Title: Dessert of the Day

Author: paws-bells

Beta-ed by: MelissaRose85

Characters/Pairing: Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Itachi

Type: One Shot/Drabble Collection (InComplete)

Genre: Romance/General/Humor

Word Count: 1314

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-san.

Summary: Random ItaSaku drabbles/onesies featuring various universes and various storylines for your reading pleasure. Chapters may or may not be interconnected.

Created on: 30/08/13

Completed on: 30/08/13

Chapter Last Revised on: 25/04/14

Prompt: Non-massacre AU. Itachi has been secretly fascinated by Sakura for some time and uses an Uchiha family dinner as an opportunity to lay some ground work. Sasuke notices what his aniki is doing.

Sakura sat on the edge of the engawa, her legs dangling from the wooden platform, and watched with mild amusement as the young children played amongst the adjacent bonsai garden. They looked like they were really enjoying themselves trying to catch the fireflies flitting about the place, and the carefree sounds of excited, youthful laughter filled the summer night.

It was the annual Uchiha banquet, and the festivities were in full swing as the entire Uchiha compound seemed to suddenly come alive for the celebrations, throwing open its gates and generously welcoming both friends and distant relatives to enter and join the revelry. There were people milling everywhere, and Sakura had just escaped the main hall to take a quick breather from the socializing – it seemed that her status as the Godaime's disciple preceded her even amongst the Uchiha clan members, and before she knew it, she was dispensing medical advice left and right, for issues as simple as ear aches to indigestion and everything in between. Naruto, Sai and Sasuke had callously abandoned her to her fate, those heartless cads, the three stooges quickly and stealthily slinking away before they could be inadvertently dragged into her unfortunate situation, much to her immense irritation. It was at least an hour before the overwhelming interest in her abated, and Sakura quickly took the opportunity to excuse herself before people could start asking questions again.

The pink-haired kunoichi sighed exasperatedly; now she knew why Shishou immediately declined when the latter had received the invite to the banquet – she just wished that her mentor had been kind enough to at least impart a word of warning to her as well. Now, it was clearly too late to back out from the event, and she was also starving – she had not even managed to steal a bite before retreating from the banquet in the main hall, and she also had no idea where her traitorous teammates had gone off to, those asshats.

Quiet footsteps alerted her to the presence of a newcomer then, emerging from within the Uchiha Main House, and Sakura immediately tensed warily as she turned her head to see who it was. Emerald eyes widened slightly with recognition at the calm approach of a tall, raven-haired male, clad in a handsome black formal men's kimono with dark grey accents. She knew this person; Uchiha Itachi – Sasuke's older brother, the heir of the Uchiha clan, ANBU Captain, prodigy extraordinaire. Bound by courtesy, she started to move to stand up, but he simply waved her back down. Dressed in a beautifully layered but rather movement restricting furisode herself, Sakura was only too happy to remain seated where she was.

"Uchiha-san," Sakura greeted with equal amounts of politesse and caution, dipping her head slightly in a graceful gesture of modesty and humility before her host, as formal guest etiquette dictated.

"Please, Haruno-san, at ease," he murmured with equal graciousness in return, even as he drew up next to her.

Sakura's brow knitted slightly in bewilderment as the man just continued to stand beside her and observe the children frolicking in the garden. The whole situation certainly felt rather odd to her, and it wasn't long before she felt the intense need to fill the silence between them with conversation. She didn't really know her teammate's sibling very well, but it couldn't hurt to be friendly and socialize a bit, could it?

"Tonight's banquet was absolutely lovely, Uchiha-san," Sakura politely ventured then, glancing up at her fellow nin. "Please convey my appreciation to Fugaku-sama and Mikoto-sama, if you will."

Calm onyx eyes met her gaze. "You're too kind, Haruno-san," he replied in return, simply accepting her compliments on behalf of his clan. "However, I cannot help but notice that you failed to sample the food before you left the table."

Sakura's face quickly turned pink with embarrassment and chagrin. Oh dang it, he had seen her. The heir of the clan had seen her. This was too mortifying for words.

