the older brother of his old teammate was still on their side, as he hoped Sasuke would also return to them; to help them escape and come with them.

Maybe it was foolish, but believing was what Naruto did best.