Naruto 1. Message

_**Summary: **_Revenge. Blood. That's all she thought about now that her inner was gone. 'Not gone. Taken. They took her from you. They took your other half. She makes you who you are and they took her. Those filthy humans. Make them pay. ' 'But I'm human.' 'No, you're the devil's child.' She was the devils child and is bent on getting revenge for almost being killed. The only person who can stop her is her lover and he's been dead for over eighteen years or has he? Sas/Sak

_Thoughts _

_**Inner Self **_

_**Chapter 1: Message**_

Her mind was black, consumed by the darkness that laid dormant in it. All this time it had been building, all this time it had been calculating. Every insult, every rejects, every hit, every pain. It calculated, adding it all up, waiting for the right moment to unleash it and take control. It finally did. The split second when she laid comfortable in her bed, when she had drifted off to sleep, when she had begun to dream, she was hit.

Hit by all the darkness that she had in her, all the anger and hate. All the revenge she wanted on the people who had hurt her, rejected her. It was too much. She fought, she yelled, she screamed, she struggled, she failed. It consumed her in seconds, tearing at all the happiness in her, tearing all the good memories into pieces. When it was over, there she laid, in a dreamless, lightless sleep, waiting for her eyes to open so she could accomplish the first of her goals. Blood.

* * *

She awoke screaming and struggling. Sweat dripped down her face, at least that's what she thought it was. She used her hand and wiped some of it off. She scrunched her eye brows together in confusion when she found that it was thick and somewhat sticky. She used her other hand to open the light next to her bed on the nightstand. She looked back at her hand and screamed. Blood.

* * *

He laughed sinisterly as he heard her screams from his position in the tree. So she had awoken. She probably just found the small present he had left her. Now all she had to do was find what she was missing. Shouldn't be too hard. After all you can't live with just half of your mind and soul.

* * *

She screamed as loud as her voice would let her. There was blood everywhere. All over. It would not have freaked her out so much if it was her own. But when it comes from a man that is hung with a rope above your bed with his throat sliced, you have a good reason to scream and freak out.

* * *

_**The Next Day**_

She found herself at the bridge early the next morning around about six o'clock, an hour before her team was suppose to be there. She leaned against the railing of the bridge, her eyes looking into the water. Her mind being unable to get that image out of her head. The image she had saw last night. The image that was with no doubt going to haunt her for the rest of her life.

The rope.

The neck.

The blood.

The message.

She shuddered as she thought about it. It was the most gruesome thing she had ever seen before. She had been on hundreds of assassination and killing missions but nothing compared to what she had saw. She shook her head, she didn't want to think about it anymore. It was over and done with. Or was it?

**_'Your Next.'_**

She didn't know what that message meant but she was sure it was nothing good. She had no doubt that bad things were to follow her now. She didn't know why she was the one who being targeted. She maybe strong but she was not the strongest. There were other Anbu much stronger than her so why didn't they go after them? Why her?

That was the second question she asked herself as she saw the body that hung over her bed. There was a man hung by his feet, over her bed with his neck sliced…torn open. His blood had dripped all over her. The first question she had asked when she saw it was, How'd they get in to do this? She was not as concerned about why they did it but how they managed to do it when they hung it right above her. Shouldn't she have woken up?

She doubted that she would have woken up last night even if someone had screamed right in her ear. Her dream would have prevented her from, she was sure. That dream. It had to have something to do with what was happening. She was almost positive it had something to with it. After all it was a dream about….

"Sakura." She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her name being called. She looked to her right where she saw her raven haired teammate. His onyx eyes showed confusion. She gave him a small smile.

"Hey Sasuke-kun." She greeted, not too happy but not showing anything was wrong either. It was a normal greeting and that was what made Sasuke suspicious. Usually she was enthusiastic and happy when she greeted him. And she usually greeted him about a hour later then right now.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her and she looked at him as if he was stupid.

"I'm waiting for training. Duh." She told him before looking back down at the water.

"An hour before it starts?"

