Chapter 1 - Prologue

A secret door, a door undiscovered

You knock so gently in case you're heard

- Snow Patrol "The Symphony"

"You want to what!"

She freaked out. Sakura warned her best friend not to freak out and specifically to keep her voice down. Ino screeched loud enough for several people in the little teashop to halt their quiet conversations and stare at the young, blond kunoichi's sudden outburst. Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. How could she think Ino was not going to panic. She herself was still mentally panicking.

"Keep your voice down pig," Sakura hushed as she sent an apologetic smile at the other customers who showed mixed signs of apprehension and concern.

Ino's eyes were still wide and her jaw slightly agape as it took several more moments for her to recover. She leaned back in her seat as tried to think what was possibly going through Sakura's head.

"No. Absolutely not," Ino answered sternly as she crossed her arms across her chest and closed her eyes and took a deep breath in hopes to keep another outburst in check. "Are you crazy forehead? Do you even know what you're asking me to do? Not only is it highly frowned upon and illegal, but also unethical. I don't even have authority to conduct such evaluations. Ugh forehead, where do you even come up with these kinds of crazy things?"

Sakura looked almost insulted. "These crazy things? Pig, you are the one who usually comes up with crazy things." Sakura pointed accusingly at the blond before crossing her arms, mirroring Ino's posture, and slightly sticking her nose in the air. "Besides, I'm calling in a favor."

"A favor?! Kami, you have officially lost it," Ino muttered.

During her lunch break, Sakura came to pick Ino up from Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Division building to treat Ino to some tea from a new tea shop that opened up near the hospital. Ino was elated at first when Sakura pulled Ino out of the 'dungeon', a lighthearted nickname by Konoha nin for the interrogation offices, and said the tea was on her. Both girls had been so busy, Sakura in the hospital and out on secret ANBU missions that Sakura tried to deny but Ino knew anyways and Ino under strict apprenticeship with Ibiki Morino or training sessions with her father. But Ino instantly grew suspicious of Sakura's treat as Sakura had not fallen prey to their usual banter.

"Ino, I really need your help. If you saw him today, you would have never even realized it was him. He looks awful," Sakura uncrossed her arms and looked at Ino hard, ignoring Ino's 'as if' comment under her breath. "He's being sent on back to back missions and his health is slowly deteriorating. His body can't continue operating under this much stress and he's too much of a devoted shinobi to ask for some time off."

Ino sighed. Sakura was too caring. She eyed her pink hair friend before concluding that Sakura's altruistic nature was going to kill her someday. Ino knew Sakura had his best intentions in mind but what Sakura was suggesting was absolutely insane. If they were caught, or really just Ino since she would be the one to perform the evaluation, they would be in serious trouble, even though Ino knew if worse came to worse, Sakura would take responsibility for their actions. Ino eyed her best friend once more. Sakura was completely determined on her sudden fixation of the Uchiha's health.

"Say, since when do you care so much about the Prince of Darkness's health?" Ino suddenly smirked and raised a suggestive eyebrow. "Are you not telling me something?"

Sakura's cheeks tinted a light shade of pink. "No."

Ino laughed at Sakura's obvious discomfort which only encouraged Ino more. "He is very good looking, the hot older brother. I've seen him train a few times, all hot and sweaty, but I'm sure you have too with all those missions and training sessions. I bet you my next monthly allowance that his fan-girls secretly auction shirtless pictures of him in the black market. No wonder you're so concerned about his health. He probably can't keep up if his 'body is under so much stress'. You know what I think–"

"Pig!"

"–I think you want him to stay in the village so you both can continue your escapades behind–"

"Ino!" Sakura yelled, this time Sakura gaining curious onlookers. "So are you going to help me or not Ino-pig?"

Ino sighed obviously satisfied at Sakura's reaction to her gentle teasing. Channeling her inner Shikamaru, hoping to pass this task to somebody else, Ino groaned, "Why can't you ask somebody else?"

"Because I don't trust anyone else from Interrogation to do this."

"Fine," Ino conceded and she shook her head in dismay, "let go fail Itachi's psych evaluation. And then, lets go spend a few nights in jail, where we can have his people terrorize us."

Three hours earlier

Sakura sighed. She did not know what she hated more – Tsunade sending her to diplomatic medical missions to particularly difficult patrons or Tsunade leaving her in charge of the hospital to go on diplomatic medical missions when there was a surplus of patients in the hospital.

