For RedMapleLeaf
Pairing; ItaSaku, Team Seven friendship
Word count: 1349
Prompt: "I can't believe you just cut my hair"
Notes: Four years later: I'm baaack! I know I disappeared for a while, but I miss this place. So here I am. This is a bit rushed, but I really just wanted to post something today, so.

RedMapleLeaf, I don't know if you're still reading this, but if you are, sorry this is so late. Everyone else, request reset since it's been so long! Old ones are a no-go, but from here, everything goes. Send them in, as many as you like!

-x-

After a few months of being on a team with two boys and one boy-in-a-man's-body, Sakura had realized that if she wanted their respect, she would have to earn it. It wasn't enough to be the smartest of their generation (disregarding that ass, Shikamaru), no. She couldn't fend off an enemy or block a kunai or so much as volunteer to get firewood without one of the others jumping in to help her.

So she did what any girl would do: rolled up her sleeves, tied back her hair, and challenged Naruto at dinner to a ramen-eating contest. Sasuke looked at her as if she had lost her mind, but Naruto could barely contain his glee when she added, "Loser's treat."

Of curse she lost. But she put up a good fight, and after that, the dares started. Naruto told her to climb Hokage Mountain and scream, "Uzumaki's next!" Kakashi-sensei convinced her to follow Gai-sensei around for a day, reading aloud select excerpts from Icha Icha Paradise. Sasuke, of course, didn't get into it, being too busy brooding over his Kyuubi-sized brother complex.

"You're so lame and boring and lame," Naruto was fond of telling him.

"You're childish," Sasuke sneered back.

"What, scared she'll do the challenge and you'll have to pay up? So you're also a cheap coward and you have stupid hair."

Sakura basked in her new reputation. She was fearless. She had Naruto's awe and admiration, Kakashi-sensei's interested attention, and she sometimes even caught Sasuke hastily smothering amused smiles. She had a role in her team now, and maybe it wasn't as the Badass or Ace as she had always fantasized, but at least she wasn't thee burden now. She was a teammate.

Then one day Naruto dared her to move the Third's office furniture to Team Eight's training grounds and she hesitated for the first time—long enough for Sasuke to run ahead and start without her. Then he got the praise, the laughs, the enthusiastic claps on the back from Naruto—and she was right back where she started.

And it went on. Sakura was crafty and a little reckless, but Sasuke was wealthy and had a weird charm that let him get away with so much more. His name carried weight and he didn't care much for authority or his reputation—whereas Sakura, without her daredevil front to hide behind, slowly felt herself reverting back to her self-conscious self. She felt herself becoming the outsider again. She knew Sasuke couldn't possibly understand how much she needed these dares—he was just being his usual ultracompetitive self—but she had to find his weakness and take him down, and fast.

Reckless. A little dangerous. Edging insanity.

Kyuubi-sized brother complex.

"What?!"

Sasuke gaped at her, looking vaguely nauseated. Even Naruto was speechless as she handed over the scissors. She had a matching pair tucked into the waistband of her shorts.

You heard me. First to bring back a lock of Itachi's hair wins."

"Are you insane?" Sasuke exploded. "He'll kill us!"

Sakura knotted her hands behind her back so her teammates wouldn't see them trembling. "Don't be such a wimp."

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto's eyes were perfect skills. "If you live through this, will you marry me?"

Sakura laughed and hoped it didn't sound as hysterical as she felt. "Game on, Sasuke-kun."

-x-

Creeping onto the Uchiha compound wasn't easy, and creeping into Itachi's room was simply not done. So Sakura walked, head held high. Some of Sasuke's relatives, coming home from a long day of work, greeted her as she passed. The sun was dipping into the horizon as she clambered up to Itachi's window, deliberately making as much noise as possible.

As expected, he didn't even turn to the window to look at her. "Sakura."

She hopped off his windowsill. "Itachi."

"Sasuke's is the next room."

"I'm here for you."

"Oh?" He didn't even look up from the kunai he was polishing on the floor. Itachi took such care of his things. Sakura watched him wonderingly for a moment. She knew most shinobi cared for their own weapons, but somehow it amazed her that Itachi did. Surely he had better things to do? She studied the way he carefully inspected the kunai for leftover dirt or blood and then set it aside for the next. "What can I help you with, Sakura?"

She snapped out of her trance and edged closer. "Well, actually…" She took a deep breath. Maybe now wasn't the best time—he was already surrounded by weapons. Naruto and Sasuke's terrified faces flashed through her mind, and she wavered.

But then she steeled herself. What her teammates didn't seem to understand—what no one seemed to understand—was that Itachi was, simply put, good. He had a big heart, unending patience, and a deep understanding of what other people needed. Sakura liked to think she had some of that same understanding. And maybe what Itachi needed was just plain honesty.

So she slid the scissors out of her waistband. "Well, actually—"

In the space between one heartbeat and the next, Itachi appeared in front of her, gripping her wrists. His expression didn't change as he examined her scissors, still in her captured grip, then her stunned expression.

"I—" She swallowed. "I…"

He waited patiently.

"It's not easy not being a genius," she said with an awkward laugh. And then the whole story came out. Not just the dares. The pressure to fit in. the loneliness of being forever on the outside, starting with her stupid forehead. Amazing, how easy it was to spill her deepest insecurities to this blank-faced man who had killed so many. Did his enemies bare their souls to his unjudging black eyes, too?

His grip never loosened, but when Sakura's words had dried up and a beat of silence had stretched into long minutes, he finally spoke. "So you want to cut my hair."

It wasn't a question, but Sakura nodded anyway.

"And why," Itachi said, "should I let you?"

"Because," Sakura replied, voice shaking, "You're a nice guy."

Slowly, Itachi let go of her wrists.

And closed his eyes.

-x-

"Whoa." Naruto's voice was soft, reverential. "Can I touch it?"

Sakura dropped the lock of hair, tied with her best red ribbon, into Naruto's hand. She cast Sasuke a sidelong glance. He glared determinedly at the road as they walked along to dinner. Loser's treat.

"That's Itachi's," Naruto said with a decisive nod. "No one else has hair that silky." When Sasuke snorted softly, he laughed. "You're such a loser. You live together! How'd you do it, Sakura-chan?"

No way was she telling them Itachi offered. So she just smiled. "Trade secret."

Naruto pouted. And in the next second, that pout fell away and his eyes grew round a shadow fell across them and even Sasuke looked up. They halted, looking petrified. Sakura turned around.

Uchiha Itachi, bangs uneven in the most visible way, stared down at her. Sakura swallowed. She hadn't cut that much or that horribly, had she? She looked at the lock of hair gripped in Naruto's shaking fist. No. Definitely not that much.

She tamped down her smile. Yes, Uchiha Itachi was absolutely a nice guy.

"I can't believe you cut my hair," Itachi said, voice flat but for a whisper of menace. Even knowing it was an act, Sakura couldn't stifle the shiver that crackled up her spine. He was a born liar.

The members of Team Seven let out their collective breath only once Itachi had passed. They looked at each other and Sasuke and Naruto exchanged wide-eyed stares of disbelief before turning them on Sakura. She felt like she was in a spotlight, and obligingly tossed her head back and smirked.

"I think I love you," Naruto said. "I'm also a little afraid of you."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth lifted. "Well-played, Sakura."

And even though he couldn't possibly have heard from the other end of the loud street, Itachi looked back at her and, too small for anyone else to see, smiled.