AijinMegami: NEEEWWWWWW STOOOOORRRRRYYYYYYY! YESSS, AFTER ALL THIS TIME! I have one more story to start after this one! I don't have a title but check it out in my bio and tell me what you think!
Thank You
Pairings: ItachiSakura
Summary: (Summary changed a bit) A few months after Naruto and Sasuke left, Sakura finds a wounded stranger (ITAACHHIIII) and heals him. They thought their paths would never cross again… boy were they wrong.
'I miscalculated… I should have known that Jiraiya-san wouldn't be too far from the Kyuubi…' the shadowed figure thought as he walked quietly through the forest. The organization had decided to lay low for the time being so his partner was no where to be seen. He had failed so he deserved this.
Blood seeped through his mesh shirt, his coat somewhere lost while he had his little punishment with the leader, but he didn't falter in his steps. Pain wasn't unusual in his life but the loss of blood soon made him see double. Seeing a huge nearby tree he walked towards it, ripping his shirt off to tie the biggest wound. Leaning against the warm tree he fell into a restless sleep.
Haruno Sakura, age 12. It was only a few months has past since Naruto and Sasuke had left and so far the training with Tsunade was intense, to put it mildly. However, being the Hokage and all, training was always late in the afternoon or none at all. During the day she tried training with others but they had their usual routine so she left, feeling like she was intruding.
Kakashi wasn't helping at all. With his two star pupils gone he left on a lot of missions, leaving her behind. Others volunteered to train, for example Anko, but they only ended up either beating her badly or losing horribly. They just didn't have the patience to teach or the intellectual mind to deal with her smart mouth.
Today was one of those days. Everyone was doing their own things so she was all alone to do as she pleased. She couldn't take any missions by herself seeing as though she was only a Gennin, she managed to pass the exam last month with her two replacement teammates who were both boys her ages. They occasional trained with her but they were currently in a mission.
Sakura sighed as she shifted her pack. Two scrolls were stuffed in there. One was from Tsunade and the other was from Anko, apparently the woman had taken a liking in bugging Sakura. At least she helped train her.
"Sakura-san!" glancing behind her she saw Lee, Neji, and Tenten standing there. "What are you doing alone in such a glorious day?"
"Ehehe, just going to train." She said with a smile. "I see you're going off on another mission. Be careful."
"With Sakura-san cheering me on I shall finish this mission quickly by myself and if I can't I shall run 500 laps around Konoha!" Tenten groaned, pushing Lee aside as flames burned in his eyes. "Man, will you ever get over Sakura-chan? Well we have to go!" she started dragging Lee down the path.
"If you wish, Sakura-san, I shall train with you after I return from my mission." Neji proposed. During the months Neji noticed that with Sakura's chakra control she could easily deflect his Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou (Sixty Four Hands of the Eight Divinations) by repelling the chakras within his fingertips that could close her chakra coils. Sakura wasn't an expert in deflecting it especially with her current speed and strength but Neji knew that with more training, she would be a challenging opponent.
"That'll be great!" finally, someone to train with. Smiling at him she continued her journey into the woods where she could peacefully study the scrolls. Just because she couldn't train her physical attributes doesn't mean she couldn't train her brain.
Looking around Sakura smiled at the site of her favorite tree. It was a humongous Sakura tree but it wasn't in bloom yet. As she stepped closer Sakura stopped at the scent of blood. Pulling out a kunai she walked over hesitantly. What she saw took her breath away.
A man lay there asleep. His hair framed his face as he seemed to lie there peacefully. Sakura frowned at the site of the hitai-ate on his head, it had a slash across it. That meant he was a missing-nin and from Konoha nonetheless, but she didn't recognize him.
She faltered on what to do. He looked sort of like Sasuke but that was impossible, his whole family was dead besides his brother. From what Sakura heard, Sasuke's brother could even bring Kakashi down to his knee so this couldn't be him! He was too strong to be injured... right?
"Whatever, I'm a medic-nin and it doesn't matter who the person is. A patient is a patient!" Sakura grumbled as she reached to hoist him up when suddenly even before she could touch him the person grabbed her by the wrist and threw her against the tree. She felt him, with inhuman speed, grab her wrist and held her own hand holding the kunai against her throat.
"Who are you?" he asked in a husky voice. Sakura could tell by his pale face that he was losing blood.
"Please... let me heal you." She whispered. Fear didn't etch her voice relieving Sakura that she didn't at least sound frighten. She bit back from gasping when he pushed the kunai closer, not hard enough to shed blood. "Haruno Sakura..."
