Vertigo

Chapter Six: A Light in the Dark

Sakura had experienced hangovers before, but never when her body was already so strung out with fatigue, stress and hunger. Her head throbbed and she felt like puking, only there was nothing in her stomach to throw up. She lay very still for several minutes after waking, eyes closed and face scrunched in discomfort as she slowly channeled chakra through her system to ease away the aftereffects of her bad judgment. She shouldn’t have drunk so much on an empty stomach. She shouldn’t have drunk so much at all in an unfamiliar place around people she didn’t trust.

Especially not without knowing exactly what had been done to her internally with that telepathy jutsu. If it had turned her nails black like that, what else might it have done to her body? As soon as the headache and nausea were gone, she set to find out. But after carefully probing all of her internal systems and organs she found nothing unusual and sat up in bed. The nastier effects were gone, but she was groggy, dehydrated, and absolutely starving. After several more minutes of zoning out she dragged herself into the bathroom to get cleaned up.

An hour later she headed for the kitchen, intent on eliminating the annoying pang in her stomach. She turned through the doorway and abruptly came face to…chest, with a very large person. She took a guarded step backward, and the Very Large Person did the same. Jade eyes flew upward and widened as they recognized the blue-grey skin and sharp aquiline features of Hoshigake Kisame.

The petite kunoichi and the giant shark stared at each other for a moment, and then he laughed.

“Ho ho! You’re the new member? Now that’s certainly unexpected.”

Sakura didn’t reply immediately, continuing to observe his strange silver eyes and abnormal coloring, and were those gills on his cheekbones? Then she remembered herself. “How do you know me?”

He shrugged and backed away from the doorway. “I’ve heard about you, seen you from a distance a couple times. What’s your name again?”

She relaxed a little, though not completely. His enormous presence was rather intimidating, and then there was the other, that she was avoiding thinking about at the moment. “Haruno Sakura,” she answered.

Kisame grinned at her name, revealing a row of sharpened teeth. “Cute. You’re parents must’ve felt quite clever calling you that.”

She frowned. “Not as clever as yours, Kisame.”

He chuckled. “I never knew my parents, so I wouldn’t know. Anyway, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Hoshigake Kisame, though it seems you already know that.”

Sakura was slightly taken aback. The way he spoke was polite and mostly proper. It seemed very out of place with his savage appearance. “Uh, you too,” she muttered.

“And I assume you already know my partner,” he said, stepping to one side and putting Sakura in direct line of sight with the other person in the room.

Sakura had been grateful for Kisame’s large frame blocking her view of the person she knew was there, but now she was forced to confront what she had been hoping to avoid as long as possible.

There was Uchiha Itachi, sitting atop the kitchen counter of all things, staring at her as he chewed a slice from the peeled orange in his hand. His face was impassive, but even from this distance she could see his crimson eyes glinting with hidden thoughts, though they gave nothing away about what he thought of her being there. They regarded one another intently, former allies turned mortal enemies turned allies once again…sort of. It was one of the most surreal moments she’d ever experienced.

After a long moment, Itachi was the one to break the silence. “We’ve met before,” he said in reply to his partner, his deep smooth voice carrying through the room clearly even though he’d spoken softly. He nodded once in acknowledgement, “Sakura.”

There wasn’t a trace of hostility coming from him, and his demeanor at the moment was downright laid-back, but Sakura still felt a strong dislike of him for several reasons. He killed Sasuke, the details and complications leading up to that fact also giving her reason to despise him. Aside from that, she could sense the predator and the deep-rooted madness in him, and felt an instinctive need to be wary of him like one stays wary of a rabid animal, even when it’s not growling at you. Keeping her expression calm, she evenly – if not a little stiffly, replied, “Itachi.”

Itachi went back to eating his orange dispassionately, as if he had completely lost interest in what was happening, though she doubted that was actually the case. She watched him a moment longer, the cold blooded killer with the strikingly beautiful face. He looked so much like his brother and yet not, but even so it was hard to look at him so she turned her attention back to Kisame.

“So why is it unexpected?” she asked, returning to the original topic.

Apparently Kisame had forgotten it. “Huh?”

“You said it was unexpected that I’m the new member. Why is that?”

The shark laughed. “Because you’re one of those goody-goody Leaf ninja always running around playing Save The Day and shit.”

Sakura glared. “Well apparently I’m not as goody-goody as you thought.”

He grinned wickedly at her. “Guess not. So who did you get partnered with?”

“Deidara.”

He laughed again. “Well then your life will never get boring, that’s for sure.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, hm?”

They turned as Deidara entered the kitchen, casting a suspicious glare at Kisame.

“It means there’s never a dull moment with you, in both the good and bad way,” the shark snickered.

“Tch. At least she won’t have a walking stiff with a stick up his ass for a partner like you do, yeah,” Deidara retorted.

Taken aback that Deidara would say something like that right in front of him, Sakura glanced quickly at Itachi expecting some sort of tense confrontation to start. But the Uchiha looked as if he wasn’t even paying attention to them. In fact everyone looked rather nonchalant, as if it happened all the time and Itachi was simply too apathetic to react. But it gave her one piece of information to file away; Deidara disliked Itachi, quite a lot if he flung insults at him so readily. She made a mental note to find out why, and if it ran both ways.

Standing there, she took in the fact that she was basically chitchatting with three of the world’s most dangerous men and that they had no intention of killing her, and vice versa. She was considered one of them now. It was surreal and a bit overwhelming, how drastically her entire life had changed in such a short time. It was also strange to her that they were standing around like they were in the first place, because these were supposed to be the evil villains who wanted to take over the world. It wasn’t like she had expected them to lurk in the shadows and do terrible things like torture kittens all day, but it threw her off that they seemed so normal. It bothered her. She didn’t want them to be normal.

