Chapter 15Facades"Love is much like

Chapter 15

Facades

"Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense."
-Mark A. Overby

-xxx-

Sasuke stared numbly at the spot where Itachi and Sakura had disappeared.

'You fool!' he screamed at himself. 'You shouldn't have kissed her – that's why he took her! He saw it and now he knows what she means to you!'

Sasuke dug the heels of his hands into his eyes, as though if he pressed hard enough, he could erase the image of Sakura's frightened face as Itachi spirited her away.

His fingers automatically formed the seals that would transport him to the Uchiha hideout, but he stopped himself. It would take an enormous amount of chakra to transport himself across that vast distance. And if he faced Itachi while low on chakra...

Sasuke knew what would happen. He'd lose, and Sakura would be left with his brother.

He'd have to get to the Uchiha hideout on his own two feet. Itachi might be willing to squander chakra in teleportation, but Sasuke wasn't about to take the risk – there was too much at stake.

"Hey, Sasuke!" came Suigetsu's voice behind him. "Karin sensed another chakra...hey, where's Princess?"

"He took her!" Sasuke barely recognised his voice – it was low and gravelly, sounding more animal then human. "Itachi took Sakura!"

-xxx-

Sasuke knew, logically, that he should slow down. Itachi had issued the challenge, so he would presumably be waiting there for some time. He knew he could rest and restore himself, be truly prepared for the confrontation...

But in the meantime, Itachi had Sakura. And Sasuke wasn't leaving her in the hands of his brother for one moment longer than he had to – the thought of Sakura at Itachi's mercy made him feel sick.

'He won't kill her,' he told himself in an effort to calm the wild, erratic pounding of his heart that had nothing to do with the frantic pace he had set. 'If he wanted her dead, he would have slit her throat without a moment's hesitation. He wants her alive, he'll keep her alive...'

But that did little to silence the forbidding whispers of how spirited Sakura was, of how much defiance she would show Itachi...and what the Akatsuki might do to subdue her. If she challenged Itachi's power, would he sentence her to a few days of agony in Tsukiyomi to impress that power upon her?

'He wants her alive, he wants her alive...'

Of course, those thoughts begged the question of exactly what Itachi wanted Sakura alive for. If the Akatsuki were really after the tailed demons...did that mean Itachi was even now torturing her for information on Naruto?

Sasuke put an extra edge on his already extraordinary speed. He knew he was forcing the others to labour to keep up, but he just couldn't bring himself to care.

"There's a whole bunch of identical chakras all around us," Karin panted.

'Doppelgangers,' Sasuke realised. Apparently Naruto was among the Leaf party that was tracking them. But then again, he should have expected nothing less.

"We keep going!" he barked.

If they ran into one of the doppelgangers...then they'd deal with it. Sasuke knew how advantageous it would be to have the Konoha ninjas at the hideout – a retinue of Leaf nins would ensure Sakura was freed and escorted to Konoha in safety...but what were the odds of them believing his story and not trying to drag him back or kill him on sight? And even if they would believe him, Sasuke didn't have the time to explain everything to them.

Sakura needed him.

And every second wasted was another second she spent in Itachi's grasp. Sasuke found his fingers automatically beginning to form the seals needed for a teleportation jutsu and clenched his fists, disengaging his hands.

'Do! Not! Teleport! If you are drained when you face him he will kill you!'

He had to grit his teeth against the urge to scream the words, dredging up the iron-clad self-discipline that he had forged all throughout the long years of training to avenge his family.

But whenever he thought of Sakura – Sakura – in the hands of his brother, he could practically feel his self-discipline splintering apart.

And beneath his fury and worry, guilt churned like bitter acid in his stomach. If he had set her free in the motel – when he should have – then this would never have happened...

There was a flash of yellow up ahead, and Sasuke welcomed the distraction from his increasingly-dark thoughts of what Sakura might already be enduring. The splotch of yellow resolved itself into a wild mop of blonde hair...that was attached to a very familiar face.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled.

