AijinMegami: Hiya, I'm back! I was working on my winter break homework when I realized that I have severely neglected my fanfiction stories. Here ya go with the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it!

I don't own Naruto!

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"Release me at once!" a voice snapped. Fangs glistened against the darkened moonlight and nothing could hinder the anger that was spewing out of her slit emerald eyes. Wildly, she tried to claw at her captor, but he easily danced away, aided by the confines that held her. Angrily, she hissed against him, but could only draw backwards when he reached out for her through the bars.

He sneered at her. "You believed you could escape me?"

She said nothing, glaring angrily at him from against the other side of the cage. The seals prevented her from breaking out and seemed to glow threateningly through the dark. They promised pain if she were to even dare think about escaping from her confinement,

"You have no right to do this to me!" she roared, her claws itching to scratch out those damn glowing red eyes. The moonlight seemed to reflect her luscious pink hair. She winced when he managed to grab a lock of it, pulling it closer to his face. She turned away in disgust when he pressed it against his lips.

"So sweet..." he purred, rubbing the silky material between his fingers. "So soft... yet so dangerous."

He moved away, avoiding the suddenly sharpened hair. She cursed when her hair touched the seal covered cage. The moment the seal sensed hostility, a voltage of electricity shot throughout the cage.

A loud shriek permitted the air. She held onto her shoulders, curling into a ball to somehow prevent the pain. The electricity seemed to penetrate her tight to her soul, trying to tear it apart angrily.

When the torture was over, steam seemed rise out of the cage. She couldn't stop the whimper that escaped her lips and couldn't move away from his sinister touch. He touched her pain-filled cheek, caressing it as a lover would have done. Her eyes glared daggers at him, but he didn't appear deterred.

In fact, it only seemed to excite him even more.

"This is what happens when you do not obey me." He murmured, fingering her jaw line. She tried to turn her face away, but each movement only seemed to make her muscles scream out in pain. The small comfort his touches gave tempted her and she had to summon all of her will power not to follow his touches like a baby fox that was enjoying the caresses given by the deceitful hunter.

"You... you are the epitome of evil..." she managed to hiss.

His touches paused and she almost cried pitifully at the loss of the soothing touches. He gripped her chin and lifted her face so that they could look at each other eye to eye.

How someone so beautiful could be so cruel, she'd never know.

Flashes of beautiful orange-red hair swan through her mind.

No, there was such a thing as beauty filled with kindness...

He nuzzled into her face, aware of the tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. His lips traveled upward and kissed her eyes, enjoying the taste of her despair and hatred.

After all, such emotions always tasted so bittersweet.

He grinned, hiding his displeasure at how the bars of the cage hindered him from his goal. No matter. When needed, he could be patient. He could wait until his little pet finally learned the art of obedience.

"Evil?" he crooned, his hand rising from her chin to her cheek. She shuddered, feeling his words brush seductively against her lips. "Yes, you may call me evil if you wish..."

She grabbed the bars, trying to find balance as he callously lifted her pain-filled body off of the floor.

"It matters not..." he murmured.

She clenched her eyes shut when her emerald eyes met with his lust-filled crimson ones.

"As long as you understand in the end..." his lips were so close, yet she could do nothing to stop him.

She, one of the most powerful beings in the world...

So helpless...

"That you are mine.

His lips crushed against hers and the tears that refused to fall surrendered to the laws of gravity. She whimpered under his malicious ministration as he forcibly opened her mouth, plunging his tongue into her moist untouched caverns of her mouth.

She wanted to scream, but was unable to do so as his hungry lips ravaged her own.

'I'm sorry...' she thought in anguish. 'I'm so sorry... my love...'

---

With a loud cry, Sakura came up from underneath the heated waters of the hot spring. Faces turned curiously, wondering why the girl was gasping for air as if she had been deprived of them for centuries. Sakura trembled, hugging herself.

"Are you alright, miss?" a little girl asked.

She turned and smiled at her serenely. Years of training to smile against the odds came in handy at times like this. She patted the girl on the head. "Yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking."