Sakura was running on her second consecutive shift with no breaks. The hospital was packed with chunin shinobi who were here for their bi-annual physical examinations.

When Tsunade returned to Konoha several years ago from her travels, she amended and updated hospital policies, protocol, and procedures as well as modernize health regulations of Konoha's citizens. The hospital 'hasn't changed since my grandfather's time' Tsunade blatantly stated when first inspecting the 'world-class' medical center. Tsunade had ordered for more money to be allocated towards hospital funds and created the first every official Konoha Medical School. She believed that strong nations had strong medics, both shinobi and non-shinobi, and Konoha was severely lacking the former.

Tsunade strictly passed down this belief to Shizune and Sakura. One of these changes included bi-annual physical examinations of all Konoha shinobi. Genin and chunin had bi-annual check-ups and jounin had at least tri-annuals. ANBU were subjected to as much as monthly check-ups or one after the completion of a mission.

Sakura fully supported these check-ups but they were a long and tedious requirement for the medics who had to carry out these examinations. It was true; shinobis were the worst patients, which included a quick fifteen minutes check-up. Kakashi-sensei was a perfect example. Sakura sighed again. It had been a long day. Pulling two fifteen-hour shifts was not the best decision on her part but with Tsunade and Shizune gone, Sakura had no choice but to log in extra hours to help out with physicals and regular patient check-ups as well as any scheduled and unscheduled surgeries.

Sakura gave a tired smile at the nurse who quickly greeted her before continuing her way to her office. Making her way into her quiet workplace, Sakura gently closed the door behind her and leaned against her door. Exhaustion finally took its toll. Her shoulders fell downwards and realized she was quite low on chakra. She could see Tsunade's image in her head giving her a smug smile and another tough love lecture.

When she got home, she was going to take a long shower. A long hot shower. And then she was going to sleep for a whole day and if someone came and disturbed her slumber, she would punch them all the way to Suna. Just the thoughts of her bed made Sakura sigh in relieve. Sakura paused before she took another step. She was staring into a deep gash emanating an unhealthy amount of blood.

An ANBU was leaning against her desk. Sakura almost smacked her forehead and internally berated herself. She walked into her office and leaned against the door for what seemed like hours just pondering about her evil sensei to her exhaustion to her magnificent bed and not once did she notice the bleeding shinobi in front of her. Calculating vigilance replaced fatigue in her eyes as Sakura walked towards the ANBU with green healing chakra encircling her hands.

She helped the ANBU stand and motioned her head to the private room equipped with everything found in the OR to a regular hospital room that connected to her office. It was Tsunade's idea that private offices of senior medics should have a private room furnished with everything from heart monitors to extra supplies of IV bags in cases of emergencies. It was a brilliant idea Sakura concluded. Due to her prominent medic-nin status, she was always treating high ranking officials to confidential ANBU nin. Sakura pushed chakra through her hands into the doorknob. Only a certain pattern achieved through high chakra could open the door.

"Sit and take of your vest and shirt," Sakura ordered. The ANBU promptly listened and discarded his upper articles of clothing as well as the mask that hid his identity. "You are unbelievable Uchiha! I just healed you last week."

Green chakra spilled into the ugly gash. "It was a mission," a smooth tenor swiftly countered sending uncalled goose bumps down Sakura's arms.

It was always a mission. Mission after mission after another mission. It was a sick cycle carousel of healing and getting injured. "Well it's going to be me next," Sakura muttered to herself, not noticing the small smirk that played on the Uchiha's mouth after her witty response.

Sakura quickly sent chakra throughout his body, scanning and evaluating the rest of his injuries before concluding that the gash was the most life threatening. Three ribs were broken; they could be healed last, as healing ribs was the least tedious. He was suffering from chakra exhaustion but that could only be replenished through rest. There was a rather nasty cut on his by his naval but that could wait. It seemed like weapon that produced the gash was poisoned. Great Sakura bitterly thought as she waved off her bed for another few hours.

"You were poisoned."

"Ah."

A vein popped on Sakura's forehead. She was thisclose to unleashing Tsunade infamous temper on the ANBU captain, all formalities thrown in the shadows.