Sasuke didn't slow his pace for a moment. He swept his arm out to the side, intending to snatch Naruto's shoulder and sweep him along with them.

"Naruto, listen up-"

But as soon as his palm slammed into the blonde's shoulder, the man disappeared in a puff of smoke.

He must have been one of the doppelgangers. Sasuke swore, but continued on. While it would have been useful to have Naruto along to safeguard Sakura, he wasn't about to diverge from his headlong flight to seek another clone. He and his team would have to be enough.

Though Hebi was rapidly tiring of his punishing pace. He had expected some form of complaint, but all three had made no protest.

Juugo was silent, as he often was, but his face was wearing an expression fiercer than any Sasuke had ever seen on him outside of his rages. Suigetsu, who would usually have been whining for a rest by now, hadn't made one complaint, the only expression on his features one of grim determination.

And Karin...well, she probably just sensed he wasn't in the mood to hear any objections.

They were going to the Uchiha hideout, and they were going there as fast as they possibly could.

-xxx-

"I've found him!" Naruto called as one of his doppelganger's ceased to exist and thusly transferred its knowledge and experience to him. "Follow me – I think there's a problem!"

"Why would you say that?" Kakashi asked, running level with him.

"Because Sakura wasn't with them," the Kyuubi vessel practically growled. "There was Sasuke and three other people, but Sakura wasn't there!"

"So they split up?" Yamato offered. "Sakura escaped?"

"The bastard was looking pretty damn worried," Naruto commented.

He doubted anyone else would have seen it. Sasuke was so expressionless it made him very hard to read...but once you learned how, a wealth of information could be conveyed by the minutest shift in his facial muscles.

And Naruto could tell that Sasuke had been practically screaming.

-xxx-

'This has got to be some sort of record,' a small, lucid and strangely calm corner of Sakura's brain remarked. 'This is what, my third consecutive kidnapping? First Sound, then Sasuke, and now Itachi! When did I become such a hot commodity?'

The rest of her mind was busy trying to come up with some sort of game plan.

Itachi had released her as soon as the teleportation was complete, and Sakura had found herself in a large stone chamber. Several steps lead to a raised portion of the floor in which a large stone chair rested, like a throne. The Uchiha crest was carved on the walls, but strangely, the wall behind the throne had a motif of nine coils.

Sakura had a sneaking suspicion it was intended to represent the Kyuubi.

But the most bizarre feature of the room was that it seemed to be crumbling – the walls and floor were all chipped and cracked, pitted with large holes in some places.

Itachi was in front of her, surveying her with interest, but now there was a good distance between their bodies. He had made no effort to bind or restrain her, as though his presence was enough to hold her captive.

And he might be right about that, Sakura could admit. He'd just transported both of them across a staggering distance and he didn't look fatigued in the slightest. She'd only ever faced one of Itachi's projections (she didn't think she could call that technique a clone)...and that had been difficult enough. She shuddered to think of how powerful the real Itachi was.

Sakura's eyes darted towards the room's entrance, and she wondered if there was any way she could possibly move fast enough to reach it before he did.

"I will advise you now against trying to escape," Itachi said, his tone even but somehow conveying a thousand threats.

He stepped forward, and Sakura moved backwards, automatically trying to keep several feet between her and the mass-murderer.

But she hadn't taken two steps before she felt cool stone against her back. Itachi's advance didn't halt in the slightest and Sakura felt fear tickle at the back of her mind, reminding her that she was standing in front of Itachi, without a weapon and unable to throw even a single chakra-enhanced punch.

The Uchiha halted when he was perhaps six inches in front of her and Sakura looked down, automatically avoiding his eyes in case he tried to use the Mangekyou on her. He didn't say anything, he didn't move, and Sakura had the feeling she was being studied like a specimen in a petri dish.

Sakura couldn't deny that she was scared. But she refused to give in to her fear, setting her jaw and squaring her shoulders. It took more than a little invasion of personal space to subdue her!

