Chapter 11

Itachi, Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto and Sai were dragged into the same room they had been captured in. They were led to the middle of the room and forced down onto their knees. "I have decided what to do with you intruders. You are to be executed by my personal bodyguard, Sakura." Takumi told them.

Sakura appeared from the shadows, slowly withdrawing her katana. She took a few steps towards the line of the kneeling ninja. "Sakura!" Sasuke shouted, catching her attention. She looked at him, straight into his sharringan lit eyes. "Snap out of it. This is not who you are. You'd never do something like this. Try and remember who you really are." He commanded her, heightening the effect using the sharringan.

"Well I guess you just volunteered to go first." Sakura replied, walking purposefully towards him. Fear leapt into his eyes as they realised the plan wasn't working. They had tried a similar tactic Naruto had used with Sasuke when Orochimaru had him under control, then used the sharringan to enhance the effect, hoping it would break the stronger curse. Now it was failing and they were all going to die.

Sakura walked behind him and grabbed his hair roughly in her hand, bringing his head up. She placed the blade of her katana at his neck. "Sakura." Itachi spoke gently. She sharply turned her head in his direction. Itachi lifted his head; her green eyes met his red sharringan eyes. His expression showed his love for her. "This is something I should have told you a long time ago. I love you."

"You plan to break the curse is futile. She is indefinitely under my control. Kill them all, now!" He ordered.

Sakura hesitated a moment before slitting each and every throat of the ninja kneeling on the floor, ignoring all of their pleas.

OOO

I watched from the sidelines as the group of intruders were walked in. They were made to kneel in a line on the floor. "I have decided what to do with you intruders. You are to be executed by my personal bodyguard, Sakura." Takumi said. I stepped out from the shadows. Takumi had always been one for theatrics. I slowly withdrew my katana from its sheath on my back and took a few steps towards the line of intruders. 'Sakura don't do this, please listen to what I've been trying to tell you!' Hotaru interrupted my flow. 'Go away Hotaru! I told you that I don't need you anymore!' I shouted back at her.

"Sakura!" One of the intruders shouted at me. I was sure that his eyes hadn't been red the last time. 'His name's Sasuke, your brother-in-law and teammate. Please listen to him.' 'Go away!' I shouted at her, even though some instinct told me that she was right. "Snap out of it. This is not who you are. You'd never do something like this. Try and remember who you really are." He told me. Something stirred inside me but I suppressed it back down.

"Well I guess you just volunteered to go first." I told him, walking purposefully towards him. Fear glinted in his eyes as he realised that I was really going to kill him. I walked behind him and grabbed his hair, pulling his head towards me so I could get to his neck easily. As I put the blade of my katana against his neck, I heard a soft voice calling me. "Sakura." I turned my head to see who had spoken. He lifted his head to show the same red eyes I had looked into moments ago. This man looked very familiar. I put that thought aside when I realised he looked very similar to Sasuke. 'Itachi. You have to remember Itachi. You love him, remember.' I tried to remember but there was only pain. His face showed a look of adoration. "This is something I should have told you a long time ago. I love you."

Something inside me twigged. The pain was gone. All I felt was love and adoration. Suddenly a life time worth of memories flooded back to me.

"Your plan to break the curse is futile. She is indefinitely under my control. Kill them all, now!" Takumi ordered. The usual tingling sensation I felt on the back of my neck wasn't there. I didn't want to kill my friends, my family. I quickly cast a genjitsu on the room, while I formulated a plan.

I made quick work of the rope binding their hands. Slowly one by one they woke up from the genjitsu as they 'died'.

"How am I not dead?" Sasuke asked as he became less disorientated.

"I cast a genjitsu on everyone. I had to make it believable. Sorry." I explained.

"Oh, well I'm glad you're you again." He replied.

"Out of interest when did you cast the genjitsu?" Sai asked.

"Just before I killed Sasuke." I replied.

"NO! Why did you kill me Sakura? Why didn't it work?" Naruto shouted as he woke up from the genjitsu thinking he was dead.

"Naruto! It was a genjitsu!" I shouted, hitting him round the head.

"Ow Sakura-chan! That hurt, why did you do that?" Naruto asked being the numpty he always was.

"How much do you remember?" Kakashi asked me. I could remember each second perfectly, but at that moment Itachi looked at me after waking from the genjitsu.

"Not very much really." I replied. 'Liar.' Hotaru whispered in the back of my mind. "I worked out what had happened pretty quickly when I came back to reality and reacted accordingly." I span off a reasonable explanation for what I did.

"Ha ha ha. Very good Sakura." Takumi said. "Maybe we should retire to my room now." I quickly took control of my genjitsu before it could alert him to its presence. I picked up my katana from the ground and walked back over to him. I lent up to his ear, my genjitsu-self whispering something in his ear. I brought the blade back and ran it through one of his vital points. The genjitsu broke immediately. "What? No, it can't be! I was very precise." He shouted. Realising what had just happened.

