Um… this is my 2nd story. (Yay…?)
So now it's this and Secret of the Dragon! Please don't kill me if I can't update as much…
This chapter may be a little short, but I promise they'll get longer.
Summary: (AU) She worked as a servant for the Uchiha family. There, she catches the eye of a certain Uchiha, and both of them fall accidentally in love. SasuSaku. Minor NejiTen, ShikaIno, and NaruHina.
Rated: T (PG-13) for mild language in later chapters and themes not appropriate for people that… aren't teens.
Standard disclaimer applied.
Accidentally in Love Chapter 1: Saved.
Haruno Sakura's family was far from perfect.
Her mother and father were both chuunin, unlike her. When she was little, they had decided that the life of a kunoichi was not fit for her. At first, Sakura had protested, but her parents had prevailed in the end.
Her parents may have been ninja, but their pay was not that great. They were only a low-ranking chuunin, so they only went on unimportant D- and C-ranked missions.
Despite all the financial problems the Haruno family met, they were still one big happy family.
"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" 17-year old Haruno Sakura burst into the small Haruno household. Today was an unusually happy day; Nara Shikamaru, of the Nara clan, had asked her best friend, Yamanaka Ino out. Ino had squealed in joy when Shikamaru had asked her out, Sakura had witnessed it firsthand.
A quiet living room greeted her, and the pink-haired teen's eyebrows met together. This was unusual. She was almost positive that her parents didn't have a mission…
"Please, give me more time…!" Arguing voices drifted from the kitchen.
Cautiously, Sakura stepped into the kitchen, where she saw her parents surrounded by the ninja police forces. "Kaa-san? Tousa? What's going on?"
Everyone looked up, startled. They had not noticed the teen enter the cramped kitchen.
A hard-faced jounin stepped out of the circle surrounding her mother and father. "Is this your daughter, Megumi-san? Kiyo-san?"
Sakura's father looked up and glared at the jounin, his usually soft brown eyes hard. "Sakura-chan had nothing to do with this."
"Mother, what's going on?" Sakura asked.
"Sakura, we can explain-" Sakura's mother was rudely cut off by another jounin.
"Sakura-san, your parents have failed to pay their taxes for the 8th time in a row," the jounin said. "We need to arrest them."
"Wh-what?" Sakura asked, dumbfounded. "What about me?"
"I believe you're not a kunoichi, Sakura-san?"
"Iie… I'm not…" Sakura frowned. Where was this leading to?
"Then… you will not be arrested. You're a minor anyways, so you will have to get a job to pay off your parents' debts," The jounin decided.
"So Sakura won't go to jail with us?" Sakura's mother repeated.
The jounin nodded.
"Good," Sakura's mother sighed. "Then we can go in peace."
"What?" Sakura sputtered as her parents were led away. "You're just going to leave me?"
"Sakura, listen to me." Haruno Megumi usually was a flexible person, but when it came to her daughter, she was as strict as can be. "We will get out easier than most Konoha citizen. You're a smart girl, we'll see you soon."
Sakura didn't say anything. Numbly, she watched as the leader ninja made foreign hand seals. She gazed helplessly into her parents' eyes as they disappeared in a puff of gray smoke.
That night, the headstrong Haruno Sakura cried.
The next day, some random ninjas came into the Haruno household and took everything in it, to pay off some of the debt, they claimed. They were kind enough to leave a futon and some dishes and forks, to provide her with some of her needs.
"Some needs," Sakura grumbled, tugging on her vibrant pink hair in frustration. "They could have left me with some food, or money."
Getting up resignedly, she trudged out of the now empty house, into the streets of Konoha to find a job.
Wanted: Waitress. Must be from ages 16-20. Part-time or full-time. Inquire inside.
Sakura stared cautiously at the red sign posted at the door, then took a look in the building. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
'It's a freaking bar!!!'
'It's going to save our asses and give us money!!!' As always, Inner Sakura found a way to fight back.
The bar wasn't as bad as Sakura thought it would be. Although the air stank of alcohol and some people were dancing in such a… weird way, it looked decent enough.
"Um… excuse me," Sakura said nervously to a waitress with short red hair, who smiled in return.
"How can I help you?"
"Ano… do you know where I can apply for the job as a waitress?" Sakura fidgeted with the hem of her short black skirt.
The waitress smiled at her. "Sure! I'll take you there."
Sakura followed the waitress as they maneuvered around the crowd, until they reached a big door.
"Good luck! I have a feeling that you'll need it," the waitress said, giving her a reassuring smile.
Sakura feebly smiled back, and after muttering a grateful 'thank-you', timidly opened the door and walked in.
