Ripples

Chapter 15

                            Facades

-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 recognized 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.