"Not precise enough." I whispered back. I withdrew, taking the katana with me. I put it back into the sheath on my back and pulled the others out of the room.

As we neared the front of the building, I stopped the group. "Line up in single file and take one hand of the person behind you." I told them. When they looked like they weren't going to do as I asked, I spoke again, only a little harsher. "Just do what I say." They lined up quickly. I then cast another genjitsu, making it look like they were bound together by rope. I took the free hand of the person behind me, it was Itachi's. I then took them out of the building and led them through the village towards the gate.

At the gate I was stopped by the guards'. "Where are you taking the prisoners?" He asked me.

"I'm taking them to be executed outside of the village walls." I told him.

"Won't Leader want to see the execution?" He asked, slightly suspicious.

"Takumi is busy and doesn't want to get blood all over his palace." I replied easily.

"All right, you can pass." He said waving us through. We stayed in line until we were out of sight. I then released the rope genjitsu.

"How are we going to get passed the scouts?" Sasuke asked. Once we broke formation.

"I actually didn't think that far ahead." I replied honestly.

"Sai had a good look at the scouts' formation. We can slip through undetected if we travel in that direction." Itachi said, pointing towards the right.

We all silently took off in that direction, using any and every tactic we knew to cover our trails and travel as though we were invisible.

OOO

We travelled for four days back to the Uchiha holiday home, where I had been having my honeymoon with Itachi. When we arrived a letter was written to Tsunade telling her that I had been found and was now safe. We all decided not to go back to Konoha for a little bit. I needed to recuperate a little and the others wanted to stick around to make sure I was okay.

I was currently sitting in the bath house, curled up in a foetal position. 'What do I do?' I asked Hotaru. 'Well you could just jump him the next time you two are alone.' She suggested. 'No! What if he rejects me?' I mentally shouted. 'Are you trying to be thick?' At that moment someone walked in stopping our conversation.

"Oh, sorry I didn't realise you were in here." Sasuke said before turning around to leave.

"It's okay. It might be nice to have some company. I know you won't do anything." I invited him to join me. It would be nice to talk to someone other than Hotaru. "What happened between you and Naruto?" I asked, starting the conversation, steering it away from me.

"Itachi asked me exactly the same question." He replied, chuckling slightly. "I'm guessing that you saw him and me together at the party. Well we actually 'got it off' that night. He didn't remember anything afterwards; I didn't even try to give him any hints. A week later he started dating Hinata." He retold the story briefly. Not giving many of his feelings, but I could see from his eyes that it tore him apart inside.

"I would give you a hug but I don't really feel like hugging you while I'm practically naked." He laughed at my comment.

"You know I wouldn't care, but yes it would be a little awkward." We both burst out laughing.

"I was actually thinking more along the lines of that fact that I'm married to your brother, and that no-one knows your secret. If anyone walked in on us it may look a lot worse than it is." He started laughing harder and I had no choice but to join him. Picturing that situation was funny enough on its own without Sasuke howling in the background.

"So, you and Itachi. How's that working out for you?" He asked me as we finished laughing.

"I don't know really." I replied honestly. "We don't really know how to act around each other. It's all a bit awkward."

"You shouldn't have been pushed into this if you don't love him. I'll talk to him, see if there's a way to get you out of this..."

"No. Loving him is the easy part. Even though I did resist the idea at first, I fell in love with him quickly. We were getting towards the stage where we were comfortable with each other but then we had a big fight and I ran. I was being stupid, not looking at my surroundings and I fell in the hole and was captured." I told him.

"Itachi told me about the fight. Talk to him. Tell him how you feel. I'm sure you two will be fine after that." He said before getting up. "I'll see you later." He then left, leaving me alone.

"So you love me then." It was more of a statement than a question. Apparently I wasn't as alone as I thought I was. Itachi dropped his towel to the floor and climbed in the pool next to me.

Slowly I nodded, looking at my feet through the water. "How long have you been listening?" I asked him.

"Long enough." He replied simply, being very vague.

"When you said that you loved me was that true?" I asked timidly.

"Yes. I've loved you for a long time. I should have told you that I didn't even read the whole list of girls. I only told you about the ones I had read. Once I saw your name, I knew that you were the only one I was ever going to pick because you were the one I already loved." He told me.

I slowly looked up at him. I then sighed, "Since we're being really honest with each other. You know that I said that I didn't really remember what happened when I was under the curse seal." He nodded, urging me to carry on. "Well I was lying. I can remember every second and it haunts me." I was whispering towards the end. Tears started to fall from my eyes.

"I know. The curse seal used was one which can only be used by the sharringan." He then pulled me into his arms, comforting me. I leant into his embrace. He pulled my face up to his and I didn't resist the small kiss he gave me.