"With all due respect, Taichou, 'ah' is not the appropriate response in this scenario. The toxin you were poisoned with has been rapidly spreading throughout your body, four times the average speed, meaning it has already reached your vital organs, specially speaking your lungs and heart," Sakura eyed his heavy breathing and felt the abnormal speed of his heartbeat before continuing, "and because your body was already under an unhealthy amount of stress from your last mission, which, if I remember correctly, was only ten days ago, and since you did not give your body sufficient time to recuperate, the poison has been spreading even faster. Meaning, it will take much longer for you to convalesce from your current injuries."

Sakura felt his glare directed at her and decided to bite her tongue from continuing her rant of his medical condition before he torched her with Amaterasu to shut her up. She knew it was somehow imprudent of her to be lecturing her ANBU captain or any superior in such a tone but Sakura could not take anymore of his negligence to his health.

Sakura relaxed her tense muscles, knowing that extracting the poison was going to take at least another hour or two. Sakura huffed as her thoughts wandered. Nins trained in both shinobi arts and medical jutsu were rare, that many chunin medical nin were able to go on A or B ranked missions on a jounin squad and many jounin medical nin were qualified for and sent on ANBU missions.

It was Tsunade who first suggested that she start going on ANBU missions to further improve her training. Sakura waved off Tsunade's suggestion since Tsunade had a little more than normal amounts of sake that night. It was only the morning after when Sakura was requested to join the infamous ANBU team eleven led by Uchiha Itachi that she realized that Tsunade was not suggesting but stating. That was almost two years ago. Her very first ANBU mission was actually on her eighteenth birthday.

She was completely thrilled and apprehensive that she was requested not only to be part of an ANBU team but also to be part of arguably Konoha's formidable ANBU team ever. As flattered and honored as she was at first, Sakura didn't realize how much extra weight was put on her shoulders. She had trainings with Tsunade, with team seven, and now with Itachi's team, as he wanted each team member familiar with each others fighting styles and techniques.

Working under and alongside Itachi was a whole new level of learning. He was extremely talented and efficient in almost everything he did. He lived up to his reputation and even exceeded it. Although it was physically demanding at first, Sakura grew to enjoy her time with team eleven.

It was completely different compared to working with team seven. Whereas she felt protected almost in an insulting manner of their doubt in her skills with team seven, she felt free yet responsible with team eleven. Whereas team seven eagerly hungered for difficult missions, team eleven was only given and expected to complete missions no questions asked. They were the epitome of antithetical teams. Missions with team seven were comforting and habitual. It was like going on a camping trip. Naruto and Sasuke always bickered and Sakura always had to scold them and remind them that they were on a mission. Kakashi almost never interfered and just smiled at his team's childish antics as he would innocently read his porn. Missions with team eleven, however, always started out with a small wave of apprehension and adrenaline and no porn 'novels'. Their missions were always completed in a logical and orderly fashion. Although their missions were more difficult, Sakura almost never found herself having to heal any serious wounds of the members, whereas if Naruto came out with less then five mortal wounds it would be considered the mission went exceptionally well.

"I have a mission in two days."

He just had to speak. That was the last straw. Her vein bursted. "Absolutely not! It will take me at least two days to find an antidote to this poison," Sakura yelled, "As your doctor I do not permit you to go on any mission for at least another two weeks."

"That is unacceptable."

"Unacceptable!? You are unacceptable," Sakura childishly countered, exhaustion and lack of sleep tempering with her normal, rational self, "You dying of exhaustion is unacceptable!"

That seemed to quiet Itachi. She could feel his gaze burning a hole on her face but chose to ignore it and focus on the almost healed gash. Unacceptable my ass! It'll be unacceptable when I accidentally fall in your bed in just a skimpy pair of–

"Shut up," Sakura unintentionally muttered out loud to her inner gaining a curious raised eyebrow from her captain. Knowing her cheeks were turning pink quickly Sakura refused to let the Uchiha come on top in this unspoken battle and hastily rebutted, "I know you're thinking of going on this mission and I'm just trying to shut your train of thoughts."

Wow, what a lame response. Now he's looking at us like we're crazy. Good job Sakura. Now he's not going to let us fall into his–

Sakura groaned out loud. Her inner was another Ino. Sakura almost laughed out like a lunatic when she first realized she was she was walking around with another pig in her head. She knew by now Itachi probably thought she was crazy, why hide it. He was the one who kept requesting her for dangerous missions; she might as well act crazy in spite of him.

Good, just focus on his beautiful chest and abdomen. Breathe Sakura, breathe.