"How do I know you won't just hand me over to Anbu or just let one of your little friends in Konoha kill me?" Sakura trembled at his piercing gaze. Even though he was injured she could feel his strength, it was overwhelming.
"I swear on my honor as a kunoichi of Konoha that I hand you over to Anbu or let anyone kill you." She whispered just as his grip loosened and he fell forward.
Sakura squeaked when he buried his face within her neck, unconscious. The kunai dropped to the floor but Sakura didn't bother grabbing it as she remained frozen with the shinobi on top of her. Smacking herself mentally Sakura pushed him and groaned "What have I gotten myself into?"
Itachi felt his eyes open slowly. The pain on his side was dulled but where was he? He remembered the scent of cherry blossoms before he had fallen unconscious. He pushed upwards to sit up when suddenly the door opened.
"Oh no, you don't! You're not going to destroy all my hard work by getting up!" Itachi felt his head snap upward as soft gentle hands started to push him back onto the bed. Glaring at the female he felt himself stare unconsciously.
The girl had long pink hair with the most entrancing emerald eyes. Her lips were set in a firm line as she concentrated on pushing him down while her eyes flashed in annoyance. Getting irritated at her pushing he grabbed her wrists.
He noted how her eyes became wide as she stared at him in fright. Strange, one minute she was all domineering and now she was alarmed just because he touched her. "Stop." He saw how her eyes turned to anger once more.
"You're going to reopen your wound! While you're under my care you are not moving from this bed until I say so, understand!" Sakura snapped, not caring that she was yelling at the Uchiha Itachi… not that she knew who he was. She heard of him but she never met him nor had she seen a picture.
Playing along he lied down on the pillows Sakura placed, he decided to amuse her for now until his wound was well enough so he could move without reopening it. Satisfied Sakura dragged a chair over and brought over the bowl full of broth. Itachi wasn't sitting up fully but up enough so he could digest properly.
"Say 'ahhh'." She ordered as she did with the children in the hospital. Itachi gave her a disgruntled look as she held the spoon in front of his mouth. "I can-." Before he could finish the sentence she shoved the spoon in his mouth.
Itachi felt his insides warm up at once, the delectable taste started to dance with his taste buds. He glared at her but was startled at Sakura's smile "Hush, I'm not going to poison you or hurt you, I promised you all those stuff already remember?" he frowned "Enlighten me."
"Fine, fine… I, Haruno Sakura, swear on my honor as a kunoichi of Konoha that I won't hand you over to Anbu or let any of my friends or myself hurt you." Sakura said with a hand up as if she was stating a vow in court.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Say 'aahhh'." She ordered. Seeing as though he wouldn't get an answer until he did so, he complied. Itachi felt ridiculous, letting a mediocre kunoichi like her treating him like a child! "I'm helping you because I'm a medic-nin. I don't care who you are, a patient is a patient."
"You don't even know who I am?" he asked as he took another spoonful of broth. Sakura smiled at him "Like I said, I don't care who you are. I'm a medic-nin and I heal anyone who needs help. I'll take care of the consequences later."
"Why would you do that? What if it was a person who will later kill you and your loved ones?" he hadn't even known her for an hour yet she already annoyed him. Was this Haruno Sakura that stupid?
"…have you ever felt pain that will never seem to go away? Pain, no matter how much medicine you take, won't disappear? I don't want anyone to feel such pain so as long as my hands can heal I'll heal them but… if they hurt the ones I care about; even if I had healed them previously I would kill them later. Even if I were to die, I would make sure that I take them with me." Sakura whispered.
Itachi didn't say anything as Sakura placed the spoon into the empty bowl. "You should get some rest; you've only slept for a few hours. I'll see you later." She whispered as she left the room leaving the Uchiha alone.
Sakura yawned as she cracked the cricks on her neck. With the missing-nin on her bed she had ended up sleeping on the couch. Speaking of him, Sakura threw the blanket off and peeked in the room and saw the man sleeping peacefully. Sakura stared at him quietly.
He looked so much like Sasuke but… not. He seemed to weary of the world, Sasuke just seemed to hate it. Sasuke felt so intimidating but this man just felt… so full of power. Sakura slowly reached out and paused before she gently brushed the locks that covered his face when she suddenly found herself under him.
Her hands were pinned and a weight was on her stomach. Staring into the cold onyx eyes, she stopped the urge to scream letting out a small instead. Trembling under him, she couldn't tear her eyes away from him.