She must have spoken her thoughts out loud, for he simply remarked. "You were nearly running for the door towards the end," he pointed out very tranquilly. "It would be impossible not to notice your hasty departure."

Sakura could not help herself – she ended up muttering a muffled expletive. "I just made a complete idiot out of myself back there, didn't I?" she grumbled lowly at last. She had really believed that she was being discreet.

"Don't worry, Haruno-san," he commented. "Your requirement for some privacy is understandable, in light of the earlier chaos."

"That's hardly going to make me feel better," Sakura replied disgruntledly.

To her surprise, the Uchiha heir looked mildly amused, and she stared, momentarily surprised at the way his slight change of mood simply highlighted his considerably good looking features and made him appear even more attractive than he already was. She was so taken aback that she nearly missed his next words. "Some food might make you feel better, Haruno-san. If you prefer it, I believe you may find my brother and your other two teammates at the back of the main kitchen."

Sakura snapped out of her stupor when her mind eventually caught up to what he had just told her. Bloody hell. Sasuke's brother was scary. She had only let down her guard for a brief moment and he had nearly bedazzled her with his appearance. Damn Uchihas and their pretty genes. No wonder he had such an impressive following amongst the Konoha kunoichi.

Sakura started to look a bit indignant then when she finally processed the rest of his words. "So that's where those three nincompoops are," she uttered, starting to stand up. "They are so going to get it from me for leaving me in a lurch like that. Thanks for telling me, Uchiha-san."

"You're welcome," he answered. Then, he added softly, seemingly out of the blue. "Sasuke has informed me of your impressive taijutsu skills; if you do not mind, Haruno-san, I'd like to spar with you one day."

Sakura just stared at him in surprise. Uchiha Itachi, the Uchiha Itachi, had just acknowledged her abilities and wanted to cross blades with her. The pink-haired kunoichi was so flattered by his regard that she was rendered momentarily speechless.

"…I'd be glad to, Uchiha-san," she replied at last, and this time, he smiled at her. It was just a small quirk of his lips, but the effect was devastating and it struck her completely dumb, and Sakura didn't even know what to think anymore.

He politely excused himself to return to his hosting duties then, and the pink-haired kunoichi was left to dazedly find her way back to her teammates' sides. Sure enough, the three powerful and high ranking Jounin were slumming it up in the kitchens like the Uchiha heir had astutely pointed out, hiding from everyone else in the compound and having a private party with free flow of food and sake. Sakura didn't even administer the scolding that she had originally intended to give them as she just wordlessly joined them, still in shock over what had just happened.

"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke demanded then, sensing something amiss with his best friend.

Emerald eyes looked at him in bewilderment.

"Sasuke, your brother just very randomly told me that he'd like to spar with me."

The younger Uchiha looked very put out then. "Is that what they call it now?" he simply muttered under his breath in return, and she stared at him, puzzled by how completely unsurprised he was by her shocking (at least it was shocking to her) statement.

"What do you mean by that?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. The whole thing was pretty obvious to him no matter which way he looked at it. "Sakura, you dumbass, it means that you just got asked out on a date by my brother."

Eh?

Ehh?!

"Ehhhh?!"

::owari::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

Hello there, everyone! Welcome to my new (sort of) ItaSaku oneshot/drabble collection, and I hope that you have enjoyed the first installment so far! As mentioned in the summary, the various chapters here will all be random and very likely not connected to one another, so please do take note. Prompts for each update will also be stated very clearly on the top – FYI, I'm currently not accepting any prompts at the moment, so please do not send me any until I request for them, thanks.

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As usual, I cannot promise consistent updates – I've been really busy with other responsibilities and life in general, but I'll try my best to see what I can do. In addition, some of the chapters here will also be uploaded on tumblr, so please do not be surprised when you see the same fic floating around over at the other site.

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Thanks for your kind understanding, and as always, thanks for reading! Until next time!

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Your reviews fuel my passion for writing. So please leave a comment if you like this fic!

-paws