Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Contagious	By : rabid_behemoth Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female > Itachi/Sakura Views: 3362 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, not making money, but you already knew that.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
Author's Note: So I'm kind of impatient to get this thing up, and am considering bumping up the update schedule to twice a week, maybe Tues and Sat. Forgive me while I tweak the timing for a couple chapters, soon the updates should be regular as clockwork. Anyway, stop reading this, go read the good part!

CONTAGIOUS
Chapter Two: Not What It Looks Like
The glass bottle clinked as she ran. It contained the invaluable skin sample from the infected Hokage. Though tiny, it weighed heavily in the kunoichi's hip pouch.
Sakura stopped at a stream to refill her water bottle. This could be the last chance she'd get to do so; the thinning trees and dry heat in the air indicated that she was leaving River Country for Wind.
With nowhere else to go, Sunagakure was the obvious destination for a kunoichi stuck in Sakura's predicament. She needed help. She needed a lab to analyze the virus in, a safe haven to sleep in, and allies to protect her from Konoha's ANBU.
ANBU. What a terrifying thought. Sakura held no illusions about her strength. She might be able to take on one alone (she beat S-class Akatsuki member Sasori some time ago, but she had major help, and it had still been a close one), but an entire team was inconceivable. She'd be slaughtered, simple as that. She suppressed a shudder and sped up.
Gaara would help her. Between his friendship with Naruto, Konoha's alliance with Suna, and the help Sakura personally provided for he and his village in the past, the Sand's Kazekage was exactly who she needed to talk to.
The sun beat down mercilessly on Sakura's back as the soil turned to sand beneath her feet.

By the time Suna's looming gates and peach-colored clay spires became visible in the distance, Sakura was exhausted. She had run through the desert for days, stopping only briefly to rest or eat, driven by her desire to save her village and her haunting fear of ANBU. She didn't know how much of a head start she had, but she refused to squander it by sleeping.
There was a gust of dry wind and suddenly Sakura found herself surrounded by four figures in black. Her heart stopped for a moment, but they were not Konoha ANBU. They wore long, hooded black cloaks and cloths covering their faces, leaving only slits for their eyes. The gold and red insignia for Suna was emblazoned on their right sleeves.
Before she could speak or even understand what was happening, she found herself on her stomach, pinned face-down in the burning sand. Her hands and feet were bound tightly with some kind of thick woven rope.
"Haruno Sakura, you are under arrest for treason against our ally, Konoha," one of the cloaked figures above her spoke.
"WHAT!" Sakura exploded. "You don't understand, something's going on in Konoha! I came to warn the Kazekage about it!"
They said nothing. Sakura struggled desperately against her bonds, but they were blocking her chakra somehow.
"No, no, no!" she exclaimed in panic. "I have to talk to the Kazekage, bring me to Gaara! I can explain everything!"
Her pleas went unanswered as one of them threw a burlap bag over her head and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of rice flour.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Sakura cursed. She would have punched the stone wall of her cell if her hands weren't tied in front of her.
How could you be so stupid?! Konoha's messenger birds fly faster than you can run, of course they'd be anticipating you! Did you really think they'd let a missing-nin just waltz into their village and have a chat with their Kage like old friends?
Well, we ARE old friends...
Shut up, you! Not helpful right now!
Sakura needed to think. Konoha's ANBU could be here at any time to retrieve her. She didn't know where she was, but she had never seen stone structures like this cell in Suna before; most buildings were made of clay. There were no windows, so she didn't know what time of day it was, or even if she was at ground-level. It was so dark she couldn't see her hands in front of her face. Also, she was physically exhausted from running for the last three days.
On the plus side, she seemed to be in a medium-security prison. There were only physical barricades (stone walls and steel bars) preventing her escape — barriers she could easily smash, if only she had access to her chakra. Which she didn't. Her bound hands and feet didn't hinder her nearly as much as whatever the ropes were made out of, which was clogging her chakra highways; otherwise she could have simply destroyed her prison by directing energy to her head or hip or something. They didn't seem to be taking her very seriously, but they knew enough about her enhanced strength to take away her primary weapon.
