Dsclaimer : I own Naruto :P

Sakura," said Itachi, lifting her chin until she looked at him. Before she could reply, his lips were pressed to hers and she was experiencing her first kiss. It was amazing, sparks seemed to fly from every point their bodies touched, leaving her feeling warm and light-headed.

"Urgh!"

Sakura threw her pillow across the room in frustration.

Naruto and Hinata had left a while ago, understanding that she needed time to figure things out on her own.

When that proved to be an impossible task, Sakura had chosen to go to sleep, hoping that the answer would come to her in the morning.

Except that she hardly got any sleep; her thoughts were plagued with memories of Itachi. Her first kiss, her first date. The time she gave him flowers.

And eventually she realised what Hinata and Naruto knew all along - she genuinely had feelings for Itachi.

And that's where the frustration kicked in; because by lying to him and going along with Sasuke's plan, she'd essentially ruined any chance they might have had as a couple.

Sakura groaned and pressed her face into the mattress as she remembered yesterday's confrontation.

"It's over guys. There's no way we can get out of this now."

Naruto eventually nodded his head. "It's true. We made it up. I'm actually the one that's dating Hinata. And Sasuke is dating Karin. And Sakura doesn't love Sasuke's brother."

"And I'm sorry, Itachi," said Sakura, mustering her couraging and finally facing Itachi. "I dont love you. This was just part of the plan. We thought if you had a girlfriend of your own, then you wouldn't be interferring with Sasuke's."

Itachi probably hated her for playing with his feelings like that.

O ... 0 ... O

"Sakura-chan! Wake up, why is this room so dark?!" Mrs Haruno came bursting into the room and headed straight for the curtains, almost tripping on the pillow that Sakura had thrown on the floor in the middle of the night.

"Mom!" Sakura shouted, rolling over in bed.

"It's almost midday. You cant sleep the day away," said Mrs Haruno dissimissively. "And besides, your friend is waiting downstairs."

O ... 0 ... O

"Hi there Sakura-ch..." Shisui's sing-song greeting died off once he got a good look at Sakura and the bags beneath her eyes.

"Oh, it's you. I thought... Nevermind. So what did you want, anyway?" Asked Sakura, sitting beside him.

"You're so mean," Shisui said, pouting childishly. "Cant I stop by just to chat."

"Nope," said Sakura, not even bothering to look at him. "I'm guessing you heard what happened yesterday."

Shisui sighed. "Oh, yeah. I heard. That was a really mean thing to do to him, you know?"

"I know," said Sakura, swallowing hard. "How did he react after we left?"

"You should speak to him yourself." Shisui shrugged, a sly grin forming on his face. "So, did you hear from Sasuke?"

"Sasuke? Um, no. Not since he took off after Karin. Why? Did he not come home yesterday?"

"No, he didn't," said Shisui, waving his hands around, "But I'm sure it's nothing serious. He's probably crashing at Naruto's place."

Sakura just nodded, knowing this was probably true seeing as the boys always did this without warning their parents first.

"So..." started Shisui. "Remember that time when I caught you stalking Itachi outside the gym?"

Sakura could only stare dumbstruck at Shisui's nerve. He wanted her to do a favour for him now?!

"Well, I need you to repay that favour now," he said with a mischievious grin. "Go talk to Itachi."

...

. . .

...

"What?" Sakura spluttered, not believing her ears. "You want me to-"

"Go talk to Itachi, yes. Anyone who chooses to get involved with Itachi after knowing about his hair fettish has to be either stupid or in love. And you're definitely not stupid."

O ... 0 ... O

Sakura knew that sooner or later she'd have to confront Itachi. She was just hoping for later.

Instead she decided to visit Naruto at his house.

When she arrived, the first thing she noticed was that Sasuke was there, his hair dyed an unnatural shade of red. He barely looked up from his spot at the kitchen table as she walked in.

"Itachi?" She asked.

"Shisui," replied Naruto as he walked in after her. His trademark unruly blonde hair dyed purple.