But she didn't look him in the eye, of course – that would have just been stupid.

Itachi considered the woman before him carefully. He had never passed up an opportunity to deepen Sasuke's hatred of him (after all, the more his brother detested him, the more willing he would be to do what needed to be done) and he knew he had a rich, untapped mine of opportunity in front of him. The hatred and anger over the death of their family had been given many years to cool, to become smouldering, calculated resentment instead of the wild inferno it once was.

Sakura represented a perfect opportunity to fan those flames once again – in spite of his protests, it was obvious Sasuke cared deeply for her.

Itachi would not kill her, as Sakura was necessary at a later stage...but what e

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

Chương 15Mặt tiền"Tình yêu là giống như một hoang dã Hoa hồng, đẹp và bình tĩnh, nhưng sẵn sàng để vẽ máu trong quốc phòng của mình."-Mark A. Overby-xxx-Sasuke stared numbly tại chỗ nơi Itachi và Sakura đã biến mất.'Bạn đánh lừa!' ông gào lên chính mình. ' Bạn không nên có hôn nó-mà có lý do tại sao ông lấy cô ấy! Ông thấy nó và bây giờ ông biết những gì cô có nghĩa là bạn!'Sasuke đào gót của bàn tay của mình vào đôi mắt của mình, như thể nếu ông ép cứng đủ, ông có thể xóa hình ảnh của khuôn mặt của Sakura sợ hãi khi Itachi spirited cô ấy đi.Ngón tay của mình tự động thành lập các con dấu sẽ vận chuyển anh ta đến nơi ẩn náu Uchiha, nhưng ông dừng lại chính mình. Nó sẽ mất một số lượng lớn của chakra để vận chuyển mình trên đó khoảng cách rộng lớn. Và nếu ông phải đối mặt với Itachi trong khi thấp trên chakra...Sasuke biết những gì sẽ xảy ra. Ông sẽ mất, và Sakura sẽ được trái với anh trai của ông.Ông sẽ có để có được đến nơi ẩn náu Uchiha trên hai chân của chính mình. Itachi có thể sẵn sàng để phung phí chakra trong teleportation, nhưng Sasuke đã không là về để có nguy cơ-đó là quá nhiều lúc cổ phần."Hey, Sasuke!" đến giọng nói của Suigetsu phía sau anh ta. "Karin cảm nhận một chakra... hey, nơi là công chúa?""Ông đưa nó!" Sasuke hầu như không nhận ra giọng nói của mình-đó là thấp và gravelly, âm thanh thêm động vật sau đó con người. "Itachi đã Sakura!"-xxx-Sasuke biết, logic, rằng ông nên chậm. Itachi đã phát hành những thách thức, do đó, ông sẽ có lẽ chờ đợi ở đó một thời gian. Hijikata biết rằng ông có thể nghỉ ngơi và khôi phục lại chính mình, thực sự được chuẩn bị cho các cuộc đối đầu...Nhưng trong khi chờ đợi, Itachi có Sakura. Và Sasuke không để lại của cô trong tay anh trai của ông cho một thời điểm dài hơn ông đã phải-những suy nghĩ của Sakura lòng thương xót của Itachi làm cho anh ta cảm thấy bị bệnh.'Ông sẽ không giết cô ta,' ông nói với chính mình trong một nỗ lực để bình tĩnh đập hoang dã, thất thường của trái tim của mình mà không có gì để làm với tốc độ điên cuồng ông đã thiết lập. ' Nếu ông muốn chết của cô, ông nào đã cắt cổ họng cô ấy mà không do dự của một thời điểm. Ông muốn cô ấy còn sống, ông sẽ giữ cho mình còn sống...'Nhưng điều đó đã làm ít để im lặng thì thầm cấm như thế nào tinh thần Sakura là, của thách thức bao nhiêu cô sẽ thấy Itachi... và những gì Akatsuki có thể làm để chinh phục cô ấy. Nếu nó thách thức Itachi của quyền lực, ông nào câu của mình cho một vài ngày đau đớn trong Tsukiyomi để gây ấn tượng với quyền lực đó khi cô?'Ông muốn cô ấy còn sống, ông muốn cô ấy còn sống...'Tất nhiên, những suy nghĩ begged câu hỏi chính xác những gì Itachi muốn Sakura còn sống cho. Nếu Akatsuki đã thực sự sau khi những con quỷ đuôi... ý đó là Itachi ngay cả bây giờ tra tấn cô ấy để thông tin về Naruto?Sasuke đặt thêm một cạnh trên của mình tốc độ bất thường đã. Ông biết ông đã buộc người khác phải lao động để theo kịp, nhưng ông chỉ không thể mang lại cho mình để chăm sóc."Không có một bó toàn bộ các Luân xa giống hệt nhau tất cả xung quanh chúng ta," Karin panted.'Doppelgangers,' Sasuke nhận ra. Rõ ràng, Naruto là một trong Đảng lá đã theo dõi chúng. Nhưng sau đó một lần nữa, ông nên có dự kiến sẽ không có gì ít hơn."Chúng tôi tiếp tục đi!", ông barked.Nếu họ chạy vào một trong những doppelgangers... sau đó họ sẽ đối phó với nó. Sasuke biết làm thế nào thuận lợi, nó sẽ là để có ninja Mộc Diệp tại nơi ẩn náu-một đoàn tùy tùng của lá nins sẽ đảm bảo Sakura được giải phóng và hộ tống đến Konoha trong an toàn... nhưng những gì đã được các tỷ lệ cược của họ tin rằng câu chuyện của mình và không cố gắng để kéo anh ta trở lại hoặc giết anh ta ngay? Và ngay cả khi người đó tin anh ta, Sasuke không có thời gian để giải thích tất cả mọi thứ cho họ.Sakura cần anh ta.Và mọi thứ hai lãng phí là một lần thứ hai, cô đã dành ở nắm bắt Itachi của. Sasuke tìm thấy ngón tay của mình tự động bắt đầu để tạo thành các con dấu cần thiết cho một thuật teleportation và clenched nắm tay của mình, disengaging tay.' Làm! Không! Teleport! Nếu bạn là đầu nguồn khi bạn phải đối mặt anh ta ông sẽ giết bạn!'