Sakura let out the breath she did not know she was holding. His chest and abdomen were not that great – he only had immaculate abs that were perfectly firm under his smooth skin and the V-shape his–

Iliac furrow, tsk, tsk Sakura, condemning yourself to crude idioms.

Sakura realized she was grimacing and resolved that there was no hope left of proving her sanity to Itachi. Instead of mulling over her mental health and Itachi Sakura shifted all her attention to the healed gash. She started healing his broken ribs and the cut on his naval as well as small bruises over his chest and arms.

"I would say you have to stay overnight but I know you won't listen," Sakura glared at the Uchiha, "go home and rest," she put extra emphasize on rest, "and I'm requiring you two weeks worth of leave of absence from missions and training." Sakura was quite proud how professional her voice sounded. She walked out the room into her office to grab Itachi's file, Itachi always came to her as a medic as Sakura decided for the sake of convenience she had Itachi's files stored in her office.

"That is not happening."

Sakura shoulders tensed as she quickly turned around and pointed an accusing finger at Itachi who had followed her out into her office. "You are delusional if you think I'm going to let you prance around on missions knowing how detrimental it will be to your health."

Sakura ignored Itachi flinched and almost looked insulted at her word choice. "I do not prance around on missions."

If she accidentally strangled Itachi would she be called the next prodigy or charged with treason and thrown in jail. Sakura stopped her train of dark thoughts to respond but Itachi cut her of before she could refute him. "I will be going on my next mission which you are also assigned," Sakura opened her mouth but was again cut off by Itachi smooth tenor as he eyed her appearance, "I suggest you get some rest Haruno."

That was it. End of conversation. Itachi put on his ripped shirt as Sakura tried really hard to ignore his flexing muscles. Did he just inwardly call her appearance unpleasant? She may look a little disheveled and there was no doubt dark circles under her eyes and her stomach probably growled a few thousands times but he had no right to suggest her unsightly appearance. It was rude to poke at females' looks. A small voice in her knew that Itachi meant well and was just looking out for her health as she was looking out for his but the lack of chakra and food and sleep augmented her sour attitude. Sakura glared at Itachi retreating back as he made his way to her window. She grimly thought what his reaction would be if she threw his file at his back.

"You can't go on that mission."

Itachi stopped and turned to face the pink haired medic. His eyes glowed with amusement, which only served to darken Sakura's mood more. "Oh really?"

He was challenging her. Sakura wanted to pull her hair out. He was challenging her and he was enjoying it. What a prick. He should be the Prince of Hilarity instead of Prince of Darkness, Sakura thought. Well she could be just as smug. Pushing her embitterment in a dark corner of her conscious and garnering all the decorum she had left, Sakura swiftly challenged back, "According to your file, you are long overdue of a psychological examination."

All the amusement in Itachi exuded from his eyes and Sakura resisted the very strong urge to smirk. She knew he was following her train of thought. "As the medical examiner in charge of your overall well being," and your very concerned teammate, Sakura surly thought but did not add, "I am scheduling you for a psych exam later today at four in the afternoon. I will contact Inoichi-san to schedule an appointment."

Itachi was openly scowling at her but Sakura swiftly turn to door and opened it. "I suggest you get some rest before the exam, Taichou." The door loudly slammed behind her as Itachi was left alone in her office, not entirely sure what just played out.

Present time

Sakura knew that she would have to kiss her steamy shower and snug bed goodbye at least for the rest of the day. She had foolishly challenged her captain's mental stability in front of his face. She had just stated that Konoha's golden boy, prodigy, and model citizen's rational cognitive abilities as unreliable. There was nothing psychologically wrong with Itachi. She knew that, he knew that. He was only guilty of over exerting himself, but she vowed to not back down. If he was not going to fight for his health, she would do it for him even if that meant breaking a few rules here and there to get him the long deserved break. Plus, she was far too stubborn to back down. She dug herself into a hole an refused to climb back up.

Now she pulled Ino into her mess of a hole. Ino would not back down either if she were in my shoes, Sakura rationalized. The two best friends were presently scheming to purposely fail Itachi's psych exam.

"Are you sure this will knock him out?"

"Positive."

"Forehead, if he wakes up and figures out what we're doing we might as well kiss ourselves goodbye."

"You're wasting time pig!"

"Ok geez, stop stressing out, it's not like we're purposely committing multiple illicit activities by impersonating a Konoha official and failing the Uchiha Itachi's psych exam," Ino dryly stated. Sakura threw Ino a dirty look as Ino threw her hands in the air, "Ok, ok. Stop getting so pansy forehead. I'm going."