"Yeah. What's wrong with that? You do it all the time." She snapped. Sasuke looked at her in shock. She never snapped or even gave him an attitude before. Hell she never even talked back to him before. Sakura inwardly cursed herself. She was sure he'd be suspicious now if he hadn't been before. She never snapped at him. Damn.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke demanded more than asked.

"Nothing." She said to him. He gave her a blank look.

"What's wrong?"

"Why do you care?" Sakura asked him, starting to get annoyed.

Sasuke smirked, she sure had changed from that 12 year old girl that used to fawn over him. Not by much but she had changed. He guessed that six years could do that to you. He had only just returned to Team 7 and Kohona three months ago. He was put on probation for a year but he was allowed to go on mission as long as he was with an Anbu, which his two teammates were so he had no problem.

A tracer, something that Sakura surprisingly came up with, was placed under his skin. Where? He didn't know. It had been placed under his skin will he was being healed and taken care of after he returned to Kohona. He had manage to kill Orochimaru and most of the sound nins, but it had taken a toll on him. He had used almost all of his chakra up and barley made it to back to Kohona. After his wounds had healed, which had taken no more than a week after Sakura had healed him, he was place on trial where his sentenced had been given. _**(A/N: They're 18 now.) **_

"You're my teammate, I have to care." He replied and she snorted.

"Never made you before."

"Before I had other things to think about. Now I don't."

"And right now, I have things to think about, so if you would please shut up and leave me alone, I would appreciate it." Sakura told him and he was about to retort when someone interrupted.

"Sakura-chan!!!" A loud voice said from behind him. Sakura and Sasuke both looked to see their blonde haired teammate running towards them.

'_What the hell is he doing here?' _

'_**Dunno. Maybe it's come to training early day.' **_His inner self shrugged.

Naruto ran past Sasuke, who had wanted to trip but realized that if he did, he would land on Sakura and that wouldn't be too good. Naruto ran to Sakura and gave her a giant bear hug.

"Naruto! Get off! Can't breathe." She yelled and he instantly let go, rubbing the back of hid head nervously.

"Heh, sorry Sakura-chan." He said to her with a sheepish grin.

"It's ok." Sakura said with a sigh before turning her attention back to the water.

"Err…Sakura-chan are you feeling ok?" Naruto asked with worry when she didn't yell or hit him.

"Dobe, what are you doing here?" Naruto turned his attention to Sasuke who was leaning against the railing opposite to him.

"I'm here to train of course, you stupid teme." Naruto told him.

"An hour before it starts?"

"What?"

"It's six o'clock Naruto." Sakura told him.

"WHAT?! NOOOOOOOOO!" He screamed, earning him a bonk on the head from Sakura.

"Stop yelling."

"I thought I was late! Damn alarm clock." Naruto muttered to himself.

"You thought you were late? Is that why you were running?" Sakura asked, her attention still on the river below them.

"Yeah." Naruto replied, sheepishly.

"Idiot." Sasuke muttered as he rolled his eyes.

"Shut up teme."

"Make me dobe."

"Starting a fight teme?"

"Not with a weakling like you." Sasuke replied.

"Why you…! Damn bastard." Naruto yelled at him.

"Oh my god. SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!" Sakura yelled as she finally got fed up. Both of them looked at her like she was crazy and took a few steps away from her.

"Sakura-chan's scary when's she angry." Naruto whispered to Sasuke who nodded in agreement.

Sakura sighed and turned away from them, this time looking at the forest.

"So…what do you guys want to do while we wait for Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked them. As he said that a loud poof was heard from the side of the bridge. They all turned there heads to see….

"Sensei?!" Naruto yelled in disbelief. He rubbed his eyes to make sure it wasn't an illusion.

"Oh my god, hell has frozen over. He's _early_. Not even on time, but early."

"Yeah, well about that. The Hokage demands us to go see her. And well since your all here already might as well get it over with." Kakashi said while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yay! Mission!" Naruto said as he jumped up and down.

