Shades of Grey

Chapter 64

For the third time that morning Sakura felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She was being watched and she knew it. The only thing that she could not figure out was the fact that other than her two partners she couldn't sense any other chakras.

"Do you feel it?" She asked the Kyuubi.

"Yes." The fox replied to his jinchuriki. "We are most certainly being watched yet I sense no one."

"Something is not right." She told her companion.

"Be on guard." The demon warned.

"We are being watched." Sakura finally spoke to her partners without breaking her stride.

"I sense no one." Itachi told her.

"It is a feeling." She replied. "Kurama and I both can feel it but sense no one."

"Zetsu." Kisame suggested. "You wouldn't be able to sense him."

"Hn." Itachi remarked before a vine suddenly snaked up and latched around his ankle.

Sakura quickly threw a kunai slicing through the vine that had tried to ensnare Itachi before jumping to the ground below. When she looked across the clearing, she was facing a creature like nothing she had ever seen before. She appraised him with no emotion on her face. A shinobi must never show any weakness. He was human and yet he was not, but there was no mistaking the cloak he wore. The strange shinobi was tall even if you did not count the huge plant that enshrouded his head. His body, or what you could see of it, was split perfectly down the middle half black half white.

"Zetsu." Itachi confirmed when he dropped down to the ground at her side. "Watch out for his spores."

Those were the only words spoken before their battle began. Sakura launched several kunai at the creature, but he sprouted more vines deflecting every one.

"Pein has been looking for you." The white half of the being spoke to them.

"Did he give you permission to engage?" Itachi asked him.

"We don't need permission." His black half hissed in reply.

"Then you have signed your own death warrant." The Uchiha responded before releasing a ball of fire and causing the creature's tendrils to retreat.

"It won't be that easy." The white half declared before splitting into two separate entities.

Sakura followed the movements slashing through his vines with her kunai; the battle making her miss the katana that she had been taught to wield. Itachi moved in for the kill while she kept him distracted. As he was maneuvering the kunoichi noticed that Kisame was having some trouble. Apparently Zetsu had managed to get some of the spores she had been warned of on the Mist nin. Vines which seemed to be draining his chakra were wrapping around him. Sakura continued to distract the black Zetsu until Itachi released his Amaterasu at which point she jumped back to avoid the heat of the wicked black flames.

The kunoichi immediately went to Kisame's aide picking up Samehada which had fallen by his side. The sword tried to offer her resistance, but she only needed to use it long enough to cut through the dangerous vines. As soon as Kisame was free she tossed the sword to his waiting hand and he began hacking away at the vines which came flying in their direction again.

Sakura suddenly had an idea and while her partners moved quickly about slicing through all of the creature's appendages, she slowed long enough to ensure he would be able to hit her with some of his spores. They began to grow around her, and Sakura remained perfectly still staring into his eyes with her eerie gaze until they completely entrapped most of her body. Finally, she summoned the nine tail's chakra and weaved it with her own. The overload on Zetsu's chakra pathways was too much for him. He fell to the ground choking on his own blood as his vines turned to ash and blew away in the wind. One well aimed kunai from the Uchiha and their battle was over.