"I-It was p-part of the favour w-we owed him," said Hinata, who had until then, been facing the stove. When she turned around, Sakura noticed that although her hair remained undyed, she had permed it.

Trying her best not to laugh, Sakura tried to focus on something else. "Mmm, what's that smell?"

"Hinata's making ramen!" Exclaimed Naruto excitedly.

O ... 0 ... O

After lunch the four decided to stay at Naruto's, mainly because three of them did not want to be seen in public with their ridiculous hairstyles.

Instead, they switched on the tv and lounged about on the sofas.

"How come Shisui didn't make you do something outrageous to your hair?" Asked Naruto, shovelling his way through a fifth bowl of Hinata's ramen.

"Naruto, please chew first then speak! Anyways Shisui gave me an even more outrageous task - going to see Itachi."

Sasuke opened his mouth to object, but Hinata, noticing this, decided to intercept.

"S-so, Sasuke, did you talk to Karin after she left?"

Everyone paused and stared at Sasuke, suddenly wondering why he hadn't mentioned what happened after he chased after Karin until now.

"Nothing happened. We broke up," he said shrugging nonchalantly.

"You... You just broke up?" Sakura asked puzzled. "Didn't you explain that you were doing this for her sake?"

"Nope," said Sasuke, returning his attention to the television.

"I thought you loved her," said Sakura, speaking between clenched teeth.

Naruto and Hinata kept silent, knowing better than to get involved. The two shared a look and seemed to communicate with their eyes because in the next minute they were up and headed for the kitchen.

"I thought I loved her. But then how can you ever really know, right? Turns out she was playing me the whole time. It was only once she told me that, that I realised I wasn't in love. After all, wouldn't a person in love be feeling a lot more hurt and betrayed after that confession?"

Secretly, Sakura was glad things didn't work out with Karin. Maybe it was mean, but she really did hate the girl, and the feeling was mutual. Hopefully, next time Sasuke finds someone with a little more substance. But still...

"You dumbass!" Shouted Sakura punching his shoulder. "If you'd only realised that sooner, I could have avoided all of that with Itachi!"

O ... 0 ... O

Sasuke knew as well as Sakura that she was not genuinely upset. In fact, she was glad that Sasuke could spend more time with his friends now, as selfish as that might be.

And truth be told, she was actually grateful to him. Because without Sasuke's scheme, she never would have got to spend that time with Itachi, or realised her true feelings.

But that didn't mean she was about to thank Sasuke anytime soon.

As Sakura walked home, she passed the flower shop where Ino worked, and with sudden stroke of inspiration, she decided to buy a bunch of white daisies - to lighten the mood - for Itachi.

"White daisies seem to be really popular this week," muttered Ino's mother looking confused. Luckily Ino wasn't there to mock Sakura.

O ... 0 ... O

"Oh, Sakura-chan, hi. I'm sorry, both Sasuke and Itachi are out right now, but I'll tell them you stopped by," said Mrs Uchiha.

"Thank you. A-And also, I just want to ap-"

"No need, you explained your reasoning yesterday. What's done is done and of course I forgive you. You know you're like a daughter to me. My sons adore you. So how could I ever stay mad at you."

Sakura mumbled out her thanks before hugging Mrs Uchiha and heading home.

The last thing she expected when she arrived home was to see Itachi Uchiha sitting on her doorstep, intently studying a single white lily between his fingers.

O ... 0 ... O

Her first reaction was to walk away. She had just about turned around when she realised that this was her house, and that she had also wanted to talk to Itachi.

"Um, hi," she said hesitating before sitting next to him. Suddenly the declaration she'd been rehearsing all day seemed to escape her and she was left feeling more than a little awkward in Itachi's presence.

"Sakura," Itachi nodded, by way of greeting. "I've been looking for you. You rushed off before I could reply yesterday."

"Yeah, about that," Sakura said laughing weakly. "Listen, I'm sorry for what I-"

"Here," interrupted Itachi, handing her the white lily. She had no choice but to accept, as she waited for Itachi to continue.

"Sakura, before you say anything else, I just want you to know; I dont love you either."