"Do you remember what you have to do?"

"Yes mom. Now shoo, here comes Otousan."

Ino roughly pushed Sakura into the nearest bush before skipping towards her father. "Daddy!," Ino greeted and enveloped him in a hug as she gave him a semi-devious, semi-sweetened smile.

"What that Sakura I just saw?" Inoichi questioned.

"Oh no, Sakura's in the hospital working like always. I swear, forehead is married to the OR room and had suction tubes as her bridesmaids at her wedding. Were you just heading home," Ino asked as she hasty continued to speak not giving her father a chance to respond, "Me too. Hinata just taught me how to make this herbal tea and it tastes absolutely divine. Do you want some? Ok perfect, let's go."

Sakura glowered at Ino's retreating back. That pig. Sakura sighed as she pulled a twig out her hair. Ino was helping her, what more could she ask for?

The first part of the plan was for Ino to drop a sedative, made exclusively by Sakura, in Inoichi's tea that would knock him unconscious and erase his most recent memories. Ino would then use her clan's Mind Body Switch Technique to control her father's body. Inoichi Yamanaka worked in the Torture and Interrogations Division. He and Ibiki Morino worked alongside each other. The two were the only ones permitted to perform psychological evaluations on ANBU members.

As soon as Ino performed her clan's distinctive technique, Sakura would then take Ino's body and move it to her house as a safety precaution. Ino, in Inoichi's body, would then go to the dungeon and administer (and fail) Itachi's psych evaluation. The plan was flawless. Hopefully.

Sakura knew what she was doing was wrong on so many levels. She could only see the disappointed looks of Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-shishou. Heck if she looked in a mirror she would see a half disappointed half determined face staring back at her. The right thing was to let Itachi make his own decisions. He was fully capably and definitely not mentally unstable. But Sakura could not help but to want to help him.

After going on numerous missions with him and seeing him interact with his family on occasional events she noticed he was the most selfless being she ever met. His loyalty to Konoha rivaled Naruto's loyalty to the village and fellow comrades. It was quite pitiful, actually, the village he loved and protected with his life continuously exploited his loyalty. Sakura humorlessly laughed to herself. On a dark note, the village exploited every one of its shinobi's loyalties. But Sakura had people fighting for her. Even though Tsunade trained her to the brink of her chakra and pushed her past her limits, Tsunade never exploited Sakura's devotion to her. Even Kakashi had helped her avoid missions with team eleven when he knew Sakura suffered from fatigue. Who did that for Itachi?

Team eleven had been sent on four S-ranked mission so far this month, and the month was barely half way over. Sakura had accompanied the team on two of those missions and she was still fighting off exhaustion from those missions. Itachi was also under pressure from clan politics, as Sasuke would briskly mention 'stressful clan meetings'. Sakura was not part of a clan but she understood that traditional clan policies were time-consuming and difficult, especially if you were the clan heir, after all the stories Hinata would share.

Maybe she was too sympathetic. Sakura internally smiled at herself. Her sympathy for Itachi was the key force leading her to commit felonious activities. Seeing those deep circles under Itachi's eyes disappear would be satisfying enough and well worth the trouble. Sakura felt a spike of Inoichi's chakra, the signal that Ino had completed the mind body transfer.

Down the road Shikamaru was peacefully walking down the street, hands in his pockets, enjoying the abnormal quietness of Konoha's late afternoon. He had cloud watched this morning and spent his early afternoon with his father in the Intelligence Department, which was troublesome especially since his father sent him to work with the cryptanalysis team for the day. This meant he would not have the comfort of having frequent breaks his father allowed at Intelligence and sat through Shiho's subtle flirting. Shikamaru sighed. He thought of telling Ino about the girl's innocent remarks and obvious admiration, but Ino would most likely devise some ulterior scheme that would be too troublesome to stop. Girls were troublesome.

Shikamaru saw a tall man with long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail walking his way. Just as he was about to greet Ino's Otousan, Inoichi interrupted the lazy Nara shinobi, "Gomennasai Shika-kun, I'm running an errand right now, I'll see you later tonight."

To say Shikamaru was shocked was an understatement. Inoichi just walked past him with a smile like everything was right in the world. What was happening later tonight with Ino's Otousan?