She didn’t want them to be like her.

Thinking too hard on an empty stomach gave her a headache, so she focused on getting some food into her belly before it started making embarrassing noises in front of everyone. She left Deidara and Kisame to their conversation and went into the kitchen, going around the long way and giving Itachi a wide berth as she did. It turned out Akatsuki kept a wide variety of food stocked in the fridge and pantry. Whoever they employed to do the shopping did a damn fine job. Sakura refused to let the situation or the presence of the others intimidate her, and set about preparing herself a large breakfast. She rummaged for the right cooking utensils, and although they knew what she was doing no one offered any help on finding what she needed. Apparently they figured if she couldn’t find it herself she didn’t deserve to eat.

A few minutes later Itachi left the kitchen without a word, exiting through the door Konan said went up to the roof and training area. The air seemed to lighten with him gone, at least for her. Kisame was still a little intimidating but was actually rather amusing, she noted after listening to him talk for the last several minutes, and Deidara she was already pretty comfortable with. That thought in itself was rather disconcerting, but she supposed it wasn’t a bad thing. They were partners after all, and they would work together better if they got along for the most part.

Just as she was finishing the prep work for her meal, Kisame left toward the roof as well, probably to train with his partner. It was all a bit anticlimactic, really. Definitely not how she imagined meeting all the members of Akatsuki would go. She didn’t know what she would have pictured, exactly, but it wasn’t this.

“Whatcha making?” Deidara asked as he came up beside her.

“Omlette,” she said without looking up. From the corner of her eye she saw him grin.

“I haven’t had one of those in years. I’m more of a toast kind of guy.”

“Can’t cook?” she guessed, glancing at him with a smirk.

“Not really. Though most of the time I forget to eat breakfast at all, yeah.”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you know.”

He gave her a look. “Thank you Dr. Haruno.”

Sakura didn’t miss a beat. “You’re welcome. Though, I usually charge for such excellent advice.”

“Well don’t I feel special,” he said dryly. “Wanna make me one?” he said after a pause, glancing down at her nicely diced ingredients.

Sakura looked up at him reprovingly. “Would you ask me that if I was a man?”

His grin fell slightly. “Probably not. But I’m not sexist if that’s what you’re implying.”

She stared at him a long moment, then gave a small sigh. “Fine. But you’re chopping your own ingredients while I cook mine.”

Deidara grinned victoriously, his eyes glinting with some mischievous thought that almost made her reconsider. But she didn’t, and handed him the knife as she poured her egg mixture into the skillet.

There was comfortable silence between them as Sakura cooked and Deidara chopped. Even though he may not be able to cook, being a ninja meant he knew how to handle a knife, and soon he had a neat little pile of ingredients right next to hers. After he finished he alternated between watching her cook, and watching her. Sakura glanced at him a couple times, curious and just slightly disconcerted, but he never said anything and soon enough their food was done.

“I should warn you, I’m not the best cook in the world either,” she said as they sat down at one of the small tables. “I purposely didn’t learn to cook so I wouldn’t be stuck making every meal on missions with my all-male team. I only taught myself some basic stuff a couple years ago.” Her expression soured briefly, because the truth was she’d learned to cook after moving in with Sasuke, not that he’d ever been around much to eat with her.

“You’re full of it,” Deidara said through a mouthful, cutting through her dour thoughts and evaporating them like mist. “This is pretty damn good, yeah.”

She smiled at the compliment. “Thanks,” she said quietly, then tucked in ravenously.

There were only a few words exchanged as they ate, because Sakura was too busy wolfing down her first decent meal in two days to hold a conversation. After they finished Deidara helped her clean up, which surprised her for some reason, and then he wandered off after mentioning something about an ‘art’ project he was working on.

Alone again, Sakura decided to browse the contents of the impressive library, and was a good way into a book on poisons and herbs when Konan found her and gave her a large sum of money, enough for two A-ranked missions at least, as her first monthly salary in advance so she could get a new wardrobe and any other personal effects she wished to have in her quarters. She also gave Sakura an address to the tailor that made their cloaks and told her to get measured.

Sakura was inwardly glad Konan hadn’t offered to come with her because the two women of Akatsuki shopping together like girlfriends was just too weird for her to handle on her first day in the organization. Besides, alone she would be able to look around and gather details and information about the village.

That thought in mind, and excited about replacing her worn and tattered clothes and about the sheer amount she had been given, Sakura left the building and entered the streets of Amegakure to shop.

She returned from her excursion in mid-afternoon, large bags hanging from each arm. It was strange that she was just waltzing into Akatsuki headquarters like she lived there – because she did. It was all still rather surreal, and she supposed it would take a few weeks to get used to this new situation.

Once inside she made a beeline for her room to put away her purchases. She’d gotten a full range of wardrobe for all weather types, a new pair of boots and a new pack as her old ones were wearing out from excessive travel, a full range of personal products that she’d had to suffer without while on the run, and a few books and medical journals to put alongside what she brought with her on the empty shelf in her room.

While out, she had thought of sending a detailed message of what she had learned so far to Konoha, but decided against it because Rain was Pein’s city, full of loyal followers who practically worshipped him, and she really had no idea yet how closely he monitored his subordinates’ actions. It was too uncertain right now. The promised message would have to wait until she was out of the village on her first real mission.

Once finished putting away her new things she left her room intending to return to the library and pick up where she left off, but as she walked down the hallway she heard several voices and realized the common room that had been empty on her way in was now occupied. She rounded the corner just in time to hear a deep male voice utter a string of obscenities in a manner that gave her an unpleasant sense of déjà vu, and when she entered the room her suspicion was confirmed. Kisame was playing a game of pool against none other than Hidan.