'_Even at eighteen he still acts like a kid.' _Sasuke thought as he shook his head.

"Yeah, well let's go." Kakashi said and the four headed off towards Hokage's office.

"Sakura."

"Yeah, sensei?"

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah." Sakura answered as they continued to walk.

"That's what I asked when I saw her today. She not acting herself." Naruto told him.

"Something wrong Sakura?"

"No! Why do you all keep asking me that? Jeez." Sakura said as she picked up her pace to get ahead of them.

"Something's wrong."

"No shit, dobe."

"Shut up teme."

"Both of you keep quiet." Kakashi said to them, rolling his eyes.

"Why do we listen to you? We're higher ranked." Naruto asked him. For once he had actually asked a good question.

"Because, I'm still in charge of watching you brats." He replied before he walked ahead of them.

"Hey!" Naruto said as he went to catch up with him.

Sasuke shook his head as he followed. His team was full of children.

They arrived at the Hokage's office a few minutes later.

"Come in." They heard Tsunade yell as Naruto knocked on the door.

The four walked in. Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura all sat down while Sasuke leaned against the back wall.

"So…your all probably wondering why you here right?"

"No duh, old hag." Naruto replied. Tsunade took a deep breathe and refrained from hitting him.

"Sakura, we've taken care of the problem in your apartment. It's all cleaned out. As for who did it, we still can't figure it out. We're going to have you under 24 hour Anbu surveillance for a month, just to make sure nothing like this happens again. And also that message, did you figure out what it meant?"

"Yes."

"Well?"

"Wait! What the hell is going on? What are you talking about? Why is Sakura being put under surveillance?"

"I'll answer you in a second. So Sakura what did he mean by saying he has stolen something from you?" Tsunade asked, referring to part of the message that was left on the back of the man that had been hung above her bed.

"Inner Sakura's gone."

_**(A/N: End of chapter one. So did you guys like it so far? Tell me if I should continue or not. Thanks.) **_


	2. Explanations

_**Summary: **_Revenge. Blood. That's all she thought about now that her inner was gone. 'Not gone. Taken. They took her from you. They took your other half. She makes you who you are and they took her. Those filthy humans. Make them pay. ' 'But I'm human.' 'No, you're the devil's child.' She was the devils child and is bent on getting revenge for almost being killed. The only person who can stop her is her lover and he's been dead for over eighteen years or has he? Sas/Sak

_Thoughts _

_**Inner Self **_

_**Chapter 2: Explanations **_

"Inner who?" Naruto asked with confusion, his hand scratching the back of his head. Kakashi and Sasuke both looked on with both interest and confusion.

What the hell was inner Sakura? That's what the three of them had running threw their minds at the moment.

"What do you mean she's gone," Tsunade asked her, worry evident in her voice, "That's impossible. She's inside of you."

She had thought about what the message on the back of the man's body meant all night. It hadn't meant sense to her at first but when she put that message together with the message that had said your next, it made perfect sense.

Her inner was stolen and he was going to kill her. It had been the only logical answer she had come up with. She had not heard from her inner since she had woke up nor did she feel her presence. She had felt empty the moment she had awoke.

"I know. It doesn't make sense how she was taken." Sakura told her.

She had been thinking about how her inner was taken all morning long. She was inside her. Nobody could take her from inside her mind unless the person was able to somehow get inside her mind and the only person that she could think of that could get inside her mind was…..

Sakura gasped, her eyes widening.

"Sakura? Sakura, what is it?" Tsunade said as she stood from her chair.

"Itachi." Sakura whispered. Tsunade's eyes widened as Kakashi and Naruto looked at her in confusion. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and tinted to a dark red as he heard the name of his older brother.

"Itachi? Itachi Uchiha? What does he have to do with this?"

"He has Mangekyou Sharigan, correct?"

"Yes, but what does this have to do with anything?" Tsunade nodded, wondering where this was going.

