Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Hiasobi
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Chapter 2
Unsure of what had woken him, Itachi laid still; his senses were alert. He felt an arm wrap around his midsection and he bristled at the close contact. Glancing at her over his shoulder, he could see she was sound asleep and probably had no clue she had scooted up to him again. Lying still for a moment, he savored the feeling of another human body pressed against his, and the extra warmth her body provided before he decided it was time to wake her and make her scoot over.
Sakura awoke to find herself staring into a pair of deep, onyx, heavy-lidded eyes. She smiled at him before closing her eyes again. Sasuke-kun was so handsome.
Suddenly she bolted upright, almost knocking heads with him. "Excuse me, I'm sorry!" she said while shielding herself with the blanket and backing away. She averted her face in shame, hiding her blush.
Her heart hammered in her chest, and it was quite some time before Sakura fell back asleep. She could just kick herself for cuddling up to the enemy, literally...again.
~~~*~
Morning found Sakura bleary-eyed and crabby. Damn this man for kidnapping her, what the hell did he want anyway? It was not like she was politically valuable or had a bloodline limit, so why her damn it!?
To make matters worse, the previous night's events kept replaying in her mind; she could almost die of embarrassment. She worried about her friends, as well as having that fish-face creep leering at her again. As she waited with arms crossed for them to set out for the day, the dark swirling aura around her was almost tangible.
~~~*~
Sakura's mind was working overtime to try to come up with a means of escape. A vague plan had formed in her mind: separate Itachi and Kisame, provoke Kisame to a bare-hand fight, kick Kisame's ass using taijutsu, grab her weapons from him, and then run like mad.
The problem was that the plan was just too vague. Not that she needed to have every single detail worked out, but how to separate them was vital. What would she say to provoke Kisame to throw down his sword? The intelligence she had on him told her that the sword would steal her chakra, leaving her in a precarious situation at best. If that were the case, it would stand to reason that it would be an ordinary sword if she weren't using her chakra. Thankfully her strength was hers without aid of chakra, so he couldn't rob her of that. But being drained of chakra ate away at all of the body's functions which was quite a dilemma. The only ways out were to fight him without the sword, or to fight from a distance.
The other problem was Itachi. If he caught up to her after fighting with Kisame, would she have the stamina left to fight him? She was good, but was she good enough to beat two Akatsuki members in one day? Logic told her no. Her only hope was fleeing. But would she be fast enough to get away? Sakura continued to turn it over and over in her mind, but no quick solutions were forthcoming.
~~~*~
They paused beside a stream to eat. Sakura tried hard to keep her attention off of the half-naked Itachi wading out into the stream to catch some fish. She hated him; he had caused so much strife in her life, and the lives of her loved ones. She did not notice how nice he looked when his hair had come loose of its customary ponytail, and she most definitely did not notice the droplets of water that splashed onto his bare chiseled chest as the fish squirmed in his hands.
Kisame quickly volunteered to cook the fish as Itachi walked back towards the small fire. Sakura had to avert her face to hide the smile as inner Sakura began acting up, 'Hell yeah, fool! That's what you get.' An inner victory dance started as she continued crowing, 'Yeah, you go cook the food!' Sakura allowed her inner voice a few moments of freedom before squelching her back to silence. She had to focus on her escape plan.
~~~*~
Sakura had thrown out her original plan, and was now contemplating her second escape plan. She just had to wait for the most opportune time to act like a frightened girl, fall against Kisame, and grab one of her weapons from him while slicing him in the process of taking it. Then... and then get her butt kicked by them as they ganged up on her. A small sigh escaped her.
By the end of the day, she was mentally exhausted from all the "failed" escape attempts. Itachi had gone to secure the perimeter around their camp and round up some dinner, leaving her alone with Kisame. She was /thrilled/.
Kisame had been itching for a chance to fight the girl who had almost bested Itachi. He loved to fight strong people and to get stronger. He was the more hot-blooded of the two, looking for fights when Itachi deemed them unnecessary. Experience told him that if Itachi interjected, there was good cause to listen.
"I'm surprised, ninja girl, after the fight you gave Itachi back there, I thought you would be more fun."
Sakura felt a small jolt of shock when he began speaking. There was nobody else around, so he was indeed speaking to her.
Sakura held no doubts that his idea of fun was she attempting to escape thereby allowing him a chance to try to hack off some body parts.
