Soft looking, lightly tanned skin. Smooth back. Taut stomach muscles. This is what Itachi Uchiha, the twenty-three year old heir, sees through the crack in the door. His face betrays no emotion as he stares at the woman on the other side of the door. She takes absolutely no notice of him though. His dark eyes watch as she moves around.

Itachi isn't the kind of man to normally stare at a woman in a state of undress. This isn't any normal woman though. This is the woman that he has been in love with since he was little. The woman that had seized his attention the moment he laid eyes on her for the first time. Her with her ocean blue eyes, fiery orange hair, and bright smile. She also happened to have a grudge against him, but that's beside the point. Her name is Tora Namikaze.

What is he doing in this woman's apartment you may ask. He's waiting for her to come out of her room so that he can rile her up and cause her distress. One of his favorite activities. Ever since he moved in next door to her, intentionally of course, he found that it was enjoyable to bug her on a daily basis, be it stealing her newspaper or letting his dog poop on her side of the yard. She of course would always retaliate but it was all a part of the game.

He stares as she begins to take of her shorts. He can see the curve of her toned butt along with a dark blue pair of lace panties. A voice deep inside of him is trying to convince him to look away and that he's indecent for staring at her in this state, but there was nothing that he could do. It's like he's paralyzed. He can't turn away. Her body mesmerizes him.

He's currently standing in the middle of her sitting room. Not exactly hiding himself. Her cat Tigger had investigated him earlier but deemed him harmless. Itachi was far from harmless. Anytime but now of course.

He had probably been there for about five minutes completely unnoticed, but that's when someone else entered the apartment with a loud, "Tora-nee!" The shout catches Itachi's attention and the man spins around to see the loud-mouth blonde.

Naruto Namikaze, Tora's younger brother walks into the apartment with ease and a large smile on his face, very characteristic of the family. His smile falters when he spots Itachi standing in the middle of the apartment staring in the direction of his sister's bedroom. He narrows his eyes and looks between the two. Then he realizes that the door is open and his sister is indecent.

"What do you think you're doing!" Naruto yells.

It's at this point that Tora has heard the yells and peeks out her bedroom door to see the two males in a stare down, Naruto looking particularly menacing. She quickly pulls on some clothes and steps out of the room just in time to see her younger brother pounce onto the Uchiha.

"Naruto!" She yells scrambling over the couch to grab her brother and yank him off of the other.

Itachi is holding his face and blood is leaking between his fingers, probably coming from his nose that Naruto had punched. Tora goes over to him and peels his fingers away from his face inspecting the nose. "It's not broken. I'll get you a towel."

She moves into her kitchen to grab a towel and says, "What the heck were you thinking Naruto?" But as she comes back into the area with the boys, "And what the heck are you doing here Uchiha?"

"I'll tell you what he was doing, he was peeping on you!" Naruto stands and points an accusing finger at the Uchiha still on the floor.

At this point Tora has given the black haired man the towel which he presses to his nose. But then she looks at him with a glare, "You were what?" Her cheeks are tinged pink and her blue eyes shine in embarrassment.

"Yeah, yeah, I walked in and caught him staring at you while you were getting undressed." Naruto nods eagerly at his older sister and then points a glare to the Uchiha with an evil smile.

"Tora it's not what you think." The Uchiha tries to calm the woman with a surrendering hand in the air.

But it's too late. Her right hand swings in a wide arc gaining momentum in a fist which slams into the poor Uchiha's face. And he's out cold.

When he opens his eyes again he's back in his apartment. He sits up confused. But he immediately lays back down when the world spins around him. He raises a hand to his face to find that his left cheek is horribly swollen and probably very bruised, and his nose has also swelled a bit. He sighs and closes his eyes, wishing he could pinch the bridge of his nose without pain. He should have known better than to have gone into that apartment. He should have known better than to stare at a girl that's given him multiple black eyes over the years of knowing each other.

He tries to sit up again, this time slowly. And makes it to the edge of his bed. "Finally awake I see." Itachi looks up to see his cousin staring at him with a smirk on his face. Shisui's dark Uchiha eyes glimmer in enjoyment as he looks down on his bruised cousin. "She got you real good this time."

"She get's me good every time." Itachi says, he rubs his jaw thankful that the girl hadn't punched him there this time. Last time it had dislocated and that was a real bitch. "Her brother got me too."