Okay, so the situation looked bleak.
If you can't escape with your body, you'll have to use your brain. So THINK!
Sakura concentrated until she thought she would burst a blood vessel, but no magic stroke of genius came to her. She collapsed onto her knees and hung her head.
Some time later, a light flooding across the stone floor made her look up. A guard entered carrying a lantern. Wordlessly, he approached the bars of her cell and slid a jug of water through the food slot. He turned to leave.
Sakura stared into the dancing flame of the lantern.
"Hey," she called. The guard glanced over his shoulder reflexively.
Sakura swallowed. She had to make this good.
"Look, I'm a medical-nin. Thanks to your people, I've sustained serious trauma to my occipital bone." When the guard only looked blank, she added, "Uh, the back of my head."
Awareness lit in his eyes. Even non-medical shinobi had enough training to understand that blows to the head — especially the back of the head — could be fatal.
Sakura continued, "I have nine of the twelve symptoms of brain swelling: headache, neck pain, dizziness, nausea, irregular breathing, vision problems, memory loss, poor coordination, and I think I just had a seizure."
The guard stared at her for a moment through narrowed eyes. "Where's your wound then?"
"It's under my hair. Come check for yourself, but if I don't receive medical attention immediately I could die within the hour." Please, please, please let them want to hand me over to Konoha alive...
The guard's mouth was a hard line. "Akira-san, get in here!" he called over his shoulder.
Ugh! What are the chances I get stuck with the intelligent guard?
The first guard turned to the newcomer. "The prisoner claims she's fatally injured. We're under orders to give Konoha back their missing-nin intact so they can deal with her. What should we do? Should we get Baki-sama?"
The guard called Akira paled. "Are you crazy? Baki-sama's daughter was just born an hour ago, there's no way we can pester him unless the village is under siege or something, he'll eat us alive! What if she's lying?"
The first guard bit his lip. "She's only a B-rank chuunin. I'll go check her, you back me up."
Using his key to unlock the cell door, he entered cautiously. He shut the door behind himself with a clunk.
"Turn around and put your hands on the wall."
"They're bound," Sakura protested, lifting her wrists.
"I said do it!" the guard barked. Sakura swiveled around on her knees and complied.
The guard approached her slowly from behind, holding up his lantern to get a good look at her head.
"Where is it?" he snapped.
"Just above my neck, you have to lift my hair."
She heard the rustle of fabric as the guard bent down. She sensed the heat from the lantern just behind her right ear. The second she felt the brush of fingertips against her nape, she jerked her head backwards into the lantern. It crashed to the ground and shattered, plunging the prison into darkness.
Sakura was on the startled guard in an instant, knocking him over. She rolled them sideways and pinned him with her body. She pressed the rope binding her wrists tight across his throat, cutting off his air.
She heard the other guard groping for the cell door in the dark. "Fuck! Kazuki-san! Where are you?! Answer me!"
Sakura bore down with all her weight. Her captive couldn't even make a peep. She felt his body start to go limp beneath her. Out of time, Sakura released her hold on the unmoving guard below her. She didn't know if he was dead or unconscious, and she had no time to wonder about it. She groped around his body in the dark. Her hands stumbled across the cold steel of a kunai strapped to his thigh; she slid her bonds against it to cut her hands free, slicing her wrist open in her haste.
"KAZUKI-SAN!" The other guard got the door open and began blindly charging through the cell, hoping to run into them.
She grabbed the kunai and freed her feet next. She felt her chakra control return in a rush as the ropes fell away.
The remaining guard slammed into her; they both tumbled head over heels. Her head cracked against the stone floor. She landed under him on her back, something sharp piercing her side. He tried to grab her throat, but Sakura directed chakra to her legs. She pulled her knees back and propelled him off with her feet, flinging him into the opposite wall. He smashed into it with a thunderous crack. Sakura heard chunks of stone rain onto the floor.
