Many people would complain about the cold, the frosty chills that were barely kept outside in the night.
Many would have given up, just not seen the point and drawn the kunai to their neck without hesitation.
But many were not Sakura Haruno, one who had cheated death, and the one who would be the strongest Shinobi ever.
She had made it her goal-no her absolute ambition, to bring justice to him
She would avenge him. She would avenge the man that she loved once, the one who died protecting her.
She felt tears spring to her eyes at the thought, so she pushed it back, but let her plan form in her mind.
She felt the presence's behind her, and she let out a bit of tenseness in her shoulder's, it was Jugo and Kimimaro, she had grown quite familiar with these two in this past week.
And shockingly enough, despite her more depressed nature, she had managed to make friends with them. She would need their help as well, if she was going to do this, she would need the help of these two.
But first, she needed to inquire to them if they were even willing to help, for she did not know how far she could stretch this 'familiarity' that they had developed.
"Jugo, Kimimaro, may I inquire to you something?" She asked raising her voice above the blistering wind as she sat on top of the roof of the hotel.
"Of course Sakura-San what troubles you?" Jugo, he had a funny way of talking, he was always so unbelievably polite.
"Speak." Kimimaro didn't really bother her with his form of speech, he was short and to the point, he never beat around the bush unless it was on purpose.
She took a deep breath, steadying herself for the words that were about to leave her mouth. "I made a promise to someone once, it was a silent promise, but it was still there."
Breathe.
"Him and I had a mutual care for that place, and we vowed that we would never intentionally hurt it. But, I'm afraid that I can no longer keep this promise to him..."
Breathe.
"That place, it took everything from me. It took him away from me, and w-while I cannot get him b-back,"
Deep breath...
"I-I can avenge him. I can bring them t-to their knees." Choked breathe.
"They will see, that I am no person to fuck with." She clenched her teeth together as they took up the spots on her sides.
Their eyes scanned the large vastness of white before them, unblinking as the snow continued to hit their faces.
It was Jugo who spoke first. "What is it exactly you need our help with?" His voice was calm as he continued to look at the powdered covered mountains.
She didn't hesitate. "The fall of Konohagakure No Sato."
They didn't flinch, they just continued to remain silent. As the seconds ticked by Sakura's anxiety got higher, and her breathing quickened.
One hand was set on her right shoulder. Jugo.
It was, however, Kimimaro who spoke next. "What is it though, that you want from us?" His voice sent chills down her spine, and she had to keep the shudder inside.
And as more tears flowed freely down her face, only one answer came to mind. And she wouldn't change it for the world.
"Don't leave me."
Another hand was set on her left shoulder. Kimimaro.
"Never..." They said together.
And you couldn't really blame her for the tears that followed after that.
~*~*~*~*~
A week had passed since Itachi's sudden attack. And while the week passed everyone's anxiety continued to get higher.
He had yet to wake up after a week. Tsunade checked on him every day, and she would always pull her hands away from him with a shake of her head. Muttering along the lines of 'deteriorating lungs' and 'stupid Uchiha bastard'.
"Hey blonde bitch, when will the Uchiha wake up from his long-ass nap?!" Hidan snapped at the older woman.
She didn't answer and completely disregarded his rude words, instead, she continued to walk, away and out of the room that they had rented.
The room became silent as the four awake men looked at each other, their insides churning at the silent response they received from the worlds best medic. Whatever had been going through her head was most certainly not good. Typically she would retort back with a response that was sure to leave a sting, but now she would only leave the room silently muttering things and shaking her head.
After the silence began to be too much, Kakuzu spoke.
"We need to go back." He closed his eyes and folded his hands beneath his chin.
Silence ensued again as the statement settled heavily on them. It was true they needed to go back, and soon. Their Leader was already not happy with them, and with the events that had just taken place, he was sure to be even more upset than last time.
Sasori was the first to shoot back. "To where? To Leader-Sama, who is sure to kill you, because you put Itachi in this state?" Hidan nodded and Kisame sighed looking worriedly at his still unconscious partner.
