As per popular demand, a second chapter of To Myself has been written and posted. I've decided that To Myself will have one more installment, turning this into a threeshot, and afterwards, I may begin a longer chapter fic where To Myself leaves off. If my muse permits of course. She's come back with a vengeance in the last few days, but who knows how long that'll last ^^; I'm REALLY busy...

Anyway, it's still, in my opinion "Complete" so the update rate of this fic is probably going to be slow, lazy, and whatever and whenever I feel like. Still, I do hope you all enjoy this! It was fun to write XD

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Naruto. Y'know...I wouldn't mind if I could just own one or two of the characters...maybe some Akatsuki members...

Chapter 2: Enthralled

Kisame would have been comfortable with admitting that he knew his partner fairly well. He would have reasoned (not that he would have had this conversation to begin with but if he had he would have reasoned) that by dint of traveling around with the eldest remaining Uchiha of two for the past decade or so, he had a semi-decent knowledge of Itachi's patterns of behavior.

So, Kisame had to admit (privately to himself), that he was as close to utterly shocked as a person could get when they were trained not to react to the unexpected, as all shinobi were, when that same politely stoic and above all levelheaded partner of his came through the hideout's front door with a body over one shoulder.

A female body.

A thoroughly beat up and somewhat bloody female body.

A very familiar thoroughly beat up and somewhat bloody female body.

It was, without a doubt, an unconscious Haruno Sakura over Itachi's shoulder.

"Do you mind explaining this one to me, Itachi-san?" he asked, his cup of sake halfway to his lips.

"She is a very skilled medic and an intelligent shinobi. I am certain we will reach an understanding so that we may make use of her medical knowledge. She is known for her inability to keep from healing the injured."

And the fact that Itachi was actually…actually explaining himself to someone else was telling, in Kisame's mind. The usual response would have been 'Hn,' not to mention it had been years since Itachi had done anything unexpected enough to warrant explanation.

But as Kisame was debating just how to phrase the question, "Just what do you think you're doing, that's the former Hokage's apprentice, remember? Best friends with the blonde, Kyuubi-containing brat? How do you plan on explaining this to Leader-sama?" without sounding like a nagging mother, Itachi asked something that made the thoughts go straight out of his head.

"Do we still have the chakra-infused manacles Leader-sama retrieved from Kirigakure's research division a year ago, Kisame-san?"

"What?"

This time Kisame didn't even manage to wrap his response in some semblance of offhandedness, the thought that had immediately popped into his head had been a little more graphic than he could handle in conjunction to his quiet partner.

"The chakra-infused manacles," Itachi answered patiently, still nonchalantly holding Sakura like a sack of potatoes tossed over one shoulder. "As you are aware, Sakura-san is adept at using the Godaime's chakra fist technique. I would prefer to incapacitate her before she wakes so that she does not destroy the headquarters."

'Okay…reasonable enough explanation… I'm not buying it,' Kisame thought to himself as he responded with a much calmer, "I think they're in Kakuzu's room; you know how he always seems to pick out the new technology we gather in our travels. He's probably made several copies of it by now," than his previous exclamation.

"Thank you, Kisame-san."

"Itachi-san, why are you doing this?" Kisame asked, effectively bringing the Uchiha to a halt on his way out the door that led to the Akatsuki members' individual rooms.

"She is interesting. I will kill her when she stops being useful."

Watching Itachi saunter away, Kisame wondered if that second statement would ever come true. From the surprisingly possessive hand he had on Sakura's back, the shark-nin was entirely uncertain of whether Itachi would try to harm her at all.

A sudden thought gripped the shark-featured shinobi, bringing a grin to his face that would have been worthy of any great white in the sea.

'I wonder; is Sakura the first girl Itachi has brought home?' He snickered, and paused. 'And…is he…humming to himself??'

=*~*~*=

Happy birthday to me…

The Uchiha secured the manacles around Sakura's wrists to a handy pillar in his rather larger-than-necessary room, finding himself appreciating the space for the first time. When his belongings consisted of a number of scrolls taken from the Uchiha library, his bed, a desk, and the usual requisite of shinobi gear, the space had been unnecessary and thus defaulted to a small practice area. Even the pillar Sakura was now chained to was pitted with the marks of many hours of bored target practice, several shuriken lodged into the stonework above Sakura's head.

He had surprised himself, really.

On his short trip from where he had discovered the girl back to the headquarters, he had realized swiftly who she was, and yet weighing the pros and cons of attempting to keep Sakura a captive at the Akatsuki headquarters had not, in fact, resulted in him eventually leaving her behind.

Instead, he had gotten a pair of chakra manacles, fastened her to the pillar in his room, and then surprised even himself by hunting up the spare futon that came with his room so that the girl could be more comfortable.

Through it all, Sakura had remained unconscious, her shallow breathing eventually deepening into that of someone taking a well-needed rest.

"Holy hell!" a familiar voice yelped from the door. "Is that-?"

Itachi frowned to himself, noting with no little irritation that he had somehow failed to close the door behind him during his ministrations. Filing that thought away for future perusal, he turned swiftly to face the blond in his doorway. "Yes, it is exactly who you think it is, Deidara."

He was unsettled to see how quickly the Iwa missing-nin's expression melted into a smirking grin.

"I can't believe it. I thought only Hidan liked bringing back his little 'sacrifices' to the hideout, un. You couldn't have used a teahouse like the rest of us?" he asked, expression smug.

"I do not plan on using Sakura-san as a sacrifice any more than I would her a teahouse geisha," Itachi replied in a monotone deadpan, keeping a tight rein on the strange little burst of irritation Deidara's words had awakened.

"Could have fooled me, un," Deidara said with another smirk. "You have her chained to the wall and everyth-,"

Temper unusually exacerbated by the blond Iwa-nin's comments, Itachi found himself shutting the door in his fellow Akatsuki member's face, and couldn't bring himself to mediate the feeling of satisfaction at Deidara's yelp of surprised annoyance.

Behind him, a slight shift of cloth on futon alerted him that his new captive was coming around (probably a result of slamming the door on Deidara and one more reason to find fault with the blond twenty-three year old). It was a little earlier than he would have liked, but regardless, as the sharp intelligence reasserted itself in viridian eyes gone hazy from having been in the clutches of unconsciousness for the past couple of hours, he found that he didn't really mind. He hadn't had anyone to mentally spar with in a while, and a feeling that could almost be classified as one of triumphant relish washed over him when a heady cocktail of recognition, apprehension, fear, and calculation bloomed on the pale, girlish face of his captive.

Haruno Sakura looked as though she would remain interesting for quite some time.

Happy birthday dear me…happy birthday to me.

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