She leaned against the doorframe and took a moment to observe the final member of their little group before they noticed her. Hidan was a large man, tall and broad shouldered, though he was still dwarfed by his playing partner. He wore no shirt under his half- open cloak, and a heavy metal pendant swayed from his neck as he leaned over the table to make his shot. His slicked-back hair was a strange shade of platinum; when the light hit it one way it appeared silver, but from another angle it looked white-blond. He was fairly handsome, she supposed, though her lingering dislike of him neutralized any real opinion on his attractiveness.

Kisame made his shot and pocketed three balls, sending the foul-mouthed cultist into another tirade.

“Fucking shit! You gotta be fucking cheating somehow. There’s no way you can keep making those crack shots like that, seriously,” he accused, pointing the end of his cue at the larger man.

“You can’t cheat at pool. You just suck, man,” Kisame snickered.

“Just be glad you didn’t bet him anything,” Deidara said as he came in from the kitchen. He smirked at Sakura in the opposite doorway, who no one else seemed to have noticed yet.

“Gambling is against my religion. Only you heathens think the world revolves around money,” Hidan scoffed as he set up his next shot.

“The world doesn’t revolve around money, it revolves around art, yeah,” Deidara replied airily, crossing his arms over his chest.

Kisame rolled his eyes at both of them. “You weirdoes and your ideals. I swear this organization is full of nutjobs.” He looked over at Sakura. “You’re not some crazy fanatic too, are you?”

Apparently she hadn’t gone as unnoticed as she’d thought, at least by the shark nin. Sakura smirked and finally entered the room. “Not yet. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time and opportunity now, though.”

Hidan looked up at her voice and stood up fully in surprise. “Who the fuck are you?” But before she could answer a look of recognition came over his features. “Shit, I remember you now…you’re one of those Leaf heathens.”

Sakura glared into his hooded, red-violet eyes, fighting down her rising anger. It wouldn’t look good to be too defensive of the village she supposedly abandoned. “I’m not with Leaf anymore,” she said tersely.

Hidan appraised her appearance and then gave a caustic laugh. “No shit. Well if you ask me, the last thing we need is more bitches in the group, seriously.”

Sakura twitched. “What did you just say?”

Hidan raised his brow at her. “Bitches. You know, overly emotional, weak-minded –”

He didn’t finish, because he was suddenly flying backward across the room and smashing into the bookshelf.

Sakura cracked her knuckles in satisfaction.

“Oww…fuck that was great!” Hidan slurred as he picked himself up off the floor and realigned his jaw. He flashed Sakura a vicious, bloody grin. “You’re the kind of bitch I like. I bet you and I could have a lot of fun together,” he leered.

“Try it and I’ll rip your dick off and force-feed it to you,” she said venomously.

“Mmm, kinky.”

Sakura took a menacing step forward.

“You know, Hidan, if Leader hears you talking like that you’re fucked,” Kisame warned.

“By all means, keep going, yeah,” Deidara urged darkly.

Hidan merely laughed and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, then licked it off his finger. “See what I mean about – ahem – females, being all emotional and shit? Don’t get so fucking agitated, woman, seriously. I was just testing you…seeing what you’re made of. Akatsuki doesn’t need any weak-ass damsels, male or female.”

“Since when do you care about what Akatsuki needs? Deidara scoffed.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about this little club, but I don’t want to have to put up with inferior people while I’m here, either,” he explained.

She gave him a withering look. “I told Shikamaru we should have fed your parts to the pigs.”

“No sense poisoning innocent pigs, yeah.”

Hidan scowled at both of them. “Fuck you guys. And don’t talk about that little shit around me. If I ever see him again I’m using him in the most painful and drawn out sacrificial ritual there is, seriously.”

Sakura thought that outcome highly unlikely, but she decided against dragging the argument out. He had just bumped himself several spots higher on her List of Things I Hate, and the less she had to interact with the freaky zealot the better.

“Are you gonna make your shot or what?” Kisame said impatiently.

“Yeah, yeah. Stop distracting me, damn it,” Hidan grumbled. He walked back to the table and made his shot, and surprisingly pocketed several balls and turned the game in his favor. “Hah! You see that shit?” he hollered triumphantly, “That’s the blessing of Jashin, fuckers.”

Sakura’s attention was drawn away from them a moment later when Pein entered through the kitchen. His ringed eyes observed the people in the room and then stopped on the half-smashed shelf and pile of books on the floor. “What happened to the bookshelf?”

“I met Hidan,” Sakura explained simply.

“And put him in his place, yeah,” Deidara added under his breath, smirking.

Of course Pein heard him, and looked between the cultist and the kunoichi. “Why,” he asked Hidan.

The other man shrugged. “Fuck if I know. I was just being myself.”

“…I see. Hidan, stop provoking everyone. You are comrades, and I expect you to be professional. You will replace the bookshelf, and anything else that was damaged,” Pein said.

“Tch. Fine, whatever. You all take shit way too seriously, damn,” he grumbled. He tossed his pool cue onto the table. “Fuck this, I’m going to pray,” he said, then turned and stalked from the room.

Kisame wasn’t fazed by the loss of his playing partner. He glanced at Deidara. “Game?”

“Sure,” the blond shrugged. “But I won’t be as easy to beat as that asshole.”

The shark grinned and tossed him the abandoned cue. “Wanna bet?”

Deidara caught it and smirked. “You’re on, yeah.”