Kakuzu himself sighed and glared at the puppet. "You know just as well as I that he cannot kill me," This was where Hidan was about to make a smart-ass comment but was interrupted by the hand on his mouth. "for various reasons. One of them being that he needs me, he would not be able to complete the Bijju extraction without me or any of you for that matter." They all knew that was true, so they nodded and continued to listen. "Secondly he needs every member he can get, as he is planning on invading Konoha soon, and if my memory doesn't deceive me he will be at the location in approximately two weeks."
"And if any of you have half a brain," He stood and grabbed his cloak, swinging it over his shoulder.
The implication that was to come was left unsaid, they knew. And Kakuzu, knowing who he was talking to, spoke the words anyway, just in case it didn't get through their fucking heads.
"You will be there unless you want to be slaughtered when he does get his hands on you..." He left the room and went to what they assumed was the bar downstairs as he had been doing for the past week, drinking away his guilt. They lowered their heads as the door slammed shut after him, the guilt ate away at them as well.
Kisame could not fathom the feeling in his chest, it was tight and just overly crowding. It made a knot form in him, and he couldn't help the tenseness that gathered in his body. He knew somewhere in him that this was partially his fault if he had listened to his heart rather than his Leader everything would be fine. They had all been ordered to kill Sakura, and even when he succumbed to darkness he couldn't escape the green eyes that held that look of utter betrayal.
Soon after he could no longer stand the suffocating aura the room held and left, he needed to find something to eat, or kill. Maybe a brothel, at this point he just wanted his body to be doing something so his mind would leave for a little bit.
Sasori was the next to leave that room, his thoughts were less muddled and more collected but they were all directed at one thought in particular:
He was an awful creation.
That girl, the one who had caused him so many problems, yet the one that had managed to make her way into somewhere inside of him, was somewhere out there. And if by Tsunade's assumptions, she was in dangerous territory wherever she went.
The chances of her being alive when-if they found her, were very slim.
He caught himself at the when. He would not let his mind think that there was hope for something that there simply was not. If she was dead, she was dead, he would not be held down by a when.
Because if the 'when' never came, they'd be stuck in a false reality that would be on a loop forever.
And that was one world he did not wish to exist in.
Finally, Hidan was left in the room alone, he groaned as his eyes drifted to the unconscious form that lay still on the bed. He almost found it gross, but couldn't bring himself to say the words, whether it was disrespectful or not. The seriousness of the whole situation must've made its way into his system this time. He just couldn't bring himself to make a smartass comment about the Uchiha-bastard right now.
His eyes drifted to the window then, scanning the small and too-quiet-town they were stationed in for now. Their next move was still at large, and they had no idea what they were going to do. His eyes narrowed perceptively as the door opened behind him. Probably puppet boy, coming back to give him an earful of bullshit that he didn't want to hear.
"Listen here stick, I already know that I majorly fucked up alright?! You don't have to come back and rub it in my face! And I'm not the only one either! So don't you try and pin this shit on me! You're not innocent either!" He spun on his heel only to not find Puppet-boy but rather a dazed Shizune, who stopped about two feet away from him her arm outstretched.
His thoughts stopped abruptly as he made eye contact with swimming black orbs. They were a comforting dark color, and he had never been so entranced by a pair of eyes.
Somewhere in the back of his head, a voice told him that the arm, and the hand at the end of it, was for him. That she was reaching for him, she was here for him.
Another part of him, the larger louder part told him that the notion was absolute shit, but he wouldn't let the words shake away.
She's going to save me...
He wasn't thinking, that had to be it. He wasn't thinking properly.
That's why she was in his arms right now.
That's why she was pressed against his bare chest.
That's why he was whispering his problems in her ear.
That's why her hands were in his hair.
He wasn't thinking straight.
This moment of weakness would come back to bite him in the ass, he knew, better than most. But he couldn't bring himself to pull away from her small body, or the warmth that seemed to radiate from it.
"This is all my fault, and it's too late to fix it." He said quietly, the guilt from what he had done to Sakura becoming too much to bare.
"It's never too late..." She said, her voice quivering.
Those words would be the ones that would set him straight.
The ones that dragged him from a bath of blood that he was sure to wallow in for the rest of his miserable life.
