Shizukesa: [57] - Sakura's Sharingan

Sasori's face of confusion was met with a cheeky grin by the pink haired medic.

“Uchiha...?” he questioned silkily, glaring at the destroyer of his prized puppet. A hundred feet of hand-sized stone fragments stuck up out of a black sea of iron sand before him.

“Not yet.” Sakura sassed, straightening herself to stand at her full height and cracking her knuckles.

The red haired child narrowed his eyes and ruffled his hands in a blur of motion. The clouded black Akatsuki cloak fell away, revealing a hollow stomach filled with some kind of metal coil and a pair of wing-like structures with blades instead of feathers.

Sakura reappeared behind said wings, artistically evading all of the blades that swung at her. Cocking back a fist, she swung with the force of a falling mountain at Sasori's back.

Almost too quickly to see, the metal in his stomach uncoiled, shooting like a striking snake into a rock near Chiyo. Sakura's fist met empty air as he was pulled at jarring speed through the air, his puppet-like arms moving in an inhuman, calculated jerk towards the scrolls on his back. His hands began to glow red as the scrolled burned away into ragged flakes of ash, little jets of flame beginning to eke out of the tubes that protruded from his palms. An instant later, they were bellowing torrents of incineration racing towards the old woman.

~ ~ ~

Sasuke lay serenely still, his lengthy charcoal hair oozing around his head in the lazily waving green grass like a puddle of oil. His chest rose and fell slowly under his loose black shirt and his face was utterly at rest.

“You know, you really don't look like you just made Zeus step his game up.”

Karin sighed, staring at his peaceful expression in disbelief. Aside from the eerie stone replica of herself that stood overhead, her primary sensation was boredom. Her head was propped up on her palm, and she was literally amusing herself by talking to a sleeping Sasuke.

“Seriously, what is up with you? How can you be so intimidating when you're awake and look like a kitten when you're not?”

She shuddered without realizing it as she felt Naruto's chakra bubbling over, miles away. It was dark, contrary to its normal overbearing warmth.

She sighed again.

“... You know, it bothers me that you keep having to save me. I've been training hard too, but it still feels like we're worlds apart.”

Sakura's chakra flared, but Karin felt the Uchiha tinge that pulsed through it.

“Really? You're still protecting her while you're unconscious?” She shook her head, adjusting her glasses and narrowing her eyes at the stony likeness of herself that stood a few feet away.

“She can take care of herself, you know. She's strong. Not like me.” Flicking a nearby pebble, Karin frowned, glowering irritably at the oblivious serenity of the sleeping Sasuke.

In a flurry of motion she jumped to her feet, trembling as she reached for a kunai, drew it out and pointed it shakily towards the red and black cloak that had materialized beside her. She gasped as she made eye contact with dark and scarlet eyes.

“Y-you're Sasuke's brother.” Karin stuttered, stepping between Itachi and the sleeping Sasuke.

“You're correct.” Itachi's black-spotted eyes locked onto her own deep red ones, an undecipherable blank expression displayed on his face. He slowly walked forwards, shifting his chilling gaze to Sasuke, whose steady breathing hadn't changed in pace at all.

“S-stop!”

Karin couldn't move at all, her body inexplicably frozen.

Itachi paid her no mind and knelt down next to his brother, gently untying Sasuke's Konoha headband and placing his left hand on his forehead as if her were checking for a fever.

~ ~ ~

Sakura felt the sharingan dissolve, and pounded the ground in frustration. Exhausted, she picked herself up off of the ground and dashed desperately towards Chiyo and Sasori.

White hot pain shot through her abdomen as the sword stabbed through her. She let out a quiet gasp, but didn't scream. Meeting Sasori's widened eyes with a glare, she grasped the blade with her bare hands and tried to draw from her dwindling pool of chakra.

Sasuke grinned and wrapped his arms around her from behind, nuzzling his head on her shoulder. She felt herself go red as her heart leaped in her chest. Nearly asleep, he whispered her name into her ear.

“Sakura...” he spoke softly, barely moving his lips.

“You are my everything...” his voice washed over her.

“I love you.”

Sakura felt his presence in the midst of her distracting agony, as if he were holding her in his arms all over again.

Lightning exploded from her wound, running down the sword like water off of a leaf, white hot bright light zig-zagging towards the red scroll in the puppet puppeteer's chest.
The bolt blasted Sasori clean off of his feet, throwing him violently into the air like a ragdoll. Fighting with the pain that threatened to overcome her, Sakura sank to her knees, slowly managing to draw the sword out of herself before she felt her head go fuzzy.

A pinprick in her thigh, almost insignificant in comparison to her stab wound, kept her from passing out. Suddenly the fog began to clear, and she began to become aware of Chiyo's hands above her wound.

Far across the destroyed cave, Sasori began to stir under an unassuming pile of rubble.

~ ~ ~

Sparks shot up Itachi's arm, causing him to rapidly retract his hand from his brother's head. The elder Uchiha's face loosened in surprise for a moment, before it relaxed into a grin.

“Impressive...” Closing his eyes, Itachi Uchiha stood, wind rippling through his hair and cloak. He pushed his charcoal hair out of his face, lifting his face to the sky.

Karin shattered the genjutsu ensnaring her limbs with a violent, painful pulse of her chakra and hurled the kunai in her hand with all her might at his chest.

Despair shot through her as the blade passed harmlessly through a space in the midst of a murder of crows. Black birds flocked around her, reforming into the Akatsuki Uchiha behind her. Spinning around frantically, she froze at the sight of his sharingan, those scarlet eyes with wisps of ashen black swirled around in sharp points.

He seemed to be seeing her for the first time, his face leveled at her calmly.

“Wh- what did you do to Sasuke?” she stuttered, her heart racing in her chest.

Itachi seemed to contemplate her question for a moment and exhaled calmly. “You won't be able to speak of this afterwards.” his bottomless blood-red eyes sparked, captivating...

“These eyes are dangerous if they are used by people who are not of our clan. He might lose his eyesight altogether... and that would be a waste of our heritage.”

She drew in a sharp breath as black molten feathers formed around his figure, branching off and spreading their wings, bright black against the blue sky. The strangely shaped sharingan suddenly faded into oddly familiar black eyes, and she felt her mind crumble as she fell into them.

Sasuke, having just woken up, hopped up and caught her falling figure out of sheer reflex. He glanced around groggily, questioning the field filled with nothing but empty grass. After affirming that Karin had a pulse, he scanned his surroundings once again, narrowing his eyes skeptically.

Then he realized that both radios were fried and the sensor was unconscious.

And I have no idea where everyone else is.

“... Damn it all.”