Sakura was actually interested to watch this time, but it seemed she wouldn’t have the chance, because Pein fixed his bizarre gaze on her again.

“Sakura, a word.”

She hoped she wasn’t about to be berated for breaking Hidan’s face and causing trouble on her first official day as an Akatsuki. She crossed the room and stopped before the tall man, meeting his strange eyes evenly.

“I assume Konan showed you the infirmary last night?”

Hiding her relief, she nodded. “It’s very impressive. I didn’t get a chance to fully check it out, but I was planning to do it sometime today.”

“That room is essentially yours, since you are now our resident medic. If it’s lacking anything you have a separate budget to obtain what you need. If you have trouble finding resources or suppliers let Konan know and she will assist you.”

“I wouldn’t think the other members would need medical attention all that often,” she said.

“You’re right. But it does happen on occasion. Either way, I’m sure the others will appreciate not having to stitch their own wounds anymore,” Pein said.

Sakura gave a small smile, remembering Konan’s words from the night before. Most shinobi were tough and hardened to pain and abuse, and could take a kunai to the gut with only a slight grimace, but she knew from experience that they could be the biggest babies about silly things like shots or stitches.

“As Akatuski’s medic, I have a task for you, Sakura,” the leader continued, drawing her gaze again. “Are you aware of Itachi’s condition?”

Sakura’s eyes widened ever so slightly. A memory came to her from nearly six years ago, of a brief exchange of words in the middle of a fight between Itachi and Kakashi. “Vaguely,” she answered. “His vision is deteriorating…some sort of side-effect of the sharingan?”

Pein nodded. “He will be able to give you more details, but his condition has worsened over the years and is now problematic to both himself and the organization. I want you to take a look at his eyes and see what can be done about it.”

Sakura didn’t reply immediately. The last thing she wanted to do was help a blinding Itachi see again, but she couldn’t exactly refuse. “Alright,” she said slowly.

Pein shifted and turned to walk away. “He’s waiting in the infirmary. Let me know the results of your diagnosis when you are finished.”

“Understood,” she replied flatly, then turned in the direction of ‘her’ medical center.

Her steps were unconsciously slow as she walked. She was not looking forward to being in a room alone with the Uchiha clan killer, and she definitely wasn’t keen on giving him medical assistance. But orders were orders, and she figured this was probably the most minor of morally conflicted things she would be ordered to do as an Akatsuki.

Logically she knew she shouldn’t despise Itachi like she did. Sasuke was a fool who willingly tunneled his vision until all he could see was hatred and revenge, who deliberately cast off any chances of happiness in life and slowly brought himself to ruin. Itachi didn’t hold a kunai to his brother’s throat and force him to do the things he did, to hurt the people who cared about him like he had. Yes, Itachi planted the seed, manipulated and twisted his thinking, but in the end there is always choice, and Sasuke chose to follow the path his brother set for him.

Still, Itachi was a cold and ruthless killer who could repeatedly torment his own little brother without remorse. Even if she hadn’t known the traumatized brother personally, she would still loathe any man capable of such a thing.

She paused for a moment outside the infirmary, taking a deep breath to steel herself for what was about to happen, and then opened the door.

Itachi stood in the center of the room, his back to her and his hands folded into his over-long sleeves. He didn’t turn until she closed the door quietly behind her, and when their gazes met she was surprised to see that his sharingan was off. Her gut clenched and she blinked quickly to rid herself of the image of his brother that flashed before her mind. They looked even more similar without the bloodline limit active, but thinking about it would only make it more difficult to do what she had to do, so she pushed it aside.

They simply regarded each other for a long, strained moment. Itachi’s expression was mostly impassive, but Sakura was somehow able to gauge that the Uchiha was just as disgruntled about this situation as she was. She needed to get a few things out in the open before she could proceed, so she took initiative to speak first.

“I’m rather surprised we find ourselves in this situation,” she said coolly.

“This was no more my idea than it was yours,” he replied evenly, his smooth monotone drifting across the sterile, slightly echoing space.

Her lips twisted at one corner. “I’m sure. But it still surprised me that you would agree to it. Your eyes are your most valuable asset, yet you will trust me of all people to work on them? Surely you know that you’re not exactly my favorite person, Itachi.”

His eyes darkened slightly. “I trust no one. But I do trust that you are intelligent enough to understand what will happen if you were to blind or kill me, Sakura,” he replied, inflecting her name in the exact manner she had spoken his, with just the faintest hint of disdain.

Her smirk widened grimly. “You’re right about that. I would never endanger myself for you, so I suppose you’re safe with me as your medic. For now. Let’s get started then, shall we?” she said with false cheer.

Itachi stared at the pink haired medic a moment longer, dark eyes narrowed ever so slightly, then began to remove his cloak, revealing a lean, wiry frame clothed all in black save for a white belt at his waist.

“I’ll need you to sit, this may take a while,” Sakura said, removing her cloak as well and slipping into professional medic mode, though she was really more concerned about her prolonged comfort than his. Itachi tossed his cloak into the chair by the door and lifted himself up onto the examination table. Sakura looked around for a clipboard and something to write with, found it shortly, and then moved to stand before him. “Okay. Leader didn’t tell me much, so first I need to know a few things.”

“Fine. Ask what you wish,” he said, staring at her almost boredly.

Sakura eyed him crossly. Apparently extreme arrogance was a trait found in all Uchiha’s. “What are the symptoms?”

“I am going blind,” he said flatly.

She didn’t bother to hide her eye roll. He just had to be difficult, didn’t he? “Yes, I know that much, thank you. Would you say it’s a blurring or a darkening?” she asked in a clipped tone.

He stared at her a moment before answering. “Both. But I suppose it’s more a blurring than anything else.”