"I don't like your idea of fun," she replied.
"Ho? What if there were no weapons?" he asked.
She looked at him, calculating. Was he truly challenging her? She felt sure she would have the advantage if he didn't use any weapons, and he had viewed the fight with Itachi, so he should realize this too.
A small sound escaped Kisame, and she would have had to be Naruto not to realize the intended insult. She felt her hackles rise; he was challenging her and trying to make her out to be a coward no less.
Quickly rolling to her feet, she didn't give him time to attack; she came up swinging. Kisame dodged just in time and Sakura felled the giant tree behind him, sending it crashing to the ground in an explosion of noise and dust. He smiled in anticipation of the fight to come.
She blocked just in time as he aimed a punch for her head, and countered with a leg sweep, which he jumped over. The powerful blows they traded had little effect on the other, merely leaving bruises in their wake, and gaining neither an advantage.
She ducked a vicious punch, which splintered the tree behind her. She landed a blow to his face, sending him sprawling. He spit out blood and a few teeth, his feral grin in place the whole time. They circled one another, calculating. Sakura felt vaguely like she was sparring with Naruto with his endless chakra reserves.
Before Kisame had a chance to pull any jutsu, she rushed him again, feigning a kick to the left and punching to the right. He grabbed her arm in a bone-crunching hold, which she quickly broke free from, arm throbbing.
They traded a few more blows before Kisame landed a solid kick to Sakura's midsection, sending her flying into a tree behind her and stunning her. Before she had regained her senses, he was in front of her, fist raised to strike. At the last possible second, she rolled to the side and his fist went several inches into the ground where she had just been.
Still on the ground, she used her legs to grab him, knock him off balance, and send him tumbling to the ground. She was on him as soon as he landed and the two of them rolled, trying to gain dominance. Sakura ended up on top.
Sending her fist into Kisame's face, his blood spurted as his nose broke, and he let out a grunt of pain. Adrenaline surged through him and he flipped her; his blood dripped on her face as she struggled for freedom. While she did not share her teacher's aversion to blood, it still bothered her, and she thrashed for freedom.
Suddenly a twig broke, heralding Itachi's return, the noise echoing through the campsite as the combatants froze. Both turned their faces toward the sound; Sakura's was inverted as she was still pinned beneath Kisame, wrists held in his bruising grip.
A feeling of being a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar came over both at the cool expression on Itachi's face. They disengaged from each other, Kisame pinching the bridge of his nose to stem the bleeding, while Sakura rubbed the circulation back into her wrists.
Itachi dropped the birds he carried by the fire, to pull Kisame aside. They spoke in hushed tones and she could not catch their conversation. Sakura sighed. Eyeing the birds, she walked over by the fire and began cleaning them.
Itachi walked by her when she was nearly finished with the second bird. Kisame had gone into his tent, sulking, and Itachi sat against a tree to wait. When she finished preparing the birds, Sakura made a makeshift spit, and skewered the birds, setting them to roast above the fire. She presented her gory hands to Itachi, "Is there water nearby?"
Itachi stood and began walking away, not looking back to see if she was following him. Sakura hastened to catch up. As they got further from the campground, Sakura couldn't resist asking, "He will watch the food, won't he?"
"Aaa," was Itachi's noncommittal reply.
~~~*~
After dinner, Sakura began working on some of the damage Kisame had done to her.
"You're a healer?" Kisame's question was very nasal.
Sakura glared slightly before nodding.
"Den fix by nose!" he demanded.
Sakura smiled sweetly, "but you look so much more handsome that way." she could swear she heard Kisame growl as they glared at each other.
Itachi made motions to retire for the night, but Sakura stopped him, stalking over to Kisame who eyed her warily. When her smile turned saccharine, he didn't have time to react before she ripped off the tape holding the bandage over his nose.
His bellow of pain and rage filled the night, and Sakura caught the punch he threw at her in her left hand while she began healing him with her right. Using her chakra, her eyes became unseeing as she prodded around, feeling the bone and cartilage fragments. She began systematically moving them back where they belonged, however she did not numb his nerves, as was common practice.
Tears ran down his face uncontrollably; however he did not move or make another sound. Satisfied, Sakura placed new tape over Kisame's nose and followed Itachi into the tent where she fell asleep almost instantly.