The little girl smiled before swimming towards her mother. Sakura felt her eyes soften. It was nice whenever she got a reminder as to what she was fighting for. To protect innocent eyes such as those from stained by the art of war, even if it meant dying her hands in red.

Sakura sighed, leaning against a nearby rock. The water was relaxing and seemed to soothe her frayed nerves.

Where had the dream come for? There was no doubt that the dream had nothing to do with her current mission.

Sakura clenched her hands underwater when an image of the red eyes floated to the surface of her mind.

Than again, there might be a reason for this dream... or she was just getting stressed out because of how elusive Itachi was.

"You alright?" Sakura looked up to see familiar blonde

"Temari-san." She greeted.

"Sorry I'm late," Temari said dipping her feet into the water. "I was reporting to the Kazekage about my latest mission. So, you okay?"

Sakura smiled. "Does it seem like something's wrong?"

Temari stretched. Though information concerning Anbu members was kept a secret, Temari knew Sakura was one. Partially, it was due to the fact that she was the sister of the Kazekage, but it had more to do with the fact that there was the Anbu tattoo on top of Sakura's shoulder. Kunoichis within the hot spring appeared to understand what the symbol was and were staying away, watching Sakura with wary eyes.

"Well," she said, trying to sound casual, "maybe it has something to do with the fact that I heard that some pink haired woman nearly drowned herself."

Sakura gave an embarrassed blushed, sinking into the waters. "Oh..." she managed to say through the water, staring at the bubbles that appeared.

"What's wrong?" Temari asked once more.

"Nothing," Sakura mumbled, rising a bit out of the water. She held onto her knees with one hand while playing with the surface of the water with her other hand. "Just stress from my current mission."

Temari merely nodded.

Anbu missions weren't to be told to others, no matter what. Giving information to the enemy was lethal. It was also engraved into the minds of all Anbu operatives that information concerning a mission is not to be told to even an ally or family members. They would only risk the percentage of success of the mission.

"You know you missed the two idiots by a few hours," she said.

"Idiots?" Sakura asked. "You don't mean Shikamaru and-."

Temari slammed her fist into the wall of the hot spring pool. Sakura jumped at the loud noise and gulped at the fire that seemed to erupt within Temari's eyes.

"Don't you ever say that gutless bastard's name!"

"..er... can I call him pineapple-head instead?" Sakura asked fearfully. She couldn't help, but wonder what had happened between them. Having been stuck with the mission to kill Itachi for quite some time, she was kind of late on the current news.

"...fine..."

"Does it concern... pineapple-head and Kankuro-san?" Sakura asked cautiously. An unhappy Temari was a dangerous Temari and she knew this from experience.

"No," Temari said with a sigh. "I was talking about the other two idiots."

"Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were here?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, they were here with the pineapple for some diplomatic thing. I'm not sure because some of the workers here are so fucking stupid that they can't even keep track of what's going on." Temari growled, rolling her arm backwards.

"I see..." Sakura stared at the waters. A part of her wished that she had managed to get a glimpse of the two, but she knew that it was taboo at the moment. If Itachi caught wind of the fact that she was with the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki than she knew without a doubt that he would come after her. The damn seal would prevent her from hiding from him.

At the moment, if she was to be near Naruto, she would only bring him towards danger.

"So why'd you call me out here?" Temari asked.

"Ah!" Sakura gave her a smile. "Just to see how things were going."

Temari narrowed her eyes, clearly not believing a word she just said. However, she didn't pry. "Things are fine. Gaara is taking good care of the village... of course there's the occasional stupid fangirl running after him. Kankuro is actually considering getting a team of his own, but I have a feeling that he only wants some gullible midgets to do his work for him."

Sakura smiled at her, enjoying how she was able to get a moment of normalcy just by hearing Temari complain.

---

The night sky glittered with stars. Sakura looked up from the roof of the hotel building she was residing in and raised her hand. It felt like it was only yesterday that she was staring up at the night sky with her favorite boys around her, fast asleep.

She shook her head; this wasn't the time to be getting sentimental.

