Hello everyone! This is my first Non-Mass ItaSaku in a while! So please go easy on it ^^ I know it's a totally cliched idea and I was inspired by a fanfiction from an entirely different fandom that I was reading the other day (unfortunately I've forgotten which author and story it was because I've read so many in the last week...but credit to them for this totally unoriginal story of mine ^^; )

This was written almost entirely for the humor, though there's enough cute fluff in it to qualify as a romance, I think. Sakura is...obviously a little more forthcoming on paper as she is in real life. Much more sarcastic. I imagine this is what I would sound like when writing journal entries...(I actually wrote some of these in a journal, they were surprisingly easy).

Please enjoy! Oh, and this is not in the ANBU Trainee Sakura series (though it holds a lot of similarities). In this world, she and Itachi have a much quicker romance than in the ATS world. There IS a side story to Somnolence in the works though (entitled Silver Lining, hope you guys like it when I'm done with it) as well as another Non-Mass ItaSaku called thunderstorm coming up. So let's hear it for all the NM stories on the way!

Again, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: The characters are Kishimoto's and not mine, and I was inspired by another fic to write in this particular style, so all the credit goes to them! On with the story!

Dear Itachi

Dear Itachi,

Today, I hate you. I should note this with a few underlines but I'm afraid I will rip the paper on which I write this if I do so, and I would hate to ruin my journal. So. I would like to inform you, Uchiha Itachi, that as of today, I hate you.

I most certainly did not hate you before. I, in fact, respected you. My teammate looked up to you, has looked up to you, is still looking up to you even as I write this, I am most certain, to this very day. So of course, considering how I consider Sasuke as one of my heart's brothers, I respected you because he did. And after I met you, I learned through rumor of your talents and skills, and I respected you more.

But now…oh now I would be the first to say that I utterly detest you.

Kami, it hurts to pen this because, thanks to you, I have been wearing dead weight on my body for the last twenty-four hours and I ache!

I didn't realize you were such a vindictive man. This must certainly be due to some long-hidden agenda of yours; your ulterior motives to torment me under the thinly veiled guise of training became obvious when you told me that I needed to increase my strength – who is it, might I ask, that has inherited from the fifth Hokage herself the skill of breaking boulders with a tap of her fist through carefully precise chakra manipulation again? Oh that's right. ME. But I digress – and gave me these unsanctified weights to wear.

And wear them I did, at your nefarious directive, while you made me spar with you. FOR THREE HOURS!

I will tell you now, once and for all, that I do indeed have stamina. Impressive stamina. Naruto and Sasuke and I managed to hold up against Hatake Kakashi who wasn't distracting himself with a brand new copy of Icha Icha Tactics for an entire afternoon and into the evening at the age of fourteen.

But I am not accustomed to wearing two kilo weights on my person in the form of a training vest, and another four half-kilos distributed over my four limbs.

I would not even begin to attempt to describe my feelings when I found myself disgustingly short of breath while you appeared as impeccable as ever.

In fact, the very thought of it is infuriating. So much so that I will rip this page up if I continue writing, so I will do the world a favor and stop. I've already abused this pen so much that I think I use this pen specifically to write you letters about how indignant I feel about your behavior towards the kunoichi you are training for a month. A month!

If you didn't want to do it, you could easily have told Yamato-taichou no!

Truly Disgruntled by your utter lack of courtesy,

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

You must be a machine. I refuse to believe that you are, indeed, a human being. Sasuke would probably try to dissuade me of this train of thought, but I'm entitled to my own opinions. And my own opinions are that you are, indeed, a machine.

There is no other explanation for it.

You sir, do not have perfect chakra control – though I will admit that yours is impressive. Better than Sasuke's, though he's been improving – and so you cannot possibly enhance your body to move as though the weights were nothing.

I thought by challenging you to spar with me while wearing the same weight as I was (by the way, I stringently resent the added kilos that you've placed on me since we started this terrible exercise a week ago) I'd have some semblance of a chance. Or you'd see the error of your ways and relent once you knew just how heavy the stuff was! Yes, it was a terribly idle thought; I've never known you to relent in your entire life, ever. But I had to try. I was that desperate. Whenever I think I've finally gotten used to the weight on me, you add more.