A tall thin man with a pointy chin greeted her and analyzed her carefully. "So you want to be a waitress here?"
Sakura nodded numbly. Although this guy was a bit intimidating-looking, he sounded like a nice guy.
"Why do you want to work here?"
My mom and dad are in jail so I need to take care of myself. Even in her head these words sounded stupid. "Financial problems."
The man icy demeanor melted into one of warm concern. "Really, eh? Then from this day forth, you can call me Aki, and I will be your new manager."
Working at Konoha's Blooming Lotus bar wasn't that bad, if you counted out the rude costumers, the crazy dancers, and the drunk perverts.
All Sakura had to do was take the drinks and serve the costumers, and most of the time, she served people who could take care of themselves. Some of the younger men stared lustfully at what Tsuki called her 'curvylicious' body, but she decided to shrug those looks off and ignore the owners of the looks.
"See, all you have to do is smile and look pretty," Tsuki, the redhead Sakura had befriended the first day, joked.
Sakura giggled at the 19-year old. "Geez, Tsuki-chan, you make it sound like this job is no big deal." Sakura, a naturally smart and fast learner, went over to a table where 2 hunched people were arguing. "Here's your sake, sir!"
The people looked up from their argument, and Sakura noticed that both of them looked a little tipsy. "Hey, little missy. Come here."
Sakura froze. She hadn't been instructed on how to handle these kinds of situations. The drunk pervert wanted to do something to her!
'Just kick him there so that he can't procreate,' suggested Inner Sakura.
'Baka, they're ninja. Can't you see their headbands?' She frantically looked around for Tsuki; no sign of her. The rest of the staff were too busy to leave their stations, so there were looking at their youngest member of the staff worriedly.Defeated, she was about to step closer. Smirking in a dirty way, the shorter of the men was about to touch her cheek when Tsuki materialized in between the men and Sakura.
"Sorry, sir. Sakura's just here to serve drinks." Tsuki said in a falsely pleasant tone. Turning back to Sakura she added in an undertone, "Sakura get out of here. These people are ninja from the Uchiha police force, so those dirty bastards can do whatever they want."
"And who are you to tell us what we can and can't do!?" the ninja asked.
"Really now, is someone from the prestigious Uchiha clan supposed to be acting like this?" Tsuki asked, the bite in her tone was getting more obvious by the second.
The man scowled at her. "Look, I just want to have a nice conversation with this pretty girl."
Tsuki's eyes flashed. "She is a minor." She turned to Sakura. "Run, Sakura. Aki-san will understand your situation. Just run to your home and lock the door."
Sakura had heard of the famous Uchiha clan before. They were the police force, and they were supposedly very strong. Although they were well mannered, there were some that had branched off from the clan to terrorize others with their last name. Obviously, the two that Tsuki was defending Sakura from were one of those terrorizers.
Without saying a word, she bolted out of the bar. When she reached the door, she looked back and gasped. Tsuki was on the floor wincing. A kunai was embedded in her thigh, and the ninja were running after her. Fortunately, they were intoxicated so they couldn't run as fast, or use their abilities.
Tsuki managed to cry, "Sakura, RUN!"
And run did our little cherry blossom do.
Blindly, she ran through the dark alleys of Konoha's red light district, still hearing the drunken shouts of the people that were after her. Suddenly, a sharp pain made her falter in her steps. Sakura looked down to see a shuriken in her forearm, and it was bleeding. Hurriedly, she tore off a piece of her worn skirt and hastily wrapped it around her arm. From her parents, she had learned some shinobi basics; spilling blood will just mark a path for the enemy.
Because she was blinded with her tears, she didn't see the raven-haired person that was looking at her oddly, and as a result, she collided into him.
Uchiha Itachi was the type of person whose curiosity could be piqued so easily, but when a girl with pink hair collided into him crying, he was immediately inquisitive.
"Are you okay?" he asked in a monotone.
The girl looked up from her tears, almost frantically. When she spotted the Uchiha fan of his back, she stumbled back. "No! Stay away from me!"
Itachi frowned. Usually, girls went head over heels with googly hearts in their eyes when they saw him, even the depressed ones. Not that he minded. "What's wrong?"
She pointed almost accusingly at the insignia on his back. "You're one of them! I won't let you touch me, after what you did to Tsuki-chan!"
Itachi, a smart person took a glance at the girl. His fan scared her. She had a waitress outfit on, from the Blooming Lotus bar. She also had a shuriken protruding from her arm.
"I'm not one of those guys." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at him, the tears never ceased.