"Found you," she stiffened.

Sakura pulled out her kunai from beneath her yukata and held it defensively before her. She was crouched down, reading to spring at moments notice. A shadowed figure stepped out from behind the miniature building on top of the roof of the building before her.

She tightened her grip on the kunai.

"Itachi." She whispered.

"What happened?" he asked.

Sakura slowly rose from her crouching position, but never relaxed her guard. She continued to hold the kunai before her. "What are you talking about?"

"Your chakra had disappeared." He said apathetically. Itachi gracefully jumped towards the building she was standing on top of, never making a sound as his feet landed on top of the wooden surface. Sakura took a step back.

"Stop asking things I don't know about."

The surroundings were too crowded with buildings, not to mention the fact that there were innocent people everywhere. She couldn't fight a full-scaled battle against an S-classed criminal here of all places. Than there were her clothes and weaponry. Though she had some basic weapons, most of her tools were in her room.

A strong gust of wind blew by, reminding her just how thin the yukata she was wearing was.

'Shit,' she thought, 'I have to find a place with more space... somewhere that wouldn't catch the attention of civilians or Suna shinobis. I can't get them involved with the affairs of Konoha.'

Before Itachi could restate his questions, Sakura began to go through a flurry of hand seals. His activated sharingan immediately recognized the seals she was making and understood her plan. A gust of smoke appeared as Sakura disappeared within the haze.

He began to follow her chakra signal and found her waiting for him at the middle of the Suna training field. Unlike Konoha which was filled with trees and streams, Suna's training field was filled with rocks and sand. Sakura didn't know about Itachi, but she was used to Suna's terrain, having sparred with Temari within these fields several times.

Hopefully, she would have the advantage. However, his glowing sharingan eyes told her that the change in terrain made no difference to him.

Quickly, she did another set of hand seals. "Doton: Arashi no Meimu (Earth Element: Storm of Illusion) (1)"

Itachi's eyes gleamed at the sudden storm of sand that began to rise from the ground. So, she intended to block his sharingan uses by creating a storm. Very clever. Unlike the mist technique, he couldn't clear this storm with a mere Katon.

It was obvious that she knew that this wouldn't last forever against him. However, Sakura quickly began to pull out the metal wires she had kept hidden within her Konoha hitai-ate. She would use every second of this given time.

---

Kakashi skidded to a stop when he sensed Naruto stop behind him. Glancing back, he saw Naruto staring at the ground.

"What's wrong?" he asked cautiously. The cheerful yet concerned-for-his-previous-Sakura-chan atmosphere that had previously surrounded Naruto seemed to have faded. The blankness of emotion concerned Kakashi.

"We're going to wrong way." Naruto said gruffly, his voice expressed in a lower tenor than before.

"What?"

Naruto suddenly turned around, leaping towards the tree branch behind him. Kakashi reacted immediately, chasing after Naruto.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, unable to catch up to Naruto's speed. He remained a few leaps behind Naruto. A feeling of dread began to seep through the pits of his stomach when Kakashi realized that the vacant atmosphere surrounding Naruto wasn't vacant at all.

It had transformed into a deadly chill, so stilled that it had managed to even escape Kakashi's senses. Naruto seemed to be silently crying out for blood, but what startled Kakashi even more was that there appeared to be a second voice howling even louder from within Naruto.

'The Kyuubi...' he thought grimly. 'But why... is it responding to Naruto's sudden anger... or... is it the one that is affecting Naruto with its anger?'

Too far away behind, Kakashi was unable to see the bloodthirsty red eyes that seemed desperate to see the blood of the one that had dared to touch what was his.

'Don't worry Sakura-chan,' Naruto thought, pumping more chakra into his legs. 'I'll be right there!'

---

I haven't tried to translate anything into Japanese for a long time so forgive me if this is wrong. I don't know the first thing about writing in Japanese so this, after a long time, is my pitiful attempt to try again.

Hope you enjoyed it!

REVIEW PLEASE!

PS: no, i haven't forgotten Sasuke. he'll come out soon enough.