"He is able to take an opponent into a world of his own just by looking into their eyes, right? But what if somehow he managed to amplify the power, enabling him to go into another person's mind? That would explain how inner Sakura was taken." Sakura explained and Tsunade nodded to her, thinking.

"That would explain it but why would he take her? He has no motive, and besides if he was in the village we would have sensed him."

"Unless he masked his chakra. As for the motive I'm not sure."

"His motive could be Kyuubi," Kakashi said, and all of them looked at him, "I mean, Akatsuki is after him, so why not take something from or threaten someone close to Naruto to get him after them."

"That could be the motive but still. How would Itachi know about Inner Sakura? Why take her? Why not do something else? It makes no sense."

"I am so damn confused. Who the hell is Inner Sakura?" Naruto yelled, holding his head, which was aching from all the information he had just received.

"Inner Sakura….." Tsunade trailed off, not sure what to tell them.

"Inner Sakura is….my other half. She used to be the opposite of me when I was younger. She's like how I am today. Strong, assertive, short tempered, all those things. You remember the chunnin exams when I was against Ino and she used her mind transferring jutsu on me?"

Kakashi and Naruto both nodded. They had watched Sakura's fight. Tsunade had heard of the fight but she never saw it, she nodded too, though. Sasuke, however, had never seen the fight, nor had he ever heard of it, so he had no idea what had happened. He looked at Sakura, who was sitting ahead of him, where he leaned on the wall.

"Sasuke-teme has no idea what your talking about Sakura." Naruto said with a laugh and Sasuke glared at the Kitsune.

"Well, you know Ino's mind transferring jutsu, correct," Sasuke nodded and Sakura continued, "Well she used it on me in the exams and I broke it. At first I had no idea how it happened, but than I realized since I had two different personalities, like two different minds in me, that my inner was not affected by the jutsu. She had pushed Ino out of my head and broke the jutsu."

"Ohhhhh, so that's what happened? I always wondered about that." Naruto told her.

"Now you know dobe." Sasuke said and Naruto huffed.

"Shut up, teme. You probably have no idea what she was just talking about, seeing as you weren't there. You were unconscious." Naruto said, looking at Sasuke who was glaring at him.

"Enough. Your Anbu, stop acting like children." Tsunade demanded.

"Hn."

"Whatever, old hag."

"Naruto….." Tsunade said threw clenched teeth.

"And now your Inner is gone?" Kakashi asked Sakura, making them all look at him.

Sakura nodded, "Yes."

"Well, Sakura," Tsunade said, making them avert their attention to her, " I really am not sure what we are to do about this. I don't think sending a team after Itachi would be a good idea, especially when we are not sure if he is the one who has stolen her…"

"Tsunade it has to be him. Who else would be able to go into my mind and actually take her? It was her own world she was in. Nobody can defeat her in her own realm unless they have some kind of experience with it."

"Yes Sakura, I know. I don't think sending Anbu after him is going to do anything. Even if they, by some miracle, manage to kill him or render him unconscious, we have no idea what will happen to Inner Sakura. If she would come back to you, if she would be trapped forever where ever Itachi is containing her or if she, well, dies with him. I think the best thing to do right now is just have the Anbu watch over you."

"And, exactly how would that work?" Sasuke asked, finally speaking up.

"What do you mean?"

"You said that sending Anbu after him will do nothing and that it would take a miracle for them to kill him and/or render him unconscious, correct," Tsunade nodded, having a feeling that she knew where this was going, "Why than would you send Anbu to watch over Sakura, if they wouldn't be able to do anything?"

Sakura looked over at him in surprise. Sasuke was, dare she Hell had defiantly frozen over. Sasuke at seeing Sakura's shocked face, felt his cheeks burn a little bit as they tinted a bit pink. It, however, was not too noticeable.

He was only concerned for two reasons. One she was his teammate and two his brother was alive and he would not let anyone else kill him. That was his job.

'Haha. Keep telling yourself that, buddy. Maybe one day you'll start to believe it.' His inner said with a chuckle and Sasuke scowled at him.