I don't care how childish you think I sound, it hurts!

But again, I digress.

I thought you would be slowed down by the extra weight, but you kept moving like it was nothing! Our sparring session was shorter than usual. Do you know, Itachi (yes, I know I normally call you Itachi-sempai during our training, but here where I write you these infuriated letters I shall call you what I please), that I think the reason behind this is because, just maybe, it could be possible, just an idle thought, that these weights are slowing me down?

Today, I do not hate you, though I have for almost this entire week. Today, on the other hand, I am surprised to find that I am traitorously beginning to feel that respect for you returning.

Fear not. I'm sure you'll do something to plunge me into torment again tomorrow, and I'll find myself hating you all over again.

It's actually a fun sort of exercise.

Grudgingly in awe of your abilities,

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

I…don't know what to write.

What happened today was…decidedly weird. I'm almost hesitant to write about this, but most likely my brain will implode if I think on it any further without saying something. Don't raise your eyebrow, I think I'd lose my nerve if I saw that in person right now and just writing about it is making me see it in my mind's eye.

Actually, no, perhaps I don't want to talk about it after all.

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

Thankfully, I am back to hating you.

Arm weights, ankle weights, even the damn vest I could live with. I listened to your too-strict instructions about wearing them from the moment I got up in the morning until the time I went to bed, with time off for things like showering and bathing (I've taken more baths in the last week and a half than I have in the past four months because it means I have longer until I need to put those infernal weights on again, plus the water makes my body feel more weightless than usual, which is absolutely heavenly), but the genjutsu lessons?

I thought I knew what pure torture was, but now I see I was underestimating your depths for the diabolical entirely.

I do not believe I need genjutsu lessons, Itachi. I would like them stopped this instant. In fact, if you do not stop them tomorrow, I will protest loudly!

Okay, perhaps I will not protest loudly.

Kami knows, if I do that, you will probably use it as grounds to get yourself out of whatever arm-twisting Yamato-taichou used to get you to agree to this farce of a mentorship. While I am sure you would be utterly relieved, as would I for the most part, I actually don't want to disappoint Yamato-taichou when he returns from his month long mission. And disappoint him I will if I haven't stuck it out under your directive for the duration of the month.

So I'm stuck with you for another two and a half weeks.

Please don't continue the genjutsu lessons.

I do not like the feeling of you in my head, and it is getting harder and harder to keep Inner Sakura separated from you while you're there, tinkering around to make sure I learn all the different ways that various genjutsu can feel.

But regardless of whether or not you cease the genjutsu lessons, I have gone back to hating you for now, which is just fine. It's much better than what I was feeling yesterday after you escorted me back to my place.

I mean, is that normal? I wouldn't have expected it from the Uchiha heir (please note that the use of italics is to indicate sarcasm, not because I have any sort of misplaced awe of you, previous letter aside); after all, Sasuke doesn't think to walk me home after training, even if we do stop by Ichiraku Ramen for dinner at Naruto's insistence.

But we didn't go to Ichiraku, did we. No, we went to some rather fancier udon-and-tempura place by the market that I'd been dying to go try. Now I suppose the place is rather ruined for me, since my first time there I spent the meal attempting to make conversation with my ANBU trainer.

Thanks a lot, Itachi.

My wallet will thank you eventually, but my stomach is decidedly displeased.

There was, by the way, no reason for you to buy me dinner.

Hoping that the genjutsu lessons won't continue tomorrow,

Sakura.

P.S. I find that telling you off in no uncertain terms on paper is surprisingly therapeutic.

...

Dear Itachi,

Thank you. I'm feeling horribly contrite now for the two weeks of stewing and griping and generally just sulking at your treatment of me. I hope this confession, on paper for all to see…except not because this is written in my journal and therefore will never be seen by eyes other than my own, will go some way in assuaging my guilt.

The balm is working quite well.

Because healing with chakra works well to an extent but most training still has to be done the old-fashioned way, I've refrained from using chakra manipulation to deal with sore muscles these past few weeks. I didn't want to undo all the work for which I was being tormented.