As if on cue, the people after her appeared. "Aha!" one exclaimed triumphantly. "Now we've got y-" All the color drained from the peoples' faces. "I-Itachi-sama! What a pleasure to see you in Konoha's red light district!" The thinner of the two squeaked.
"Aa, what a surprise, Nira," Itachi said coolly. "What business might you have with a harmless 17-year old?"
"So… You're not with them?" All 3 pairs of eyes turned to the pink-haired girl, whose tears had stopped running down her face.
"I told you before, girl." Itachi replied coolly. Then he turned his unflinching gaze back to the two that were after Sakura. "As I was saying, what business might you have with a harmless 17-year old?"
"We just wanted to have a little fu-"
"Fun." Itachi said coldly. "This is what you call fun. You are a disgrace to the Uchiha clan."
He disappeared, and then he reappeared behind Sakura. "You don't want to see this." He delicately hit a pressure point on Sakura's neck, and the results were immediate. Her eyelids fluttered and she slumped in his arms. After he set her gently in a corner, he turned toward the cowards that dared themselves to call themselves 'Uchiha'.
Itachi strolled through the gates of the Uchiha district with the girl cradled in his arms. Ignoring the odd and curious stares, he made his way toward his parents' room. Without bothering to knock, he went in and dumped the girl into his father's arms, who wore a look of shock on his face.
"Uchiha Itachi, what is going on?" Uchiha Fugaku asked, his voice shaking with fury. Obviously, he had the wrong idea.
"Relax, father. She was a girl who was running away from the cowards who still call themselves 'Uchiha.'" Itachi said in a bored tone. "I went to the bar she worked at to get some information."
Flashback
After giving the cowards a good beating, Itachi walked to the bar the girl worked at. He saw a redhead who had a bandage around her thigh. This must have been the Tsuki girl that pink-haired girl was talking about.
"Are you Tsuki?"
The redhead's head whipped up, and her eyes narrowed at the sign on his back. "What do you want?" She snapped rudely. "If you're one of those perverted drunken thugs that think they could do whatever they want just because they're part of the Uchiha police force-"
"No, I saved her from those thugs."
Tsuki's face softened immediately. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that she's grown to become like a sister to me." She bowed in gratitude. "Everyone's grown on her, and they're all concerned."
"That won't be a problem anymore," he replied smoothly. "She's somewhere safe right now."
Yeah, in the deserted alley he had knocked her out in.
Tsuki bowed once again.
"I will take her to my family today. She needs to get that shuriken wound treated."
Immediately, her face crinkled in worry again. "Oh, is she alright?"
He shrugged. "Bad for a regular person, maybe, but she'll recover."
He began to walk away, before stopping. "By the way, what is her name?"
Tsuki's eyes softened. "You mean the girl that's like the sister we all never had?" She smiled. "It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura."
End Flashback
"Her name's Haruno Sakura, father."
"Haruno?" Uchiha Mikoto asked. "Fugaku, that was the family I was telling you about. Megumi was one of my good friends; I heard about their situation a day ago!"
"What are you going to do then?" Itachi asked.
"Why do you care?" Mikoto asked curiously. "You're not the type to be this concerned."
He shrugged nonchalantly. "I've taken an… interest in her. Besides, I want to know how someone that's not a shinobi can survive a shuriken coated with one of the world's most deadliest poisons, especially when it's in your skin through a couple of layers of skin."
Fugaku's eyes flew towards the blood-soaked bandage. "Itachi, your mother and I will take care of this. Sasuke's waiting for you at the gates. You're mission is starting in an hour."
"Aa." Itachi stood to leave. Taking a glance at the girl, he nodded approvingly at her. 'I wonder how Sasuke will react…? Almost everyone's taking a liking to her, even dad.' He took a glance at his father and immediately knew by the look in his eyes that her dad approved Sakura. 'Even I am… concerned…'
At the gates, Itachi spotted Sasuke's hunched form and ANBU vest.
"Nii-san, where were you?" Sasuke demanded. "The mission starts soon."
"Gomen, otouto, I had some… businessto take care of." Itachi replied carelessly. "Where's the other person going on this mission… was it Naruto?"
"The dobe's coming."
As if on cue, a yellow and orange blur whizzed by the two Uchiha brothers, shouting "Race you, Sasuke-teme!"
Sighing, Sasuke said, "Let's go."
The brothers bounded off out of Konoha, trying to catch up with, and mock Konoha's number one loudmouth ninja.
'Be safe… Sakura.'
Good? Bad? Keep? Burn?
In case of misunderstandings, I just want to get thing one thing straight. This is not ItaSaku, and will not have any hints of it. In the later chapters, you'll see it's more like a sister/brother type of relationship.
Thanks for reading :D