"I know. How the heck do you think you got in here?" Shisui grabs the glass of water on the desk next to him to hand to Itachi. "She called me to come get you. I know she's strong, but she's not strong enough to carry you."

Itachi leans over with his head in his hands. "What time is it?"

"Noon. I was gonna ask if you wanted to go out for lunch, but I don't think you want to be seen in public with your face like that." Shisui laughs a little. But then he gets serious. "When are you gonna tell her?"

Itachi looks up at his cousin feigning confusion. "Tell her what?"

"Don't play dumb with me Itachi. I know you're in love with her. It's clear to everyone. Even her dunce of a brother has noticed it." Shisui snorts. "She's not gonna be single forever and you're gonna lose your chance."

Itachi stares at his cousin, and then the floor. "I know." When he says this, you can hear the distress in his voice. "She hates me."

"For all that's good." Shisui shakes his head, "She doesn't hate you. I don't see why it's so clear for everyone around you guys to notice that you love each other and you two are absolutely clueless to each other's feelings. Why don't you just talk to her."

"Hn." Itachi just grunts at his cousin. He had heard this a million times. There was no way that she was in love with him too. No way that she would reciprocate his feelings. After everything that they had been through. It was just a fluke that he fell in love with her the way that he did. He loves everything about her. The way she laughs, the way she walks, the way she talks. He even loves the way she punches him, even though it hurts.

"Well, I'm gonna leave. I'm meeting Midori later and I have to look my best. You might want to tell your mom about what happened before you see her for family dinner tonight. Make sure you ice your face. See ya later cousin!" With a smile Shisui leaves the room, and Itachi hears the door to his apartment open and then close. He sighs and falls back onto his bed. It's just not his day.

So he called his mother and warned her about the events that took place. And when he showed up for dinner that night she had fussed over his poor face. Then complimented the girl on her punch. His younger brother Sasuke laughed in his face when he first saw him and then contained himself for the rest of the night. His father was the nicest of all of them for once. Until he also complimented her right hook. Dinner after that was uneventful.

He passed a few weeks with nothing. He avoided Tora, and she avoided him. For them being neighbors they didn't see each other very much. His bruises fade, and the aches and pains with them.

It's a month later when there's a knock on his door. He opens it and sees her there.

"Namikaze." He says.

"Uchiha." She says back.

They stare in silence for a moment. Their eyes locked in a battle of steel. Then she looks down. His eyes widen slightly in surprise. She's never one to break the stare.

"I'm sorry." She says suddenly. "For, you know."

She shuffles on his step nervously. Her eyes not meeting his again. He sees lightest tint of pink on her cheeks.

"I am sorry as well." He says. "It was inappropriate of me."

Another silence. "It's okay. Probably would've done the same if it were switched."

He looks up at that. Her hands immediately come up to cover her mouth and her eyes widen in shock. A smirk crosses his face. "What was that, Tora?"

She just shakes her head. "I'm gonna go home now. Goodnight." She steps away from him and goes into her apartment slamming the door behind her.

Well that was interesting. Itachi's smirk grows wider as he closes his own door.

The next morning Itachi goes out to retrieve the newspaper and Tora happens to leave at the same time. They glance at each other. Then Tora squeaks and runs away off in the direction of the business section of town. The Uchiha raises an eyebrow in question at her retreating form. A soft smile graces his features as he remembers the smile that had been on her face before she saw him. Then he turns around and goes back into his home, planning to have Shisui over to talk later.

"I don't know what I'm going to do Midori!" Tora grasps the top of her head and puts her chin on the table with frustration written all over her face. The girl across the table from her shakes her head.

"Why don't you guys just talk?" She takes a bite of her pancakes. "It won't hurt anything if you have a civil conversation."

"I can't." Tora blushes furiously.

"And why can't you?" Midori points her fork at her friend, "Last I knew you had a mouth and vocal cords. You're like the nonstop talking machine. You should just tell him about your feelings for him."

Tora mumbles as she remembers what she said to him last night. Of all the things she could have said! That's what came out of her mouth! She lets her forehead hit the table in frustration. "Maybe from now on I'll just keep my big mouth shut."

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." Midori grumbles.

Tora glares at her friend, and then continues to eat her breakfast.

"Tora came over to apologize last night." Itachi says after taking a sip of his tea.