I'll also admit that I was behaving a lot like an insufferable brat and not a qualified medic of nineteen years of age.

So thank you, for the muscle balm. It works really well, though I can't seem to determine its exact recipe.

Then again, I don't seem to have the time. Have you been deliberately lengthening our…

Never mind. I was about to write something ridiculous.

At any rate, I will do my best to be less acerbic and somewhat more pleasant during our next training session. I'm sure I wasn't the best of company these last two weeks.

Feeling truly apologetic,

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

I ache. I ache, I ache, I ACHE! What possessed you to up my weights by so much all at once? But no…I'll stop that tirade here. I said I'd be good and you are most likely doing this for my good. My body feels so light when I have the weights off that I'm sure both my speed and stamina are improving.

On the other hand, I have not been enjoying the genjutsu lessons. They keep leaving me with a headache and, worse, occasional nightmares, though you seem inordinately pleased that I can break genjutsu with such ease even while being disappointed at my inability to construct good ones at the moment (hopefully I'll improve). You've even dealt with Inner Sakura on one occasion, and it didn't seem to faze you.

I'd thank you if you didn't mention that to anyone…

I mean, Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei know (I didn't actually tell Kakashi-sensei, he just figured it out for himself…I swear it's creepy sometimes how observant he is…but I'm sure you know all about that. He was your senior while in ANBU wasn't he?) but no one else does except maybe Ino-pig from that one time Inner punched her when she got into my head.

And it's not like Inner's doing any harm.

So please don't set me up for a psychological evaluation at Konoha General.

I don't think I could live it down when I've been working there when not on missions.

By the way, I take off the weights when in surgery. I didn't think you'd mind, and Shizune-san has mentioned that my stamina and control have both been improving to the point where she thinks I could do entire surgeries by myself, with only a medic on hand for support instead of having five people attempt to maintain a jutsu.

Laugh if you want, but I kissed the weight on my wrist for luck afterwards.

Now that I think about it, I should probably tell you about taking my weights off during surgery. Hopefully it doesn't ruin our last week training together. I have to admit, once I got past the torture, I actually enjoyed it. Quite a bit, to be honest.

Surprised by her own revelations,

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

I'm sorry. I've never thought of you as an unreasonable monster.

Even when ranting to you in this journal.

I suppose I should have thought that you would understand the need to take off the weights during surgery, the same way I should have thought that you trusted my degree of professionalism.

I'm the one who's the unreasonable monster.

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

I didn't know you liked onigiri, and before you ask, yes, I am laughing at the moment.

But don't be offended! I'm just…it's hard not to!

I would never have expected Mikoto-san to appear at our training ground to give you lunch. Apparently you were debating over this the evening before, so that we wouldn't have to waste time going our separate ways for the midday meal, but you didn't actually turn thought to action this time around.

Surprising. I wouldn't have thought you to hesitate in a matter like this, or voice your thoughts out loud, even if it's just to your mother.

This is turning out to be a surprisingly weird letter…

…

And a surprisingly weird day (it is two hours later than when I started this letter, because I was rather rudely interrupted). I suppose you'd want to know why your brother was just over at my place, but at the moment I'm too tired to tell you.

And for once, the reason I'm putting down my pen is not, in fact, because my body aches from this truly uncomfortable weighted vest I'm wearing.

See, I have been good for the past ten days, haven't I?

And now there's only four more to go.

Too tired to pen a proper letter,

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

I think your brother is entirely mistaken. I hope you'll convince him that his beliefs are false, but then again, I'd be mortified if he mentioned the conversation I had with him two days ago to you. Utterly mortified.

Why does he think you…you…gah, I can't even write this down!

He thinks you like me!

Oh, Kami, seeing that on paper makes it even weirder…

But, I have to cling to the fact that he is entirely mistaken. You don't. I can tell. And do you know how I can tell? Because we are professional and businesslike. All the time. So it's impossible for you to like me, because I would have seen the signs by now. Even though you, Itachi, are not most men, you are still, regardless, male and would have shown some sign of it by now. I'm no idiot.