Light flooded the cell as two more guards appeared carrying lanterns. They took in the scene: opened cell door, decimated wall, blood and glass everywhere, and three Sand guards lying on the floor either injured or dead. One particularly bloodied one raised his head and choked out, "The prisoner escaped! Hurry, get Baki-sama NOW!"
Both guards went white and bolted at top speed out of the room. Sakura dropped the henge and stood. Oh god, oh god, did I just kill two Sand nin? She waited a moment for the guards to get a head start, then cautiously peered through the doorway.
The next room was an empty guard-room. Sakura spotted her pack and hip pouch underneath a stone desk, Tsunade's ninjatou propped next to them. She hastily slung her pack on, attached her hip pouch and rearranged her weapons. Retrieving a piece of broken glass from her cell, she leaned back against the wall next to the open entrance of the guard-room. She carefully angled the glass shard in her hand, examining the stone hallway in its reflection. There were Sand shinobi everywhere, running back and forth and shouting. Crap.
Sakura dropped the glass and regrouped, looking around the room. Though stone as well, it looked less like a dungeon than the prison: there were two chairs, a fake potted plant, a fold-up card table with dirty magazines spread across it, lanterns hanging from the ceiling...the ceiling!
Sakura nearly wept with joy when she spotted the air vent. She pushed the card table under it, punched through the metal grate and clambered up.
It was pitch dark except for the light shining from the occasional grate. She crawled hurriedly, suppressing her chakra and listening to the sound of chaos below her. She turned corner after corner, trying to navigate away from the noise. She went on for what seemed like hours, though it was probably only a few minutes or so. Eventually it grew quiet. Sakura chanced a peek through the next grate.
It was an empty stone stairwell, damp walls lined with flickering torches. She crouched and waited for a long time, healing her wrist and side wound to the point where they no longer bled. No one appeared.
Sakura opened the grate as silently as she could and dropped down to the ground. The landing jarred her; as her adrenaline rush faded she was starting to feel her injuries. Exhaustion was creeping in on her as well, fogging her mind. She needed to get somewhere safe, fast. She sacrificed some precious chakra to henge into a Sand guard again. She made her way up the stairs, silent as a shadow. At the top there was a plain wooden trapdoor, somewhat dusty. Sakura listened hard. She lifted it, peeking out.
Light blinded her. She was outside at street level; the stone prison must have been underground. She saw a guard sitting in a chair facing away from her, reading a newspaper. Another was nodding in an adjacent chair, about to fall asleep. They were surrounded by buildings, and Sakura could hear the sounds of the street nearby, but no one else was around. Sakura hurled two senbon. Each landed squarely in the back of the guards' necks, hitting the C3 cervical spinal nerve and paralyzing them. The newspaper slowly slid out of the man's grip and fell to the floor.
Four. Four Sand ninja. I'm an enemy of Suna now, too...in earnest.
Sakura scrambled out of the trapdoor and stripped one of the guards. She pulled his baggy robes over her own, doing her best to wipe the blood and dirt from her henged features. Satisfied, she stifled her limp and turned a few corners, following the street sounds. She walked out into a market and tried to blend in.
She recognized the area from previous trips. The Kazekage's tower was to the west, and the side gates were just northeast of here. She walked down the sand-dusted street, keeping to the shadows of the great beige buildings as best she could, traveling under colorful tarps and awnings and avoiding eye contact with passersby.
The guard tower drew near. Sakura tried to seem as normal as possible as she passed through the gates. She left her hood down; her henged form didn't need it and it might draw suspicion. One of the tower guards glanced up as she passed. She nodded politely. The guard went back to his conversation with the other.
Sakura remembered how to breathe. She kept her head down and continued walking across the blinding desert sand. She walked and walked until she could no longer feel her feet and Sunagakure was long out of sight. She held it together until she reached the side of a great cliff. Her eyes scanned along the bottom until spying a crack big enough for her to slip inside. She staggered in as deep as she could and collapsed into a heap.
She was out cold before she hit the ground.

Sakura woke slowly, blood pounding in her head. It was dark out, but she had no idea how long she'd been unconscious for. She sat up, squinting her eyes against the too-bright light seeping in the entrance of her little cavern. Dragging a hand through her tangled pink locks, she probed her body with chakra, assessing her injuries.