Ông đã phải grit răng của mình chống lại việc đôn đốc để la hét từ, nạo vét lên sắt-clad tự kỷ luật mà ông đã cho phép tất cả trong suốt những năm dài của đào tạo để trả thù cho gia đình.Nhưng bất cứ khi nào ông nghĩ của Sakura-Sakura-trong tay của anh trai của ông, ông thực tế có thể cảm thấy tự kỷ luật của ông vỡ ra xa nhau.Và bên dưới của ông giận dữ và lo lắng, tội lỗi churned như đắng axit trong dạ dày của mình. Nếu ông đã thiết lập nó miễn phí trong nhà trọ-khi ông nên có-sau đó điều này sẽ không bao giờ xảy ra...Có là một đèn flash màu vàng lên phía trước, và hoan nghênh Sasuke phân tâm từ bóng tối ngày càng suy nghĩ của những gì Sakura có thể đã lâu dài. Splotch vàng giải quyết chính nó vào một lau hoang dã của tóc vàng... đó gắn liền với một khuôn mặt rất quen thuộc."Sasuke!" Naruto yelled.Sasuke didn't slow his pace for a moment. He swept his arm out to the side, intending to snatch Naruto's shoulder and sweep him along with them."Naruto, listen up-"But as soon as his palm slammed into the blonde's shoulder, the man disappeared in a puff of smoke.He must have been one of the doppelgangers. Sasuke swore, but continued on. While it would have been useful to have Naruto along to safeguard Sakura, he wasn't about to diverge from his headlong flight to seek another clone. He and his team would have to be enough.Though Hebi was rapidly tiring of his punishing pace. He had expected some form of complaint, but all three had made no protest.Juugo was silent, as he often was, but his face was wearing an expression fiercer than any Sasuke had ever seen on him outside of his rages. Suigetsu, who would usually have been whining for a rest by now, hadn't made one complaint, the only expression on his features one of grim determination.And Karin...well, she probably just sensed he wasn't in the mood to hear any objections.They were going to the Uchiha hideout, and they were going there as fast as they possibly could.-xxx-"I've found him!" Naruto called as one of his doppelganger's ceased to exist and thusly transferred its knowledge and experience to him. "Follow me – I think there's a problem!""Why would you say that?" Kakashi asked, running level with him."Because Sakura wasn't with them," the Kyuubi vessel practically growled. "There was Sasuke and three other people, but Sakura wasn't there!""So they split up?" Yamato offered. "Sakura escaped?""The bastard was looking pretty damn worried," Naruto commented.He doubted anyone else would have seen it. Sasuke was so expressionless it made him very hard to read...but once you learned how, a wealth of information could be conveyed by the minutest shift in his facial muscles.And Naruto could tell that Sasuke had been practically screaming.-xxx-'This has got to be some sort of record,' a small, lucid and strangely calm corner of Sakura's brain remarked. 'This is what, my third consecutive kidnapping? First Sound, then Sasuke, and now Itachi! When did I become such a hot commodity?'The rest of her mind was busy trying to come up with some sort of game plan.Itachi had released her as soon as the teleportation was complete, and Sakura had found herself in a large stone chamber. Several steps lead to a raised portion of the floor in which a large stone chair rested, like a throne. The Uchiha crest was carved on the walls, but strangely, the wall behind the throne had a motif of nine coils.Sakura had a sneaking suspicion it was intended to represent the Kyuubi.But the most bizarre feature of the room was that it seemed to be crumbling – the walls and floor were all chipped and cracked, pitted with large holes in some places.
Itachi was in front of her, surveying her with interest, but now there was a good distance between their bodies. He had made no effort to bind or restrain her, as though his presence was enough to hold her captive.