Itachi didn't know whether to curse his shinobi instincts or thank them. Curse them for getting him into this position or thank them since now he could force the silly girl to listen. His wounds weren't healed but they were at least better than before. His so called 'sleep', actually meditation, gave him time to assess the situation.
He was in Konoha, that much he was certain of thanks to the hitai-ate symbol on her. That wasn't surprising, it hadn't been that long since the start of the Jinchuuriki's training journey so they wouldn't be too far from Konoha. Judging how he wasn't in a cell, the girl kept her word and had been silent about his existence within her home. It was rather odd, though, how she didn't know who he was.
"Are you afraid of me… kunoichi?" not so long ago, she was yelling and ordering him around. Now that the tables were turned, she turned into a docile little kitten.
Her voice seemed to have been caught in her throat. Unable to speak, she finally broke away. Clenching her eyes, she turned her face to the side. She wanted to snap at him, yell she wasn't frightened but that would be lying. His mere presence had intimidated her but the need to heal him was stronger. She wasn't the best medic-nin around but she was good enough to help heal his wound slowly.
Sakura opened her eyes slowly when she felt him slide off of her. Turning her head to face him, he saw her leaning against the wall with one leg propped up. He closed his eyes, the suffocating atmosphere had disappeared.
"Sh-Shinobi-san… please lay down. I don't want your wounds to reopen. I know you want to leave so stop moving around so much." She managed to muster enough courage to speak. He opened his eyes before realization settled in, blushing in embarrassment Sakura got off the bed. After he willingly lied down, she lifted the covers up around him. "Goodnight."
She was answered by silence.
CRACK!
Sakura glared at the small crack on the tree. It was easy using the correct amount of chakra at first but it was a great strain mentally. She had to remember the correct amount and not overdo the quantity of chakra into parts of her body. If she did, she was just wasting chakra.
"Aren't you straining yourself?" Tsunade's dry voice entered through the training field. Wiping the sweat from under her chin, Sakura turned and bowed at the Hokage. "Hey, hey, I said no formalities between us."
"Oh right, I keep forgetting." Sakura said with a small smile.
"So, how have you been?" she asked casually.
"Fine."
"You know Sakura… if you want, I can assign you another team un-."
"No thank you Tsunade-shishou." Her smile was gone.
"Listen to me Sakura; you've been under my tutelage for some time. You're progressed rapidly but it won't do you any good if you're cooped up in this village. You need to go out and train with someone or do a mission so you can get more experience." The rosette haired girl frowned but didn't argue. She knew Tsunade was right but in her mind, there wasn't another team for her beside Team Seven.
"I'll… I'll think about it." She mumbled.
"No thinking, I'm assigning you a mission with another team. It's a C-rank mission. The assignment is to get the scroll from the village Hinodi. A miko resides there and goes by the name Setsuna; she is in the temple that is called Hoshi. The scroll is important and your top priority is that it gets to Konoha safely."
"When is the mission?" Sakura asked quietly.
"The day after tomorrow, I suggest you get ready." She bowed her head.
"Hai." Tsunade nodded.
"Good, continue your training."
"Shinobi-saaannnn?" she called out, peeking from her behind the door. The black haired man was sitting up against the wall, looking bored. Pushing the door open, she crept in with a tray of food and placed it on the table next to the bed. His shirt was already off, his chest covered in the clean white bandages. Good, she thought, the wounds haven't reopened.
Sakura had decided to stick with the name Shinobi-san since he didn't seem to look as if he was going to give his name to her anytime soon. Itachi allowed the kunoichi to do her little prodding but observed her in return.
She was so weak; he could tell the moment his eyes landed on her petite form. However, her eyes said otherwise. She was no match for him that he knew was a fact, but her emerald orbs held some sort of raw potential. This girl, Sakura, was in a way a bud that hasn't bloomed yet. She was still growing.
"Good, you're healing quickly! If all things go well, you'll be gone before I go on my mission!" she chirped, sitting next to him. He took this as a signal that he could feed himself now. Taking the cup of tea, he turned to her.
"What rank are you in?" he asked quietly.
"Huh?" this was a surprise. He rarely spoke… in fact; it was like he wasn't even there! "I-I'm still a Gennin." She looked away, pink grazing her cheeks. Itachi simply closed his eyes and Sakura felt her blush fade away. Of course he didn't care; he was just a temporary guest, "Wha-What about you, Shinobi-san?"
This was her first question. She had decided to respect his space for the time being and hadn't asked him anything. Sakura stared at him attentively but looked away when he didn't answer, she wasn't surprised. She jerked her head up when her front door was knocked hard.