~~~*~
Chapter 2
Unsure of what had woken him, Itachi laid still; his senses were alert. He felt an arm wrap around his midsection and he bristled at the close contact. Glancing at her over his shoulder, he could see she was sound asleep and probably had no clue she had scooted up to him again. Lying still for a moment, he savored the feeling of another human body pressed against his, and the extra warmth her body provided before he decided it was time to wake her and make her scoot over.
Sakura awoke to find herself staring into a pair of deep, onyx, heavy-lidded eyes. She smiled at him before closing her eyes again. Sasuke-kun was so handsome.
Suddenly she bolted upright, almost knocking heads with him. "Excuse me, I'm sorry!" she said while shielding herself with the blanket and backing away. She averted her face in shame, hiding her blush.
Her heart hammered in her chest, and it was quite some time before Sakura fell back asleep. She could just kick herself for cuddling up to the enemy, literally...again.
~~~*~
Morning found Sakura bleary-eyed and crabby. Damn this man for kidnapping her, what the hell did he want anyway? It was not like she was politically valuable or had a bloodline limit, so why her damn it!?
To make matters worse, the previous night's events kept replaying in her mind; she could almost die of embarrassment. She worried about her friends, as well as having that fish-face creep leering at her again. As she waited with arms crossed for them to set out for the day, the dark swirling aura around her was almost tangible.
~~~*~
Sakura's mind was working overtime to try to come up with a means of escape. A vague plan had formed in her mind: separate Itachi and Kisame, provoke Kisame to a bare-hand fight, kick Kisame's ass using taijutsu, grab her weapons from him, and then run like mad.
The problem was that the plan was just too vague. Not that she needed to have every single detail worked out, but how to separate them was vital. What would she say to provoke Kisame to throw down his sword? The intelligence she had on him told her that the sword would steal her chakra, leaving her in a precarious situation at best. If that were the case, it would stand to reason that it would be an ordinary sword if she weren't using her chakra. Thankfully her strength was hers without aid of chakra, so he couldn't rob her of that. But being drained of chakra ate away at all of the body's functions which was quite a dilemma. The only ways out were to fight him without the sword, or to fight from a distance.
The other problem was Itachi. If he caught up to her after fighting with Kisame, would she have the stamina left to fight him? She was good, but was she good enough to beat two Akatsuki members in one day? Logic told her no. Her only hope was fleeing. But would she be fast enough to get away? Sakura continued to turn it over and over in her mind, but no quick solutions were forthcoming.
~~~*~
They paused beside a stream to eat. Sakura tried hard to keep her attention off of the half-naked Itachi wading out into the stream to catch some fish. She hated him; he had caused so much strife in her life, and the lives of her loved ones. She did not notice how nice he looked when his hair had come loose of its customary ponytail, and she most definitely did not notice the droplets of water that splashed onto his bare chiseled chest as the fish squirmed in his hands.
Kisame quickly volunteered to cook the fish as Itachi walked back towards the small fire. Sakura had to avert her face to hide the smile as inner Sakura began acting up, 'Hell yeah, fool! That's what you get.' An inner victory dance started as she continued crowing, 'Yeah, you go cook the food!' Sakura allowed her inner voice a few moments of freedom before squelching her back to silence. She had to focus on her escape plan.
~~~*~
Sakura had thrown out her original plan, and was now contemplating her second escape plan. She just had to wait for the most opportune time to act like a frightened girl, fall against Kisame, and grab one of her weapons from him while slicing him in the process of taking it. Then... and then get her butt kicked by them as they ganged up on her. A small sigh escaped her.
By the end of the day, she was mentally exhausted from all the "failed" escape attempts. Itachi had gone to secure the perimeter around their camp and round up some dinner, leaving her alone with Kisame. She was /thrilled/.
Kisame had been itching for a chance to fight the girl who had almost bested Itachi. He loved to fight strong people and to get stronger. He was the more hot-blooded of the two, looking for fights when Itachi deemed them unnecessary. Experience told him that if Itachi interjected, there was good cause to listen.
"I'm surprised, ninja girl, after the fight you gave Itachi back there, I thought you would be more fun."
Sakura felt a small jolt of shock when he began speaking. There was nobody else around, so he was indeed speaking to her.
Sakura held no doubts that his idea of fun was she attempting to escape thereby allowing him a chance to try to hack off some body parts.