She felt like she got into a fight with an oncoming train and lost. She had a probable concussion from where her head hit the stone floor, a poorly healed stab wound from an unknown weapon in her side, and her cut wrist was bleeding again. She felt two broken ribs, plus a hairline fracture on her shin that she didn't even remember getting. She was covered from head to toe with large purple and yellow bruises, as well as microscopic lesions from rolling around in broken glass.
You're a mess. Sakura sighed and got to work healing herself. She couldn't stay long, she wanted to get as far away from both Fire and Wind Country as possible.
But she had no idea where to go.
Sakura put her head in her hands. North of Fire and Wind are smaller countries...that's good, I should steer clear of the five great nations whenever possible — it's not feasible to keep up a henge 24/7. I need a place where I can take missions or do medical work for a living without worrying about ANBU. A place where I can try to find a lab and some equipment. A place where fugitives can blend in. A place like...oh.
Amegakure: a village shrouded in mystery due to a strict isolationist policy since the Third Shinobi World War. No one in the five great shinobi nations knew exactly what was going on in its unnamed country at any given moment. She could disappear there completely...
But it was a dangerous village. Sakura had heard rumors of a ruthless, mistrustful leader in Ame called Hanzou. He was supposedly hostile to outsiders, cruel to his own people, and literally venomous. But these were just rumors; no one really knew what went on behind Ame's closed borders. Was it worth the risk?
Sakura weighed the chances of being captured by either Konoha or Suna's ANBU against a mysterious figure who may or may not still be in power. She knew what she had to do.
Sakura rested and healed herself about seventy percent of the way. She could finish the rest on the road, no need to deplete her chakra reserves all in one go. She stood unsteadily, stretching her aching muscles and cracking sore joints. She performed a quick henge. Her now dark brown hair up in two Chinese-style buns, Sakura decided that traveling as Tenten would be nicely inconspicuous.
She packed up her things and strapped Tsunade's ninjatou to her back. She made sure her shishou's precious skin sample was secure in her hip pouch. Glancing outside to check that she was still alone, Sakura left the cave and set off towards the treeline in the distance.
She had a long run north ahead of her.

True to its name, the Village Hidden in the Rain had the stormiest sky Sakura had ever seen. The village rose out of the barren rock bed like a great mechanical beast, all steel towers and pipes and electrical wires. Its coloring seemed to imitate the sky above it: both a cold gray.
When Sakura reached its borders, it was raining heavily.
That's odd...where are the gates? The guards? Ame's defenses are rumored to be impenetrable...
Sakura was wary. Though daytime, the clouded sky cast a surreal twilit dimness over the village that made it feel like perpetual evening. She walked through the wet concrete streets, gazing up at steel buildings of staggering height in various shades of navy, gray, and rust. Thick black wires snaked overhead from pole to pole, carrying electricity to power the many glowing neon signs that hung above shops and shady businesses. Mysterious pipes spilled out of walls like metallic intestines, burrowing into the concrete and heading off to unknown destinations. The gutters dripped constantly in the background. Through the dimness, Sakura observed the people of Ame. Many wore hooded cloaks like hers, in somber colors; others wore masks to hide their faces. Sakura was using her Tenten henge again; she didn't want to take any chances.
She hadn't even gone 500 feet when a figure appeared before her to block her way. It was a young woman with an origami rose in her blue hair...wearing an Akatsuki cloak.
Crap! Sakura jumped into her fighting stance. The woman did not follow suit. Sakura looked around wildly, sure she was about to be attacked from a blind spot. Where is her partner? Akatsuki always travel in pairs!
"I'm not here to fight you," the woman said in a flat voice.
"Then what do you want with me?" Sakura snapped, hackled raised.
"I'm here to ask you some questions for our village's protection. All intruders must state their name, purpose, and intended length of stay."
Sakura raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Then you're not here on Akatsuki business? Who are you working for? Hanzou?"
"No. Hanzou is dead. I am here on behalf of Pain-sama."