She scribbled on her notepad. “Is there any pain?”

“Yes.”

A long moment passed, and Sakura’s annoyance rose again, but then Itachi continued on his own.

“It can be quite acute at times. There is a constant migraine-like ache that I have grown accustomed to over time, but occasionally a spike will occur…and then the pain can be almost crippling,” he explained quietly.

She nodded, inwardly pleased that he seemed at least slightly willing to cooperate. No sense making it more difficult than it need be. She continued to ask him questions, and he answered them mostly impassively. Finally she set down her clipboard and slowly placed her fingertips against his temples, then began to examine the damage with her chakra, occasionally asking him to turn the sharingan on and off. Much of what he told her echoed what Kakashi had described when she had worked on his. The Uchiha’s deterioration and pain was much worse than her teammate’s due to constant overuse of high level techniques, and she was quite surprised to discover that he was very nearly blind. He was now using the sharingan as one might use eyeglasses, to help him see what his normal eyes no longer could. Without it he would be unable to move around completely on his own, and even though she was only a foot away from him, without his bloodline limit she doubted he could even see the features of her face clearly. She thought it served him right. He was paying the price for his ambition.

The air between them was strained, and Itachi was visibly tense, but they managed to get through it without incident. That was, until Itachi began asking questions of his own.

“Tell me, Sakura, why do you despise me so?”

His tone was quiet and silky. Sakura might have found it very appealing if he were anyone else. “I thought you were a genius,” she said dryly.

His lips twitched in the faintest of smirks. “I’ve done nothing to you personally. Are you a mere sheep who hates me on principle because of my infamy in Konoha? You aren’t regarded very highly there either these days.”

Jade eyes glinted darkly. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

“What benefit would I find in doing that? I am merely curious,” he explained evenly. He tilted his head a fraction. “Is it because of my foolish brother?” she didn’t look at him, but her eyes narrowed, and he knew he’d hit the mark. “I know that you were teammates once. Were you close to him?”

Her jaw clenched. “Yes.”

Itachi was, in fact, a genius, so it wasn’t hard for him to put the pieces together. “I see. So you blame me that he couldn’t love you? Because his goal in life was to kill me and gain revenge for our disgustingly corrupt clan, rather than to live happily ever after with you? Is that why you hate me, Sakura?”

Her chakra stopped and she glared hatefully at him. “It’s because you killed him, you arrogant, sadistic fuck.” Her tone was quiet, but it conveyed more venom than if she had screamed it.

His eyes glinted darkly as he stared at her, and it was a long moment before he spoke. “Ah. Did I now?”

Sakura was taken aback. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“What makes you so sure that I was the one who killed him?” he said very quietly.

Sakura simply stared at him. What was he implying? He was lying to her, she was sure of it. This was the man who enjoyed screwing with people’s minds. He was a master manipulator. “Sasuke was very strong. You know that firsthand. Not just anybody could have defeated him. Also, revenge was too important to him to let anyone else kill him. If he had been losing a fight he would have found a way to escape,” she retorted.

“If escape was possible, that is.”

Her eyes narrowed angrily, masking her confusion. “Don’t fuck with me, Itachi, there’s no point in it. You’re going blind. Sasuke slashed his own eyes out before he died, as if he was trying to prevent someone from taking them. Kakashi is living proof that sharingan transplants are possible. You tried to take Sasuke’s eyes because your own are failing, and he blinded himself in a last ditch effort to stop you. Then you killed him out of spite, or maybe you intended to kill him all along once you got what you wanted. The facts all point to you.”

He gave her a long stare, hardened onyx eyes revealing the smallest hint of anger, though his expression remained blank. Then he looked away as if bored by the entire conversation.

Sakura wasn’t buying it, and she studied him a long moment, bewildered. There was no reason for him to lie to her, and like he said there was nothing in it for him to rile her up. “Are you really this much of a prick, or are you trying to tell me something, Itachi?” she asked suspiciously.

The look he gave her was blatantly condescending. “Clearly you have everything figured out already. What more is there for me to say?”

She had made him angry. That fact surprised her, because it proved he wasn’t as blank or hard to read as he first appeared. But it was obvious she wasn’t going to get anything else out of him about the matter.

“Are you finished with your assessment?” he asked curtly.

“Yes.” She’d cut it short, but there wasn’t much more to determine anyway.

“And what is your diagnosis?”

She met his dark gaze calmly. “You are very nearly blind. It’s obvious you’ve been using the sharingan to compensate, but that in itself has caused the damage to worsen and the deterioration to accelerate. The bottom line is: the more you use the sharingan – the mangekyou form in particular, the faster your sight will fail. There is nothing anyone can do to reverse the existing damage. I can relieve some of the pain and possibly slow the decline, but you will eventually lose your vision completely. How quickly that happens is up to you.”

Itachi was quiet a long time, absorbing her dire words. It had to be a hard thing for anyone to hear, especially to someone whose eyes were as vital as his, but he had been suffering with the slow ruin of his vision for years, and was most likely prepared for this outcome.

“…I understand,” he said finally. Onyx met jade once more. “It was not my intention to anger you so, Sakura, but there is much that you do not understand. Perhaps we will be able to discuss it again in the future. But for now, in spite of your opinion of me, I would appreciate your assistance in maintaining what remains of my eyesight for as long as possible. There is still a thing which I must do before the end.”

Sakura eyed him with mild suspicion. He was probably just saying those things to get her to agree to help him. Then again, the quiet conviction in his dark eyes said that he meant every word, and she had a feeling he was too proud to ask for help unless something very important was at stake. She couldn’t begin to guess what that might be, but he had referred to the end of his vision as if it were the end of his life. To him it might be.