"I don't like your idea of fun," she replied.
"Ho? What if there were no weapons?" he asked.
She looked at him, calculating. Was he truly challenging her? She felt sure she would have the advantage if he didn't use any weapons, and he had viewed the fight with Itachi, so he should realize this too.
A small sound escaped Kisame, and she would have had to be Naruto not to realize the intended insult. She felt her hackles rise; he was challenging her and trying to make her out to be a coward no less.
Quickly rolling to her feet, she didn't give him time to attack; she came up swinging. Kisame dodged just in time and Sakura felled the giant tree behind him, sending it crashing to the ground in an explosion of noise and dust. He smiled in anticipation of the fight to come.
She blocked just in time as he aimed a punch for her head, and countered with a leg sweep, which he jumped over. The powerful blows they traded had little effect on the other, merely leaving bruises in their wake, and gaining neither an advantage.
She ducked a vicious punch, which splintered the tree behind her. She landed a blow to his face, sending him sprawling. He spit out blood and a few teeth, his feral grin in place the whole time. They circled one another, calculating. Sakura felt vaguely like she was sparring with Naruto with his endless chakra reserves.
Before Kisame had a chance to pull any jutsu, she rushed him again, feigning a kick to the left and punching to the right. He grabbed her arm in a bone-crunching hold, which she quickly broke free from, arm throbbing.
They traded a few more blows before Kisame landed a solid kick to Sakura's midsection, sending her flying into a tree behind her and stunning her. Before she had regained her senses, he was in front of her, fist raised to strike. At the last possible second, she rolled to the side and his fist went several inches into the ground where she had just been.
Still on the ground, she used her legs to grab him, knock him off balance, and send him tumbling to the ground. She was on him as soon as he landed and the two of them rolled, trying to gain dominance. Sakura ended up on top.
Sending her fist into Kisame's face, his blood spurted as his nose broke, and he let out a grunt of pain. Adrenaline surged through him and he flipped her; his blood dripped on her face as she struggled for freedom. While she did not share her teacher's aversion to blood, it still bothered her, and she thrashed for freedom.
Suddenly a twig broke, heralding Itachi's return, the noise echoing through the campsite as the combatants froze. Both turned their faces toward the sound; Sakura's was inverted as she was still pinned beneath Kisame, wrists held in his bruising grip.
A feeling of being a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar came over both at the cool expression on Itachi's face. They disengaged from each other, Kisame pinching the bridge of his nose to stem the bleeding, while Sakura rubbed the circulation back into her wrists.
Itachi dropped the birds he carried by the fire, to pull Kisame aside. They spoke in hushed tones and she could not catch their conversation. Sakura sighed. Eyeing the birds, she walked over by the fire and began cleaning them.
Itachi walked by her when she was nearly finished with the second bird. Kisame had gone into his tent, sulking, and Itachi sat against a tree to wait. When she finished preparing the birds, Sakura made a makeshift spit, and skewered the birds, setting them to roast above the fire. She presented her gory hands to Itachi, "Is there water nearby?"
Itachi stood and began walking away, not looking back to see if she was following him. Sakura hastened to catch up. As they got further from the campground, Sakura couldn't resist asking, "He will watch the food, won't he?"
"Aaa," was Itachi's noncommittal reply.
~~~*~
After dinner, Sakura began working on some of the damage Kisame had done to her.
"You're a healer?" Kisame's question was very nasal.
Sakura glared slightly before nodding.
"Den fix by nose!" he demanded.
Sakura smiled sweetly, "but you look so much more handsome that way." she could swear she heard Kisame growl as they glared at each other.
Itachi made motions to retire for the night, but Sakura stopped him, stalking over to Kisame who eyed her warily. When her smile turned saccharine, he didn't have time to react before she ripped off the tape holding the bandage over his nose.
His bellow of pain and rage filled the night, and Sakura caught the punch he threw at her in her left hand while she began healing him with her right. Using her chakra, her eyes became unseeing as she prodded around, feeling the bone and cartilage fragments. She began systematically moving them back where they belonged, however she did not numb his nerves, as was common practice.
Tears ran down his face uncontrollably; however he did not move or make another sound. Satisfied, Sakura placed new tape over Kisame's nose and followed Itachi into the tent where she fell asleep almost instantly.
~~~*~
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