Troublesome. Maybe he should go back to the Intelligence Department and hide out there. Shikamaru continued his path down the street until he saw a flash of pink pop out of a bush. He instantly recognized Sakura and debated if it was worth engaging a conversation with the fellow kunoichi. As Sakura jumped onto a building and started hopping away, he noticed that Sakura was supporting Ino's unconscious body on her back.

He sighed once more deciding not to ponder too much on the scene for he knew it would only lead him to more trouble. Shikamaru continued walking, planning not to involve himself in the two wicked, she-devils' shenanigans. It was the safer and more reasonable option.

What a drag, Shikamaru thought. He was probably going to be hauled into it sooner or later. Well until then, he was going enjoy his unpolluted mind towards their scheming and go cloud watching until the sun set.

To say that Itachi was surprised would be an understatement. His jaw would be hanging open if he were anyone else. So he contained his bewilderment and bowed down to the hokage who was juggling a myriad of paperwork and silently left the office. The hokage did not even show an ounce of shock that was running through Itachi. He merely called Itachi to inform the Uchiha that he had not passed his psychological evaluation and would be given a three weeks worth of vacation. When Itachi tried to ask him about the coming mission, the Sandaime briskly waved him away and told him to go enjoy the time off.

He failed his psychological evaluation.

He failed his psychological evaluation.

Itachi never failed his psychological evaluations. He had never failed anything before.

This whole ordeal reeked with dubious ambience. The Sandaime had not radiated any indications of doubt or choler that one of his best shinobi just failed a psychological evaluation. It was actually quite common for ANBU to fail the evaluation a few times throughout their career but it was a matter that was not taken lightly. Many shinobi, especially jounin and higher, would be assigned at least a four week leave of absence from duty if they failed the assessment and would be required to take longer absences if continuously failed the evaluations. Most would be assigned mandatory counseling sessions congruently with the time off. Itachi just receive a little slap on the hand for a rather serious matter.

The evaluation itself seemed off somehow, Itachi mused. Inoichi Yamanaka always performed Itachi's evaluation. Itachi wholly rememorized the characteristic obtrusive presence in his mind whenever Yamanaka performed the assessment. He always felt thoroughly exposed and analyzed. Yamanaka knew that having one's mind paraded was not the most pleasant feeling and would swiftly finish without any delay. Earlier today, it felt different. Instead of rapid coverage, the intruding psyche slowly lingered in one spot in Itachi's mind and Itachi did not feel his usual exposed self after the examination.

Itachi decided to leisurely walk home instead of jumping swiftly through rooftops. The coolness of the night hit Itachi's face as summer was coming to a quick end. Konoha looked breathtakingly beautiful during the nighttime. Lanterns illuminated the streets as well as light from select few shops, restaurants, and cafes that were open late. The streets were barren of running children and local citizens, adding an eerie silence to the usual noisy atmosphere. Itachi found it peaceful on these rare moments when he took late night walks.

After reporting to the Sandaime following the completion of his mission, he had gone straight to Sakura's office. He was surprised that she looked almost as crummy as he did, except she was not bleeding. The dark circles around her eyes indicated lack of sleep and the chakra depletion indicated the long hours she logged at the hospital.

Her facial expression went from concerned to anger back to concern then back to evident irritation. From prior experience, Itachi knew Sakura had little patience and grew quite cantankerous when she was fighting off exhaustion, a trait that he secretly found entertaining in his usual solemn lifestyle. Somehow, his signature locution had rattled her and sent her on a rant he truthfully only half listened too. It was too amusing seeing her angry.

Sakura was always civil and polite, unless she was knocking some sense into his foolish younger brother and loud blonde teammate. She displayed her enviable intelligence on numerous accounts and demonstrated her shinobi and medical expertise on missions. He watched her kunoichi career grow from a hopeless genin to a formidable medic-nin. There was some inner pride in him knowing that he contributed to that growth.

But today, Sakura had more spine than he originally credited her. She had launched a never-ending tirade and even mocked his status right at his face. Over the nearly two years she joined team eleven Sakura always respected his position as her captain. Throughout that time, he went from Taichou to Uchiha-san to Itachi-san to even Itachi occasionally. His Okasan even berated him once for not allowing dear Sakura to call him by his first name especially since Sakura was like family. Truthfully, Itachi did not mind if Sakura called him by his first name. She was a constant presence in his life, but he knew the kunoichi felt uncomfortable calling him by his first name so he never pushed her to.