"Well that's good." Shisui says lounging on his cousins couch. "Did you guys talk about anything else?"

"No." Itachi mulls over their short conversation from the night before. He thinks about telling Shisui about the strange thing she said but then dismisses it. His friend would only make it into something that was way out of line. "How are you and Midori."

Shisui softens at the thought of his girlfriend and with a smile says, "She's great. I think I'm gonna ask her to marry me."

Itachi's eyes widen. "Really."

"Yeah." Shisui says looking sincere. "I want to be with her for the rest of my life. And I think that we're both ready for the next step. I just want her to say yes."

There's a silence as Shisui thinks about his girlfriend, and Itachi thinks about the girl that he wants to be his girlfriend. He has dated a few women, and though they are all nice, none of them took the cake. But when he looks at Tora, it's like there's nothing else in the world. He wanted her to look at him with those blue eyes and smile that beautiful smile.

Itachi doesn't notice his cousin staring at him in an understanding way. It's then that Shisui decides that he's going to help his cousin. And he's going to need Midori's help.

"Oh Dori." Shisui calls into the apartment walking inside after his morning with Itachi. He smiles when his Midori peeks around the corner to see him.

"Shisui! You're home." She runs up to him and hugs him around the waist. "How was tea with Itachi?"

He kisses the top of her head and then grabs her by the arms and pulls her back. "We need to help them, Midori."

She smiles up at me. "It's about time! I think I have the perfect plan." They sit down at their table and begin to plan operation : Get Itachi and Tora to Confess to Each Other!

Later that same day you can find Shisui sneaking into his cousin's apartment. He hides in Itachi's bedroom and patiently waits for his cousin to return from his daily walk. And once he comes home POW! Shisui knocks him out with a hit to the neck.

Next door Midori has knocked out her best friend and is beginning to carry her to Itachi's apartment. The two tie up their victims and patiently wait for them to wake up again.

And when they wake up boy are they mad. Itachi is the first to wake and he struggles in the ropes that bind him to the chair. He thinks about his situation for a moment and comes to the conclusion that the only one able to do this to him is… "SHISUI!" He shouts, rather uncharacteristically of an Uchiha.

This wakes the woman with orange hair next to him. Who looks up, confused. "Where am I?"

Itachi looks to his side to see Tora sitting there. "Tora?"

She looks to him and her eyes widen immediately. "Itachi?" She looks around the room, noticing that this must be his apartment. But he's tied up. Along with her. What the heck? "What's going on? Why are we tied up?"

"Shisui." He says calmly with a dark glare set on his face.

Tora is still confused. "But why?"

The Uchiha's expression goes blank. "I have no idea."

Tora looks around. And then growls in anger. "I'm gonna kill him when I get loose."

"Please allow me the pleasure of torturing my cousin first." Itachi says with a slight smirk.

"Fine." She looks away from him, beginning to get embarrassed. She still couldn't believe what she had said to him the other day. Totally inappropriate! "We should get out of here."

Itachi nods and begins to try to free himself. He looks over to Tora every once in a while to see her wriggling herself out of the rope. He couldn't look away from her. Maybe he should tell her. At least to get this stress off from his chest.

Tora glances at Itachi. He looks rather handsome even though he is tied up and probably very angry. She watches as some hair falls from his ponytail to hang in front of his face. So handsome! She thinks. Then she shakes her head and gets back to work on getting out of the chair. Before she can do anything else the Uchiha who was previously tied up is in front of her.

"Let me help you." He goes behind her and begins to untie the rope. Tora blushes. She can hear his calm breathing as he fiddles with the rope. "So about what you said yesterday." He says.

She blushes even more red. "Forget about it! It just slipped out! I mean any person would say that in a situation with you since you're so attractive." She bites her tongue after that. Why, just why, couldn't she keep her mouth shut?

"Oh, so I'm attractive am I?" She can practically hear the smug smirk in his voice.

She mumbles a noncommittal response hoping that he'll drop the subject. But as all Uchiha's are, Itachi is stubborn.

"So if you happened to walk in on me changing, you would stay and watch?" He asks her.

At this point she is free. She stands and spins around to face the Uchiha. "Listen here, Uchiha." She pokes him in the chest as he just stares down at her. "You may think that you can get me to admit to anything, but you can't. And you're just going to have to accept that, because I'm never going to tell you my feelings for you." She crosses her arms in front of her chest defiantly.