'_What are you talking about?'_

'_**You are concerned.'**_

'_I am not.' _

'_**Yes, you are.' **_

'_Oh? And how would you know?'_

'_**Because you love her.' **_His inner said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'_What are you nuts?' _Sasuke asked him as if he were crazy.

'_**Well, I am part of you, so…..'**_

'_Shut up.' _Sasuke growled as he blocked out his inner, waiting for Tsunade reply.

"Err….well….I suppose that, you have a point. But still, they would be able to slow him down, allowing her to escape, if he came and attacked."

"Unless, of course, he brought other Akatsuki members with him." Sasuke quickly said, ignoring the looks of surprise he was getting from Sakura and Naruto. Kakashi looked at him with a knowing look, he could tell he was smiling under his mask.

"Yes, I suppose that would be a problem. And since you do not like my idea, what may I ask do you think I should do?"

"Let one of us stay with her." Sasuke said immediately, and Tsunade looked at him, startled. Than she gave him a smile, and nodded.

"Very well. Seeing as you suggested it, you can stay with her. Alright with you Sakura?"

"Alri….what?" Sasuke and Sakura said at the same time. They both looked at each other for a brief moment before looking away, back at Tsunade, each with their cheeks tinted pink.

"Well you did suggested it, Uchiha. Therefore you are going to be the one to do it."

"That's not fair! Teme doesn't want to do it. Why should he go when I could?" Naruto said in protest, earning a glared from Sasuke. Tsunade shook her head.

"Because I said so."

"But…"

"No buts, Naruto. He is going to stay with her and that is final."

"WHAT?!" Sakura and Sasuke yelled once more at the same time.

"What do you mean he's staying with me?" Sakura asked Tsunade, her eyes narrowed. She did not, under any circumstances, want him staying with her, at her house, alone.

"He has to watch you, therefore he will stay with you at all times."

"WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TEME HAS TO STAY WITH HER AT ALL TIMES?" Naruto yelled in anger.

"I mean,….." She was cut off.

"DOES THAT MEAN HE GETS TO SLEEP WITH HER? OH MY GOD, THAT MEANS HE GETS TO GO IN THE SHOWER WITH HER TOO. NOOOOOOO!!!!!" Naruto yelled, he would have continued too if not for the four fist that connected with his head.

"Owww…..what the hell was that for?"

"Damn dobe." Sasuke growled in annoyance and anger. Naruto looked at him and saw that his cheeks were a bright red, thinking it was from anger he moved a few feet from him, closer to Sakura, who he also noticed was also red in the face. Once he saw that, he moved away from her, towards Kakashi who was shaking his head.

"Naruto this is serious, stop yelling and acting like a baby. Got it," Upon seeing the nod she continued, "Sasuke is just going to stay BY her at all times. Understood?" Another nod.

"Good, now Sasuke you will get your clothes and whatever else you might need and bring them to Sakura's. Sakura you will go with him. After that Sasuke will accompany you wherever you might go. There are, of course, exceptions. This will be in effect for as long as it takes to figure out, exactly what has happened. Everyone understand?" Tsunade explained and the four nodded.

"Good, you may leave now," The four nodded, each exiting the room, "Sakura," She turned to look at her sensei, "Get me Shizune."

Sakura nodded and left. In less than a minute, Shizune appeared in her office.

"You called Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, Shizune, can you bring me Sakura's file, as well as a bottle of sake? I'm going to be needing it."

"Of course, Hokage-sama." Shizune said as she left. Tsunade sighed. This was going to be a long day.

_**(A/N: Chapter 2 done! Sorry that it took so long but since it's summer I've been hanging out a lot with my friends. Yeah, so tell me how you guys like it so far. I know it's a little boring but things will get better soon. Sakura's 'changes' to her inner being gone are going to appear soon. Anyway, thank you to all who reviewed. I appreciate it a lot. I hope you guys continue to. Until next time.) **_


End file.

Naruto, Adventure, Romance