She didn’t feel pity for him – even her compassion had its limits, but something about his tone and the expression in his eyes compelled her. She gave a resigned sigh. “I’ll help you, Itachi, on the condition that you will elaborate more on your earlier implication at some point. But I’m too worn out to do any more right now.”

He nodded faintly. “Then I assume we are finished for today?”

“Yeah, we’re finished,” she said wearily.

Without another word Itachi stood from the table, his greater height looming over her briefly, then he retrieved his cloak from the chair and silently left the room.

Sakura sighed tiredly and ran her fingers though her hair. She was confused and irritated by the encounter with the enigmatic Uchiha, and she wondered what she had just gotten herself into by agreeing to help him. She would probably have been ordered to help him by Pein anyway, but agreeing to it like that with Itachi implied there was an understanding of sorts between them, and she wasn’t sure if she was okay with that.

And speaking of Pein, she still had to give her report on Itachi’s condition to him, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t be pleased with what she had to say. Sighing again, she put her cloak back on and left the infirmary in search of the Akatsuki leader.

She found him on the roof of all places. After asking Konan where might be, she had learned that he spent a lot of time up there, perched on the curved stone tongue of the giant statue carved into the building’s edifice. Apparently it was a good place to plot out world domination. Or salvation, as he would no doubt put it.

It was very windy on the rooftop, and she had to pull her cloak tighter against the frigid air as she crossed to the edge where Pein’s chakra emanated faintly from below. She experienced a moment of nerves as she leaned over the ledge and located the dark figure sitting on the snow-dusted tongue of the statue. She had never been in a building this tall before yesterday, and certainly not on the roof. It was like standing at the edge of a cliff, only windier and more perilous due to the thin coating of ice under the snow. It was freezing up here, and she wondered how he could sit there and be snowed on like that. Her voice would’nt be heard over the icy wind, so she let her chakra flare out toward him. He didn’t look at up her, but a moment later he stood and ascended in a series of short leaps to the rooftop. She had a feeling if she tried what he so effortlessly just did, she would slip and fall to a very ugly and unbefitting death.

Pein nodded in the direction of the covered area near the door, and they moved toward it to get out of the wind and snow. When they stopped he fixed his hawkish gaze on her.

“Your chakra is weak and unstable,” he observed evenly.

Sakura gave a tiny shrug. “Working on something as delicate and complicated as the eyes is difficult and consumes a lot of chakra,” she explained.

He gave a faint nod. “Was Itachi cooperative?”

“As much as can be expected, I suppose. People with a doujutsu bloodline limit tend to be a bit touchy about people messing with their eyes.”

Pein understood that. After all, he was the possessor of the most powerful eye technique in the world. “What were you able to learn about his condition?”

She crossed her arms block some of the cold. “He told me that it was a hereditary condition which happens to everyone who obtains the mangekyou sharingan. Apparently there have only been a handful in the history of the Uchiha clan who’ve had it, but they all lost their sight in time. Killing your closest friend to obtain it, only to eventually go blind doesn’t really seem worth the power to me, but whatever. In addition to what he told me, I discovered by examining his eyes that using the sharingan accelerates the damage, the mangekyou in particular. He’s been using his sharingan nearly every waking moment for over ten years, and he uses the mangekyou excessively as well. That’s why he’s already near-blind at such a young age.”

“Great ambition always has a price,” Pein said evenly, unknowingly echoing her own thoughts. “What is your prognosis?”

Sakura shook her head slowly. “I can’t reverse the damage. No one can. I can slow the deterioration, but not stop it. I would probably be able to perform a transplant, but he will lose the sharingan if I do, unless there is some unknown Uchiha left in the world willing to give up their eyes, and I seriously doubt that. As it stands now, Itachi’s vision grows weaker every day, and I would say he only has a year, maybe less, before he is completely blind. He is still a formidable and dangerous shinobi, and in most cases he will be able to handle himself. But if he were to come across a particularly skilled opponent, another s-class for example, it’s very likely that he will be killed.”

“I see. How inconvenient,” Pein mused quietly, mostly to himself. After a long moment of thought he met the kunoichi’s gaze again. “Thank you, Sakura. That’s all for now.”

Sakura nodded and headed back inside, wondering what Pein was thinking and what he would decide to do about Itachi, and if her blunt diagnosis may have condemned the Uchiha. She sighed and brushed the thought aside. It wasn’t her problem, and she shouldn’t care either way. Right now, all she cared about was a nap.

Several hours later, Sakura sat on her bed staring in mild fascination at her discolored nails, knees drawn up to her chest so she could observe her bare toes with a splayed hand next to each foot. It wasn’t the flesh underneath the nail that was black, as happens when one crushes their fingers. It was the nail itself, normally translucent white, which had turned black. Her nails were kept short, but even the tiny bit of growth she had was now blackened. She had always wondered why the members of Akatsuki had black nails. Ino had thought they were painted, which Sakura thought was ridiculous, because she highly doubted the world’s most ruthless – not to mention male – s-class criminals would sit around giving themselves mani-pedis in their free time. Now that she knew, she wondered uncertainly if it was reversible, or if she would be stuck with black nails like some freaky brand for the rest of her life. Even if it was sort of cool looking.

Her musings were interrupted suddenly by a knock at her door. A small probe of chakra revealed that it was Deidara. She glanced around quickly to make sure nothing was out of place, then crossed her legs under her and said, “Come in.”

Deidara entered, but left the door open behind him. “Hey.” He stopped next to where she sat on the oversized bed. “You busy?” he asked, though he could obviously see she wasn’t.