Sakura hardly could trust the woman, but she did not want to pick a fight with an S-class criminal in an unfamiliar place either. She was debating whether to run when a group of passersby suddenly noticed the blue-haired woman.
"Tenshi-sama! Tenshi-sama!"
"What a blessing to meet you!"
"Please, Tenshi-sama, would you bring this to Pain-sama for me? Consider it an offering," an old woman croaked. She held out a bag of rice.
Angel? Sakura thought, taken aback by the villagers' affection for a member of a criminal organization.
"Pain-sama would wish you to keep your goods," the young woman replied coolly. "But I will bear your well wishes to him." She turned toward Sakura. "Follow me. We will continue our conversation in private."
The woman leapt up the side of the nearest skyscraper. Sakura hesitated. She could try to run, but even if she got away (which she likely wouldn't) she had nowhere better to go. Amegakure was the safest place for her now. Steeling her resolve, she ran up the tower and took to the rooftops, following the black cloak with the red clouds.
The blue-haired woman reached a hollow alcove atop a very tall steel tower in the heart of the village. She stopped and waited for Sakura to catch up.
Sakura joined her, arms crossed over her chest. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"
"Release your henge."
Sakura hid her surprise at having been caught. "Why?"
"I need to verify your real identity before you can be allowed into the village."
Sakura didn't see how revealing her identity to another criminal could cause much damage. It's not like the Akatsuki would rat her out to ANBU. She dropped her henge.
"Your name?"
"Haruno Sakura."
"Your purpose for coming to Ame?"
"I'm...a missing-nin." Sakura didn't want to let Konoha's enemies know anything strange was going on in her village. She hoped the woman wouldn't demand further details.
"How long do you plan to stay?"
Sakura had no idea how long it would take her to find a lab and analyze the virus. "I'm not sure. A month or two at most," she guessed.
"Thank you for your cooperation. I will relay your information to Pain-sama, who will make the final decision about whether you may remain. In the meantime you may do as you like, though all residents are forbidden from disguising themselves within our borders. If we need you we will find you." The woman turned to leave.
"Wait! Who are you? Who is Pain?"
"I am called Tenshi by the villagers; I am Pain-sama's envoy. Pain-sama is Ame's leader, savior, and guardian." The blue-haired shinobi turned on her heel and vaulted to the next rooftop.
"How did you know I was here?" Sakura called out.
The woman paused. She turned her head and spoke over her shoulder to Sakura. "The rain is Pain-sama's eyes and ears. He is the heart of Amegakure, and the heart always knows who bears good or ill will..." She dissolved into thousands of tiny white origami papers.
Sakura stared in bewilderment.

"Pain-sama" must have decided to let her stay, because Sakura didn't hear from the blue-haired nin again. She checked herself into a run-down inn until she could find a more permanent residence. She needed funds first, meaning work.
Sakura soon discovered that, bizarrely, there were no hospitals in Amegakure. That left her the option of doing missions for a living. After asking around for half a day with no luck, someone informed her that there was no ninja registration system in Ame. To take missions, one had to either be approached directly by clients after earning a reputation, or check the many bulletin boards posted around town (in places of varying sketchiness, often bars). Needless to say, all the good missions were the word-of-mouth kind. Sakura resigned herself to working her way up the ladder.
It didn't take long. In a village with no hospitals, Sakura's medical skills proved invaluable. After doing a few basic reconnaissance missions, a smattering of guard missions, and even some document transportation assignments, Sakura started to earn some notoriety for having saved several important people with her medical jutsu.
She was in a bar nursing a bowl of cold soba, bent over a napkin calculating how many ryou she'd need to move into a one-bedroom apartment when a stranger approached her.
He had brown skin and snow white hair, which he wore in a long braid down his back. He was dressed in loose-fitting dark green clothes with a black sash tied around his waist. Sakura noted that his youthful, even features were fairly handsome. Not that you're looking or anything. Ahem.
"Excuse me...you're that new pink-haired medic, aren't you?"
Sakura raised an auspicious eyebrow. "Maybe. Who's asking?"