And he might be right about that, Sakura could admit. He'd just transported both of them across a staggering distance and he didn't look fatigued in the slightest. She'd only ever faced one of Itachi's projections (she didn't think she could call that technique a clone)...and that had been difficult enough. She shuddered to think of how powerful the real Itachi was.

Sakura's eyes darted towards the room's entrance, and she wondered if there was any way she could possibly move fast enough to reach it before he did.

"I will advise you now against trying to escape," Itachi said, his tone even but somehow conveying a thousand threats.

He stepped forward, and Sakura moved backwards, automatically trying to keep several feet between her and the mass-murderer.

But she hadn't taken two steps before she felt cool stone against her back. Itachi's advance didn't halt in the slightest and Sakura felt fear tickle at the back of her mind, reminding her that she was standing in front of Itachi, without a weapon and unable to throw even a single chakra-enhanced punch.

The Uchiha halted when he was perhaps six inches in front of her and Sakura looked down, automatically avoiding his eyes in case he tried to use the Mangekyou on her. He didn't say anything, he didn't move, and Sakura had the feeling she was being studied like a specimen in a petri dish.

Sakura couldn't deny that she was scared. But she refused to give in to her fear, setting her jaw and squaring her shoulders. It took more than a little invasion of personal space to subdue her!

But she didn't look him in the eye, of course – that would have just been stupid.

Itachi considered the woman before him carefully. He had never passed up an opportunity to deepen Sasuke's hatred of him (after all, the more his brother detested him, the more willing he would be to do what needed to be done) and he knew he had a rich, untapped mine of opportunity in front of him. The hatred and anger over the death of their family had been given many years to cool, to become smouldering, calculated resentment instead of the wild inferno it once was.

Sakura represented a perfect opportunity to fan those flames once again – in spite of his protests, it was obvious Sasuke cared deeply for her.

Itachi would not kill her, as Sakura was necessary at a later stage...but what e