Sakura shook her head. “Not really. I was just trying to figure out what this is all about,” she said, lifting her black nailed hand in indication. “I’ve never heard of something like this, either from a jutsu or medical condition.”

Deidara chuckled and glanced briefly at his own black nails. “Yeah, it takes some getting used to. Especially for a guy.”

Sakura smiled. “It could be worse. I used to paint my nails green when I was younger.”

He gave her a look of revulsion. “Green? Ugh.”

“I thought it was cute back then.”

“If you say so.”

Sakura frowned a little. He had a habit of wearing out his welcome rather quickly.

Deidara didn’t notice her annoyance, or more likely he ignored it, and picked up the object lying at the foot of the bed. “I thought you were mainly a taijutsu fighter,” he remarked, inspecting the sleek, well crafted kodachi with interest.

“I am,” Sakura replied. “But like any good shinobi, I know how to use many types of weapons.”

He met her gaze. “Are you any good with it?”

She returned his smirk. “I’m decent.”

“We’ll have to spar someday then, yeah.” He ran his fingers down the scabbard and over the inlaid quartz detail. “Cherry blossoms, huh. I’m guessing this was custom made for you?”

Sakura nodded. “It was a gift.”

Despite her effort to conceal it, Deidara detected the hint of wistfulness in her tone. “Hm. It’s nice, yeah,” he said finally, passing the short sword back to her. “I was about to go up to the roof. Want to come?”

Sakura stared incredulously. “The roof? Are you nuts?”

“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? C’mon, it’s stopped snowing for once, and you can see the sky, yeah.”

She eyed him skeptically. “I was on the roof earlier today and it was freezing up there! I’m sure it’s even worse now that it’s dark.”

He sighed exasperatedly. “That’s what hot sake is for,” he explained like it was obvious.

Sakura couldn’t help but smile. It did sound kid of fun. “Ok.”

Deidara grinned and led the way, stopping in the kitchen to grab the sake and a heavy blanket he’d left waiting. When they reached the roof he walked out from under the overhang and leapt up onto it, and Sakura followed him up. It was a small space, less than ten feet in diameter, but more than large enough for the two of them to sit without invading each other’s space.

He began kicking some of the powdery snow around to clear an area, and Sakura helped until there was a large square of revealed concrete on the ground, which he dropped the blanket on and then sat down.

“So what are we doing up here, stargazing?” She sat next to him and looked up at the remarkably clear sky. The stars weren’t as bright here as they were in Konoha, but at least they were visible.

“That’s usually why people would want to look at the sky at night,” he replied dryly. She gave him a look, and he smirked and handed her a bottle. “It’s not as bad as you thought up here, is it?”

He was right. The wind had died down to nothing, and up here it was so silent it seemed as though they could be the only two people in the world. It struck her then that for the second night in a row he had sought her out simply for the sake of her company, and that she had agreed tonight simply for the sake of his. She thought about the way he smiled at her when she accepted his invitation.

She was already feeling a little warmer.

A little voice warned that this sort of thing would be a problem. She pushed it to the back of her mind. She could enjoy herself and still do her job, right? She wrapped her hands around the warm ceramic of her sake bottle and smiled. “No, it’s nice, actually. I wouldn’t think you would like looking at the stars though,” she said.

His brow creased. “Why?”

“Doesn’t it contrast your idea of art, that beauty is fleeting? Stars are there for ages and ages.”

“Even I know not everything can be about art. Some things you like just because, yeah,” he explained as he popped the cork on his bottle. “And anyway, you’re sort of wrong.”

She gazed at him curiously. “How so?”

He sat back on one hand, bracing himself as he looked up at the winter sky. “Well, sometimes you can see a star die out, if you’re watching at the right time. It flares up real bright and then vanishes, like a tiny little explosion. And some people think the stars are so far away that by the time we even see the light from them, they’re already burnt out and gone, yeah.”

Sakura watched his upturned profile with mild fascination, and then looked up at the sky. “That’s a very interesting theory. But…if the stars have a distance, then that would mean there is something out there beyond the sky,” she mused quietly. She looked at him again. “Do you believe that?”

He met her gaze and gave a faint smile. “Maybe. Even if it’s just a huge black space full of stars, it’s something, yeah? Who knows…the world we walk around in can’t be the only thing that exists.”

Sakura smiled thoughtfully, impressed by how deep he revealed himself to be. He definitely had a different way of thinking, but somehow she found it easy to be on the same wavelength with him.

Time passed pleasantly as Deidara pointed out a few constellations he knew from his native country, and Sakura pointed out a few she knew as well. After a while the effects of the sake kicked in, and Sakura no longer felt the cold as much as before. In fact, she felt rather warm and pleasant in more ways than one.

Her eyes drifted down from the sky to his profile again, and she continued to watch him silently until he felt her gaze and looked down to meet it. “I always wondered…why do you wear your hair like that?”

He gave a short, bemused laugh. “What?”

She smiled playfully. “Well I know for a fact you don’t have a missing eye or some other deformity under there. It’s not really a practical style for a shinobi either, seems like it would get in the way a lot. So there has to be a reason why you would choose to wear it like that, right?”

He regarded her with amusement for a moment, and then reached inside his cloak. “It’s partly to conceal this,” he said, holding out a metal gadget of some sort.

Sakura took the surprisingly lightweight device and inspected it. “What is it?”

“It’s a distance scope for aerial combat and surveillance. It also has a camera, with night vision capability. Aside from artistic demolition, recon and espionage are other specialties of mine, at least the distance kind, yeah.”

Apparently it was a specialty of hers too, though she obviously wasn’t going to tell him that. “It goes over your eye?” she asked.