And he didn't know whether to thank her or kill her for the feeling that hit him like a ton of bricks.
~*~*~*~*~
Danzo Shimura was not a patient man, he knew when he wanted things, and he knew that if he did not get them quick, he could be a bit out of hand.
This was one of those cases he was sure, without a doubt. He had been waiting for a response from that Snake Sannin for more than a week now, and he was getting impatient. He could not help the almost non-existent tick that was on his forehead. With his hands folded beneath his chin, he scanned the room, noting the cracks that were beginning to take place on the walls.
He needed to hurry, his plan needed to happen soon.
He needed Sasuke Uchiha's eyes. After he killed Itachi, he would take the elder brother's eyes, just as planned. Danzo had faith that if he asked, Sasuke would join him and he would be his slave. In a sense, Sasuke would have no choice but to listen to him, he would end up being the only one that the boy could trust.
But in all reality, he would be Danzo's ultimate puppet.
He would not escape, and he would make sure that all of Konoha fell to him. This would be what he was waiting for his entire life, everything that he had been waiting for. Now was the time, and shortly his reinforcements should be showing up within the next week to discuss the plan. And while he was sure that he would be able to complete it even without their help, he needed them for an entirely different reason as well.
He almost laughed at how easy this was, everyone was under his thumb, clueless as to what was about to happen. It was the epitome of masterpiece, all put together and absolutely flawless. He closed his eyes, and behind them, he found his old Sensei that hereditary frown still on his face.
Disappointment was a thing that he had never had to experience. He had been the prodigy of his squad when he was younger, but Lord Second could not see the potential that he held, and perhaps that had been the underlying bitterness that had always clung to him.
His Sensei had always been far too obsessed with the Uchiha that was on his team, seeing potential, and grace within that body. Even though Tobirama Senju had originally hated the Uchiha, he seemed to have taken a liking to that particular one, even Sarutobi had been more favored than he.
He couldn't help but think idly that his former Sensei's hate for that clan may have rubbed off on him just a tad. While he didn't hate them how he had, he still did not like them. That was why he requested the death of that filthy clan, all for the better of Konoha he had said. That was a load of shit he knew, and he had set everything into motion, with the help of Itachi that is. Without that boy, the day they all died would've just seemed like an execution by Konoha. With the help of Itachi, he had conjured up the perfect facade, it was flawless, 'Shinobi Prodigy gone insane from the pressures and hardship's of ANBU kills entire clan.' He couldn't help the mirthless laugh that escaped him at the thought.
He would rule this village, and with it, he would rule the Shinobi world, and he would finally be seen for the Prodigy that he truly was.
It was just a matter of time now, and waiting was all it took.
With a stirring mind and clouded morels, Danzo sat as he waited for a response from the Snake.
~*~*~*~*~
He could run all he wanted.
He could try and hide.
He could even try death, but he wouldn't get away.
This place was awful, it was always dark and it never ended, it was like there was floor underneath his feet, but there were no walls, there was no food, this place was empty and shattered glass littered the floor.
His nightmare's lived here, and he fought them for the unexplainable amount of time that he was here. they would come back, and he would see the blood and the corpses, and the unheard screams that echoed through-out his mind late in the night. This place was terrible and he screamed and cried and ran and killed, but he could not get away. He was here, and he was not allowed to leave.
The voices, oh god the voices, they whispered in his ear and drove him insane, they would not leave, and he couldn't remember what silence was. He screamed for them to leave, begged and prayed, but the voices of the dead haunted him.
"Itachi..." They moaned for him to help them, they screamed and cried out to him, he covered his ears, but they just got louder.
"Go away!" He would scream, tears streaming down his face. He had never felt the need to die so powerfully, this was sickening. He had tried to, he had clawed at his neck, he had slammed his head into the ground more times than he could count, but he would always wake up, he would always be fine when he came to and this endless shell would still surround him.
"Watashi No Ai..." He screamed louder
"I love you..." He cried harder, slamming his hands over his ears.
"Sakura..." He clawed at his throat, and he met the darkness that never seemed to leave him.
~*~*~*~*~
Oof, I hope you like it! Leave me comments and votes, please!
-lovesnaruto7