But it was when he mentioned his next mission when she completely flipped. He almost wondered if she was going to stop healing him and let him bleed out to death to refrain him from going on the mission. Itachi scrunched his brows in light vexation and dubiety. She was clearly mad at him, yet she wore a pained expression on her face. That only made him wonder more. Her expression quickly radiated smugness when she declared he 'pranced around' on mission. A part of Itachi was insulted while the other concluded Sakura was just throwing her frustrations on him. He did not prance on missions. She knew that. She accompanied his team on half of their missions.

Then, when he refused to take medical leave, she declared him mentally incompetent and quickly scheduled a long overdue psychological evaluation. She threatened his mental status. Itachi had never felt such a strong wave of astonishment before. She so cleverly used not only his delayed psychological evaluation, but also his words against him and promptly stomped out the door, letting her hair flip in a diva-ish manner. It was quite hypocritical of her, Itachi concluded. He was merely serving his village, even if that meant putting his health at risk, as Sakura was doing the same. He knew she was probably ending her second shift at the hospital from judging her appearance. He almost wanted to challenge her mental health and force her to undergo a psychological evaluation, but bit his tongue knowing very well she probably would have attacked him if he suggested the very thought in her angry state.

Itachi's eyes narrowed suddenly as he subconsciously halted. Sakura was completely confident that he would fail the assessment even though he knew that she knew that he was sane. No, she couldn't have. She did not even have the authority. He saw Inoichi himself perform the assessment, even though it felt quite off.

Everything made sense. Sakura had somehow failed his evaluation.

Itachi almost smiled. He should be mad, a part of him was. Not only did a subordinate disregard their captain but also forged a psychological evaluation. He grimaced at how much trouble Sakura would be in if she was discovered.

He felt something warm pool inside his chest. Sakura had gone out her way, never mind her insubordinate behavior earlier, and put herself in risk to make sure he received enough recuperation time against his wishes and Konoha law. He could not remember the last time someone went out their way for him. He could not remember the last time someone broke the law for him. Itachi debated, as a member of the Konoha Police Force, if he should arrest Sakura for breaking Konoha law. He smirked at how she would react to being handcuffed and taken down to the police station.

He almost felt flattered at her actions. Itachi knew that his father and the Uchiha elders, on the other hand, would not feel as gratified as he was. They would be at furious on why their prodigy and heir had failed the assessment, and automatically blame every party involve except him, the one who had failed his assessment.

He had been avoiding remaining in Konoha for long periods of time. Itachi was not going to concede to his clan's, specifically the elders, wishes without a fight on his end. So his battle strategy was avoidance and he filled his time with mission after mission. He knew his actions were only building up more tension and he could not follow the avoidance trajectory for long, but remaining in Konoha for an excessive amount of time was unacceptable.

Sakura had unknowingly obstructed and most likely crumbled his years worth of functioning plan in just one day. Her intensions were pure and selfless, that he admired her greatly for, and Itachi knew he could not blame her on those accounts. He knew Sakura would do this for anybody; it was her nature to care for people. She was merely looking out for his health something he lacked to do. So now he would most likely have to face his clan's elders.

Now that he was to remind in Konoha for the next three weeks, he knew the Uchiha elders would jump on the opportunity to confront him on the piling issues. Itachi rubbed his brows trying to alleviate the coming headache. Maybe Sakura did him a favor. She forced him to shrink the bubble before it exploded.

In that moment, Itachi decided that he would not let Sakura's hard yet insanely illegal work go to vain.

Caught in this pool held in your eyes

Caught like a fool without a line

We're in a natural spring

With this gentle sting between us

- Rhye "Open"

Hello dear readers, this is a new fanfic. I hope you enjoyed the quick prologue. This is a ItaSaku story set in a non-massacre AU. This idea has been bugging me for far too long and I'm glad to finally get it down on Word. I was too excited to double-check any errors or grammatical mistakes, so if there are any, please point them out and I'll try to fix them.

So the quotes before and after the chapter are song lyrics. I listen to music while I write, it gives me inspiration. I've decided to add them in every chapter. I would love to hear your interpretations of the quotes relating to the chapters.

The image of this fanfic belongs to CitrusGun on deviantart. CitrusGun is a very talented artist, I suggest you go check out their profile. Naruto, obviously, belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Until next time.

Thank you so much for your support and reviews :)