“Mmhm. Go ahead, look.”

She held it up to her left eye and peered through the lens. Everything had a faint red tint, and she discovered that touching tiny little buttons on the side made the lens zoom in and out, and one button made everything switch over to an eerie glowing green. It was really cool. Maybe he would let her play with it more some other time.

Inner Sakura began to giggle, and she realized how dirty her thoughts sounded just then. She handed the scope back to him and hoped he thought the tint of her cheeks was due to alcohol.

“You said partly, so what’s the other reason?” she asked after he returned the scope to his inner pocket.

The look he gave her was unreadable. “That’s a secret, yeah.”

“I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“So am I. That’s why no one knows but me."

Sakura pouted and gave her best puppy eyes. She had yet to meet a man who could resist The Eyes. “We’re partners, though. If it’s something you use to fight with I should know about it, shouldn’t I?”

He eyed her skeptically. “If I tell you, and you tell anyone else, most especially Itachi, I’m going to have to kill you, as well as them, yeah.”

She could tell by his tone that it wasn’t an empty threat. Still, success! “Believe me, I have no intention of telling Itachi anything if I can at all help it,” she scoffed. “And I have no reason to tell anyone else either.”

He appraised her another long moment, then motioned for her to come closer. She leaned in conspiratorially, and he spoke in a hushed tone, “My left eye is trained to be immune to genjutsu.”

Sakura’s eyes widened. “Completely?” she half-whispered.

He nodded. “Completely. An effect of that is I can consciously dilate and contract the pupil, but because of that it’s also highly light-sensitive. So I keep it covered, yeah.”

Sakura stared at him. “That’s an amazing achievement, Deidara. I don’t know if you even realize how much, from a medical perspective,” she said quietly.

Deidara grinned smugly and shrugged. “I hate genjutsu. I was tricked into joining Akatsuki because Itachi caught me with his sharingan the second I met him. Since then I’ve made sure something like that will never happen again, yeah.”

“I’m a genjutsu specialist too, you know,” she said frankly.

He shrugged. “You’re different. You don’t rely on tricks and illusions to win your battles for you. You understand true art and have mastered fighting with it, like me.”

Sakura smiled at him, knowing he probably meant that as a very high compliment. “Thanks,” she said softly. She looked up and met his striking blue eyes again. “There’s something else I was wondering…”

“What’s that?”

“What’s with your name? It’s not one I’ve ever heard before, not even close to anything I’ve heard. It’s really interesting.”

“You sure want to know a lot about me, yeah,” he said, eyes glinting mischievously.

“We’re partners. We should get to know each other,” she shrugged, not realizing she was blushing the tiniest bit.

He laughed softly. “I was named after one of the myths of Earth country,” he began, drawing the kunoichi’s full attention. “Legend says there was this giant, who walked around rearranging mountains and creating lakes with his footprints and stuff. People in the more rural areas of Earth country are very superstitious, and they actually believe the legend, yeah. There’s one town on the northern coast where the locals actually create a giant sandal and carry it from the shrine and drop it into the ocean to bring in lots of fish,” he ended amusedly.

“That’s quite a namesake. You’ve got some big shoes to fill.”

Deidara rolled his eyes. “Ha ha.”

“I couldn’t resist,” she laughed. “But at least yours is interesting. Mine’s a total cliché.”

“It’s not so bad. It’s more imaginative than Hana, at least. But it still doesn’t fit you. Sakura are a very delicate and fragile flower, and that’s not you at all. And your hair’s not even the right shade of pink. It’s more the color of coral than a sakura blossom, yeah.”

“Semantics,” she said with a dismissive wave.

Deidara grinned. “Attention to detail is essential to any artist. And to shinobi as well.”

Sakura smiled, jade eyes glinting with mirth and tipsiness. But then her expression sobered. “Why are you being so nice to me, Deidara?” she asked suddenly, her brow creasing slightly. “I know you weren’t friendly with your previous partners…”

He shrugged. “You’re a lot easier to get along with than they were. You’re not uptight, or an idiot, and you don’t look down on my art. We’re similar ages, so maybe I just relate to you better. I don’t know. I could be an asshole if you want,” he said deviously.

She gave him a playful shove. “That’s quite ok, thank you. I like you the way you are now,” she replied, not realizing what she said until she said it.

He watched her a long moment, a smirk on his lips but his eyes unreadable. Then he smiled at her, that genuine smile, the one that turned her insides all wibbly. “That’s what I meant to say, yeah. I like you the way you are too.”

Sakura pulled her eyes away before her thoughts got any weirder. She drank from her mostly cooled sake bottle, and they went back to watching the night sky. Deidara had an inexplicable sort of charm, she found herself able to relax around him, and though she barely knew him, she genuinely did like him.

And up here on the roof tonight as they watched the stars and shared interesting stories, for a little while he made her forget. Who they were, what sides they really stood on, where she was and what she intended to do, it all drifted away temporarily and they were just two people sharing a moment in time together.

Sakura had no idea what would come in the days and weeks ahead, but with Deidara as her partner, she thought the journey may not be so dark after all.

She wondered why that didn’t bother her as much as it should.

A/N: The stargazing conversation was only my speculation. The Naruto world is not our world, it’s a completely alternate universe that seems to be a mixture of both modern and olden knowledge, customs, and technologies, so it’s hard to guess what they may know of science or astronomy, but I figure they would know a little.

However the myth behind Deidara’s name is real. It wasn’t mentioned in the manga, but it’s most likely that the Japanese legend of Daidarabocchi, or Deidarabocchi in certain areas, was Kishimoto’s inspiration for his name. Neat, huh? : )