"Forehead girl, I know you're in there! How dare you forget the fact that we were going to meet at the café today? I know you're in there billboard-brow, don't you dare ignore me!" a familiar voice screeched outside. Sakura growled and opened the window, far from Itachi.
"I didn't forget, Ino-pig! We were supposed to meet at three; it's only two thirty if you hadn't noticed genius! Now be a good little porker and do your thing until three!" Sakura yelled before slamming the window shut.
"How dare you, you… you… YOU UGLY PINK HAIRED MIDGET!" Itachi couldn't help but notice how a vein throbbed on Sakura's ahem… 'normal' forehead. She whirled around and slammed the window with enough force to cause a crack.
"WHO YOU CALLING MIDGET!" she screamed.
"WHO ELSE? THERE'S ONLY ONE MIDGET IN KONOHA!" Sakura growled.
"THAT'S IT, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" jumping out the window, she left an amused missing-nin to sip his tea.
"Well… here we go." Sakura mumbled, looking up at the building. Entering the Hokage's office, she saw her substitute teammates. She knew they didn't deserve her scorn but her frown wouldn't fade, there was only one team in her mind and these people seemed to be intruders.
"Hello Sakura-san. My name is Chyko, it is a pleasure to meet you." A boy about two years older than her said with a pleasant smile. His brown hair was slicked back into a pony tail and his eyes were a brilliant shade of blue. It sent a sharp pain within Sakura, his eyes reminded her so much of Naruto.
"Hideaki." The other grunted. The boy had midnight purple hair with sharp brown eyes. He glared at Sakura as if she was a piece of filth in his way. Already annoyed thanks to Ino, Sakura wasn't about to take shit from anyone. Glaring back with full force, she was satisfied when he looked away.
"Good, you're here. Normally Gennins are to take missions with a Jounin to guide them but since we're so short-handed, I'm counting on you guys to be swift. Do you understand me?" Tsunade's voice was stern. "Hideaki is the only Chuunin from you three so you'll follow his lead."
"Hai." The two Gennins nodded.
"The mission is very simple, get the scroll from the priestess Setsuna from the temple Hoshi. The village Hinodi is south from Konoha and it will take you at least two to three days to get there. The scroll is important to the village." Tsunade left it at that. It was better if the three didn't know what was contained within it.
Sakura and the other two bowed at Tsunade. The three turned to leave. While heading towards the gate, Sakura glanced at the direction of her home. 'Shinobi-san must be gone by now since his wounds are healed. Even though we didn't talk much it was… nice… to have someone there' the house had felt so empty.
Her parents had left for a mission a few days before her mysterious injured shinobi had arrived. They wouldn't tell her where they were going or what it was, just informing her that they would return in three months. Giving a sad smile, she turned towards the open gates.
Itachi stared at the clothing in front of him. His mesh shirt was practically nonexistent so Sakura had gone out and bought some clothes for him. It wasn't bright so he wouldn't stand out but it had been a while since he wore anything from Konoha.
After putting on the shirt and slacks, he paused at the sound of knocking. Kisame stood on a tree branch, looking at him expectantly behind the glass window. Opening it, he allowed him entrance. "So this is where you were." Kisame wrinkled his nose at girly accessories lingering around. Either his companion swung that way or he was in some girl's room, Kisame prayed for the lateral.
"Let's go." Itachi said, turning to the open window. He had no need to say thanks, he didn't ask for her help it was her own choice. Taking another whiff of the girl, Sakura's, scent he closed his eyes. They would never meet again anyways.
"We have a mission." Kisame grunted out. Itachi looked uninterested, jumping out of the room. Kisame followed behind him, a feral grin on his face. Another mission, he hoped there would be blood and good prey. Than again, from the information he had gained it might be boring.
"We are to retrieve the scroll from the Hinodi village. The scroll resides within the Hoshi temple and a miko named Setsuna is guarding it."
"Hn." Before they start the mission, they would stop by one of the Akatsuki's hideouts so Itachi could get restocked on weapons. Itachi's hand strayed to his healed wound. He could feel the little blossom's soft hands as they healed it. The clothes he wore even smelled of her. Once he got his usual outfit, he would burn these clothes.
AijinMegami: What do you think, what do you think, what do you think, WHAT DO YOU THINK! Yes, yes, i know it's stupid if Sakura doesn't recognize Itachi since he looks exactly like Sasuke but this is fanfictionnot fan-original-fiction.
REVIEW PLEASE!