"Wait, what?" Sakura asked, her eyebrows creasing in confusion.

Itachi took a moment to smoothen her brows before flicking her nose, a gentle, teasing smile playing on his lips.

"I said I dont love you either. How could I when we only spent this week together getting to know each other? I will admit to having been attracted to you for some time, though."

"Oh," was all Sakura could think to say. Well, that certainly made things awkward. She stared dejectedly at the flowers she had bought at Ino's shop before deciding to give them to him anyways.

"Here, I-I bought these for you," she said shyly. "Kind of as a joke, remember that time I got you those flowers..."

"Thank you, though I could hardly forget that particular incident" said Itachi with a completely straight face as he accepted the flowers. "Did you know that traditionally, white lilies symbolize purity, innocence and vulnerabilty?"

Sakura shook her head, surprised by how much he knew about the flower.

"I dont blame you; I didn't know myself until I found myself on the receiving end of them," he said, teasingly bumping his shoulder against hers, and causing Sakura to blush. "You might also be interested to know that the lily symbolizes the freedom to be ourselves, as well as allowing others to be as they are too."

He paused, studying Sakura's features before continuing. "Like I said, I dont love you either, but I do care about you. I dont blame you for wanting to help Sasuke out; that's just the type of person you are. It's one of the reasons I found myself attracted to you in the first place.

"I cant say that I was completely surprised by yesterdays events - one does tend to get suspicious when one's brother dresses in his mother's clothes in front of his friends and so-called 'girlfriend'. I'm guessing that was part of the deal the two of you made?

"The point is, I already had my suspicions, but I went along with it because it meant I got to spend time with you," said Itachi, focusing on Sakura's face.

"But there was always this part of me, a voice in the back of my head, always wondering; how much of the time we spent together was an act and how much was genuinely you."

Acting on impulse, Sakura wrapped her arms around him. With her head pressed into his chest, she whispered just loudly enough for him to hear.

"It was all me. I set out to manipulate you into developing feeling feelings for me, but instead I found myself falling for you."

O ... 0 ... O

*Two Days Later*

O ... 0 ... O

Sasuke might have never been in love with Karin, but that didn't mean Sakura could just ignore the fact that she had cheated on him. Seeing Karin flaunting the fact that she already had a replacement for Sasuke - barely two days after their break up - had sealed the deal for Sakura, and so, she had convinced Naruto and Hinata to help her sneak into Karin's apartment at night - with a pair of scissors no less.

"S-Sakura-chan, I d-dont think this is a good idea," muttered Hinata.

"Ow! That's my face!" Naruto loudly whispered.

"Quiet! I think I hear someone," whispered Sakura, crouching low on Naruto's straining shoulders as they waited outside Karin's window for the person to pass.

What they didn't expect to happen, was for that someone to open the window and heave Sakura into the room, catching Naruto off guard and sending him tumbling to the ground.

A moment of dreadful silence passed, no one daring to move, until they heard the sound of Karin's snoring. Everyone seemed to breath a collective sigh of relief at that.

"What are you trying to do? Wake her up?" Sakura could recognize that voice anywhere...

"Itachi?" She finally asked, looking up to see the smirking face of her boyfriend.

"I guess we had the same idea," he said, directing his gaze to the scissors in her hand.

The two shared an evil smile before being interrupted by Naruto's groan.

"Urgh, talk about matches made in hell. You two love-birds can take over from here; Hinata and I are going home."

"You know, Sasuke thinks you do this because you're bored, but I think secretly, you're looking out for him. The same way I'm doing," said Sakura, leaning in and embracing Itachi.

O ... 0 ... O

The End.

O ... 0 ... O

Finished.

O ... 0 ... O

Like, seriously, you can stop story alerting now. Reviews would still be appreciated though :P

O ... 0 ... O

Thank you to everyone who reviewed any/all chapter(s) of this story. Love you all! Didn't receive a single negative bit of feedback (yet) so I'm really happy.

Thank you for reading this last chapter - did it go the way you expected? :P

So, finally, please review.