The man studied her for a moment, arms crossed over his chest. "My name is Haji. I have a proposition you may be interested in."
Sakura's eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. "Well then, please have a seat, Haji-san. I'm Sakura."
Haji joined her. He leaned forward, elbows on the table, hands folded together. He appeared to consider something a moment before he spoke.
"My partner and I are scheduled to embark on a mission of...rather significant import next month. Normally I would never invite a newcomer to join us, but for this particular mission we are badly in need of a medic-nin. Medical-ninja are hard to find around here, and your name has been floating around the city of late. You are rumored to be rather proficient. Is this true?"
Sakura was the personal apprentice of the best medic-nin the ninja world had ever seen, but he didn't need to know that. "I know what I'm doing," she shrugged.
His shrewd brown eyes seemed to call her bluff. Nodding to himself, he continued, "Well, Sakura-san, I would like to formally extend an offer to you. Unfortunately, you can only be debriefed on the mission's details if you accept."
"What's the pay?"
"One million up front, another million upon completion."
Sakura picked her jaw up off the floor. Only S-rank missions went for over a million ryou. She held up a hand. "Whoa there. You're offering two million ryou for a job you can't tell me anything about, because you specifically need a medic-nin? Do I look like I was born yesterday? This mission must be big. Very big. And exceptionally dangerous, no doubt."
"I see your powers of inductive reasoning are not too shabby either," Haji quipped.
Sakura bit her lip in thought. The money would be a huge relief (her savings were almost depleted), but even more than that, she needed something else...
"I will accept on one condition."
"Name it."
"I need help finding a laboratory I can conduct medical research in. In private."
"Done." Haji held out his hand. Sakura grasped it and shook. He smiled and stood. "Let me take you to meet my partner, who will be acting as our team captain. Sora will explain everything to you."
Thoughts whirling with curiosity, Sakura followed him out of the bar.

Haji lead her to a rocky training field on the outskirts of town situated next to an abandoned factory. It was empty, save for one small woman tossing senbon at a target on the far side of the lot.
"Where's your partner?" Sakura asked, looking around.
"Right there. HEY SORA!" Haji shouted to the girl, who turned and trotted over.
Oh. A kunoichi. Sakura thought in surprise. It was unusual for a woman to be a team captain.
She had straight, waist-length black hair that she wore braided down her back like Haji, and clever blue eyes. She wore loose clothes similar to her partner's, but a deep shade of blue tied with a white sash. She assessed Sakura with a frown before proceeding to frisk her wordlessly.
"Hey!" Sakura protested at the sudden violation of personal space, but she was roundly ignored.
"You found our medic-nin, I take it?" Sora asked Haji when she finished, nodding to herself in approval. "No bugs. Well done, Haji."
"Thanks. Sakura-san, this is our captain, Sora of the Crimson Tide," Haji replied, leaning in to give the girl a quick kiss on the cheek. "I just call her 'wife.' Or 'ma'am.'"
Sakura nearly fell over. Ooh, I see. No wonder they want a medic-nin on their mission — to help protect each other.
"Uh, nice to meet you, Taichou," Sakura said, extending her hand to shake. Sora crushed it with her tiny one.
"I dunno. She's got a weak grip." The kunoichi raised a critical black eyebrow. Sakura put some chakra into it.
"Ah, much better," Sora grinned, pumping Sakura's hand with enthusiasm. She slung an arm around Sakura's shoulders. "We should get along just fine. Now Sakura-chan, dear, you should know that once I explain the mission to you, there is no backing out. It's highly classified information, so should you choose to no longer participate, or misrepresent yourself or your abilities, you are also choosing to no longer exist. You understand, right?" She offered a charming smile.
Perturbed, Sakura swallowed. "Got it."
"Wonderful!" Sora gushed, death threats forgotten. She patted Sakura on the back. "This is going to be so much fun!"
Sakura coughed. "So, uh, what is the mission exactly?" she asked, hoping she made the right decision in accepting.
Sora flashed her a dazzling, dimpled grin.
"We're going to assassinate the daimyou of Lightning Country."
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Contagious