She should've known that it would only pique his curiosity when she said that. A dangerous smirk crosses his face as realization comes to the sunset-haired girl. She looks at him nervously, blue eyes wide. "And what… feelings, would those be, Tora?" He drawls taking a step towards her.

She takes a step back to compensate for the space lost with his step. It's like a mirror reaction, Itachi takes a step forward and Tora takes a step back. That is, until her back hit's the wall leaving her trapped between it and the powerful Uchiha. Every time either one of them takes a breath they brush against each other. "Well?" He asks.

"I- W-Well, you see…" She begins to stutter nervously at the close proximity of the handsome man. Her face turns red as she thinks of him being so close to her. Itachi can barely handle being this close to the woman, his patience only stretches so far. His hand reaches up and cups her cheek softly, his thumb stroking the soft skin there.

He leans in closer to her his body completely covering hers. He allows his body to lean against hers softly, his forehead comes down to meet hers. Their breathing becomes shallow as it mingles between them. She smells like mint and oranges, he notices almost immediately. She also notices that he smells like mint and chocolate, how delicious.

Her hands rest on his chest softly as they stand there against the wall. So close, yet not close enough, for either of them. Tora finally closes the final distance between them and presses her lips against his.

There is nothing slow and sweet about their first kiss. It is the epitome of hot and needy. She raises her hands to his long dark hair and tangles her fingers in it, pulling his head down to get better access. One of his hands rests on her hip pulling her closer to him, if that's even possible. They pull apart for a moment only to kiss each other again, softly this time, savoring each other. And a last time they pull apart.

At the same time they say, "I love you."

They both smile and stare into each other's eyes. It's silent for a moment. But then Itachi says, "I suppose we should thank Shisui."

Tora chuckles softly. Then she has an idea. "We could do that. Or."

Itachi looks down at her in question. She begins to whisper a plan in his ear. He chuckles, "This is why I love you."

The next morning Shisui and Midori wake up to find Itachi and Tora drinking tea in their kitchen.

"Good morning." Tora says with an evil glint in her eyes.

"G-Good morning you two." Shisui hides behind his girlfriend. "What brings you here this early?"

"Business, cousin." Itachi says with a sip of his tea.

"What kind of business?" Midori asks.

The two at the table take a last sip of their tea and look at the couple standing nervously in the doorway. "Revenge."

Only minutes later the two are tied up and tossed on the bed like sacks of potatoes. They cry comically and stare at their friends as they get ready to leave. There was no way they'd be getting out any time soon. Also, Tora had strategically placed several of her brother's stink bombs around the apartment. But Shisui and Midori didn't need to know about them.

"Also cousin, I should thank you." Itachi grabs Tora's waist and pulls her to his side. "If it weren't for you two we wouldn't be together."

"Thank you Midori." Tora smiles at her friend. Then her face grows dark, "Never deceive us again."

The two nod from their spot on the bed. The two leave the couple in their bed. Once they make it back to their apartments.

Itachi pulls her to his side and leans to whisper in her ear. "Now, how about I show you, what you showed me."

Tora gasps and looks up at Itachi with a blush covering her face. She's about to yell at him when he captures her mouth in a searing kiss. Before she can protest anymore he pulls her into his apartment and slams the door shut. And then they're both glad that he was a peeping tom.

End.

Finally Midori and Shisui free themselves from their restraints. They sigh in relief. "It's good that this is the only thing that they did to us. Knowing them it could've been much worse." Shisui says as he gets out of the bed. Midori follows his lead and they go into the kitchen to get some food.

"Yes. But it's over now. And they're together. That's good." Midori smiles as she walks over to the counter.

"Yes." He watches as she opens the cupboard. Then there's a small bang and smelly smoke fills the small apartment.

Midori screams and begins to cough. Shisui covers his nose as the horrible smell now invading the kitchen. The two run into a different room coughing and gasping. "Maybe it's not a good thing that they're together. Our future seems pretty dark now." Midori says catching her breath.

"Well at least it's over now." Shisui says. Then he smirks at his girlfriend, "What do you say to a nice shower?'

She giggles and takes his hand. They go into their bathroom together.

BOOM!

And that's when they decided to never mess with Itachi and Tora again.