I mean, everything Sasuke is misinterpreting has to do with our training!

You trained me because Yamato-taichou asked you to.

You lengthened our training regimen because the ANBU entrance exams are coming up and I need to be prepared.

You specifically pick things that I'm bad at to train me in. Don't think I don't know it, don't think I don't hate it.

You're using the excuse of stamina training to torture me with weights…

You gave me muscle balm because I can't heal myself of muscle aches unless I want to unravel all my training.

You pack onigiri for lunch for us so we can maximize the time we have available, Mikoto-san told me she stopped making the onigiri after day one.

You put up with my grumpiness for two weeks before I stopped being such a selfish person.

You talk to me; you've even told me that you're not an unreasonable monster, which you aren't.

You've never told anyone about Inner.

You…took me out to dinner once.

You talk to me, even if it's just to tell me that I should be recognizing and breaking genjutsu faster, or telling me that I should add more weights to the vest tonight, which is more than I got with previous trainers on occasion…

You respect me, and I'm beginning to suspect you push me because you see potential that I can't.

Kami…I think Sasuke might be right. And worse, I might like you too.

This is going to make the next two days insufferable.

Very horrified by her revelations,

Sakura.

...

Dear Itachi,

I just left our last session. Thank you for telling me that I had improved. I'm…glad you trained me for the last month, for all the effort you put in when I didn't want to be taught.

[The rest of the letter is obscured by wet-blurred splotches, cross-outs, and has no signature.]

...

Dear Itachi,

Thank you so so SO much! I can't tell you how happy I am! My hands are shaking.

I wish you could have been there to see Yamato-taichou's face today. The thought of it makes me grin, even now. I take back every uncharitable thought I've ever had of you; you are a wonderful man, general stoicism aside. I may be bruised, battered, cut up, and aching all over, but I could float on air this very moment.

I almost beat Yamato-taichou!

Our spars are so predictable usually; he gives me a mission scroll and then acts as an enemy nin while I get from point A to point B. Halfway there, he'll steal the scroll and I'll be forced to spend the next several hours trying to get it back until I'm entirely dead with fatigue.

But…but I changed things today. I made a clone imbued with chakra to mimic me, and another one to be Sasuke calling taichou to Hokage tower (I thought with all the time Naruto and I spend at the Uchiha compound and around Sasuke that he would be easier to do, I mean he almost never talks around Yamato-taichou…but I slipped up and my clone acted a little too much like you, I think).

When taichou realized it wasn't Sasuke (it took him an embarrassingly short amount of time before he found me out…) my clone had already disappeared with the scroll and my genjutsu was in place. It took him a longer time, until AFTER our first sparring match (clone to person and after I had grabbed the real scroll from my copy, so it wasn't in any danger until our second match) to notice it and break it.

I was almost to my destination, but I'd been traveling in the trees for extra speed because taichou was under my genjutsu, and I almost got caught.

But I didn't have the weights on.

It felt like I was flying! I got to see Yamato-taichou's eyes widen with surprise when I twisted in midair to dodge his mokuton jutsu.

I escaped by making a crater (I felt a twinge of guilt; you made sure that I filled in all the craters I'd made during our sessions over the month on our last day three days ago) and made it another short stretch closer to my drop point when he caught me again.

I won't bother describing the battle because I'd fill pages and pages and it's surprisingly repetitive. He stood between me and the drop location, and we battled around in circles. Each time my back was to the place I would pretend to retreat so that I could be closer to my destination.

He noticed that too, unfortunately, so I never did make it all the way there.

But I never got the scroll taken from me, at least not alive. We fought until we were both out of stamina, sweaty, bruised, and bleeding (I made good use of chakra scalpels), and in the end he had to "kill" me to get it. In the spirit of things, I told him he could only have it if he "took it off my dead body" when he finally pinned me down.

I kicked him off me when my words froze him in place with surprise.

I think you may have taught me a thing or two about people, and subterfuge.

He got the scroll in the end, but he says I've got a great shot at passing the ANBU exams now! I'm blindingly happy! (And don't seem to care much about using incongruous adjectives to say so!)

Thank you so much, Itachi-sempai.

I think you deserve the honorific today.

Grateful from the bottom of my heart,

Sakura.

...

"Sakura."

The girl sitting at her desk jumped; she had been so absorbed in writing that she hadn't noticed the man's arrival. Her face flushing, she quickly closed her journal and turned to the open window, trying to maintain a semblance of calm as she appraised her former ANBU trainer as he perched on a tree limb outside.

His gaze drifted over her face and down her body, and she knew he must be assessing every cut and bruise and scrape, taking note. Had it been after one of their sparring sessions, she would have been treated to a short lecture on how to better cushion a blow that she couldn't avoid, or dodge a kunai that cut too close. But this time he seemed to merely be making sure she wasn't overly taxed, and for some reason that thought made her cheeks flush darker.

"You seem rather the worse for wear."

"I'm a little bedraggled, yes," Sakura told him, trying to smile as she ran a hand over closed-up scrapes and still-bloody cuts. She had been so excited about her near victory that she'd rushed home to write instead of healing herself immediately; she cared for herself now under Itachi's watchful gaze until the blemishes on her skin were gone, leaving only the familiar ache of fatigued muscles behind.

"Use the muscle balm I gave you," Itachi advised, and then, unexpectedly, "I heard of your match with Yamato-sempai. He was impressed."

This time the blush made her crimson, a mingled happiness and pride that threatened to make her light-headed. Yamato-taichou was sparse with praise now that she was attempting ANBU rank, and his words, to her former trainer no less, were stellar commendation indeed. "Thanks, Itachi-sempai. That…that really means a lot to m-,"

The words died on her throat as she saw something she thought was impossible, Uchiha Itachi's lips curving into a genuine smile of what could only be pride, making her heart stutter and stop for a full three seconds as she struggled to breathe.

"It is almost evening," he said calmly, frighteningly so, Sakura felt, "And I believe your furious writing in that journal with all your cuts and bruises still unhealed can only mean you were chronicling your battle with Yamato-sempai and too excited to remember to tend to them. So, perhaps a victory dinner is in order. At the udon-and-tempura shop at the marketplace."

'He smiles, he's proud of me…and I think he just asked me out on a date,' Sakura's dumbfounded mind intoned as she nodded her agreement, too surprised to speak.

Itachi flashed her another quick smile, causing her heartbeat to, once more, come to a full stop before he said with the quiet authority that she was familiar with, "I suppose an hour will do for you to-,"

"Half an hour," Sakura told him, her expression regaining its usual mischievous charm now that Itachi wasn't shocking her with smiles and pride. "I'm much faster than I used to be."

His sudden laugh was infectious as he disappeared from her windowsill, and Sakura found herself giggling along with him long after he was gone.

But when she left to freshen up in the bathroom, Itachi slipped down from the roof where he had been making his perch and into her room. He approached the desk, and long fingers gently touched the journal's leather cover. He was tempted to read Sakura's last entry (her habit of berating him in her journal had been both amusing and helpful in the last month, especially some of the last few entries, though he had been plagued with twinges of guilt when he saw the tear-stains on one of them) but refrained and slipped out the window again to wait the rest of the duration in the limb of a tree.

As helpful as it was to know Sakura's mind by reading her journal, he would prefer to know things about her from her own lips. Hopefully one day she would trust him enough to tell him off as she had on paper to his face. Itachi allowed himself a fleeting grin; it might take a while, but he would enjoy every minute of it.

END

And there you have it! A series of letters written in Sakura's journal so that she could vent at her substitute ANBU trainer with impunity.

Hopefully the fic was enjoyable ^^ it's not part of the ANBU Trainee Sakura series, but I've found a lot of people like the idea of her being in ANBU, so I wrote this little bugger. Muse wouldn't leave me alone.

Made a few changes to it (trying to fix spelling, added a few new things, and such, plus two extra paragraphs at the end)

In case anyone's wondering, I don't plan on writing a sequel, prequel, or other related work. But the muse has her own mind, so I try never to say never. Please leave a review!

Aria, out.