Chapter 2

Everything had to be perfect. Absolutely right, and as matriarch, Mikoto Uchiha would get it to the level of perfection. After all this wasn't just going to be an ordinary dinner. It was going to be first dinner they would see Itachi and Sakura together in a new light.

They were both busy people as it was and to be perfectly honest, she doubted she could have a better opportunity than today to accomplish her plan. Her son was often on missions and Sakura would be called onto hospital duty just as frequently.

Therefore she had to be extra prepared, and without her partner in crime, this whole night probably wouldn't have gone through.

It didn't take a great deal to plan this all out with Shisui. He was just as glad as her to finally see Itachi with another female other than her. The plan was to simply gather everyone tonight and hopefully they see it as an opportunity to come clean (with a few hints from Mikoto herself if she had to). Her son was due to go on yet another mission tomorrow at noon, and Sakura had training with Lady Tsunade.

Now how might Mikoto know all this? Simple, she took the liberty of buying the Hokage a few bottles of sake to simply take a glance at mission rooters and appointments at the hospital. It was disclosed information and therefore she had to be discreet. But having a body flicker in the family did have its advantages.

Across from where Mikoto was working from at the sink, sat a blond ninja clearly unable to form a rational judgment as to what Mikoto was achieving at the end of this.

"I still don't get what this makes us achieve! It doesn't change the fact that Sakura and that teme have something going on", Naruto whined. His idea was simply to go and confront them head on, after all it was bound to come out eventually so why not sooner?

Mikoto has several times explained, or at least tried to explain, that they must have a reason for hiding it. She could only think that they were both scared of the next step, which happened to be confronting family. So she laid out some rules that no one was to confront the pair until they felt ready. Upon hearing that, her younger son had chuckled in complete doubt that his own mother could keep to her word. He knew how desperate she was to hear baby laughter's in the house.

Sasuke was irritated yet again with his rival's comment at insulting his brother's and thumped the knucklehead for what seemed like the 10th time of the day, but he had a hunch deep down. How could Itachi, his brother, be seeing his best friend? It was so wrong. "Shut it dobe, and stop insulting my brother".

"Shut up teme. I can insult him as much as I want". Sasuke let out a growl, daring him to say another word.

"Besides", Naruto carried on, avoiding Sasuke. "Isn't Itachi on a mission?"

Mikoto turned around to face Naruto with the intention of answering his question.

"Dobe, my mother has spent this entire week, day and night, arranging this. Do you think she would skip a minor detail like that?" Sasuke answered as if his best friend's question was the dumbest thing he had ever heard. They all knew the extent of a woman's ability, especially a matriarch's.

"I have Shisui to thank for that, Naruto-kun", Mikoto answered, ignoring Sasukes comment. Nothing could ruin her mood today. Absolutely nothing.

Returning back to Konoha after completing his mission, Shisui Uchiha could not help but let out a sneeze. He sure as hell wasn't ill, he knew that much. So it could only mean one thing he concluded, that Mikoto was talking about him.

"The body flicker down with a virus?" Genma spoke sarcastically, making the Uchiha turn his head around to face the man, as much as he could, given the wind rushing at his face.

They were currently jumping tree branches at an immensely high speed. They couldn't take the root of simply running on ground due to the rocky condition of the hidden village of rock.

The mission itself was simple, an escort of the Feudal Lord, which hadn't taken no more than couple of days. Of course the fact that Shisui was definitely not slacking around made the mission completion time improve dramatically. He had his reasons.

"Me? Down? You wish", Shisui hissed back with slight amusement. The two would often get into a competitive bicker.

"Maybe if you'd have a woman to get back to you'd be 'down' every mission"... "But I doubt that'll happen anytime soon, with your reputation with the ladies…" he carried on obviously trying to make the way back home more interesting. "Next to me that is", he chuckled.

Truth to be told the two boys, regardless of being ones of the strongest in the country, did have a reputation, a rather interesting reputation. They would both often meet ladies at a bar or club and just take it from there. Sometimes they would even hold competitions between themselves, as sick as it might sound, according to Sasuke.

Shisui couldn't help but think of Itachi and immediately smirked. Mikoto never said that he couldn't tease a little. "Next to you? Ha" he laughed out before continuing. "You seem to have it all wrong. I would class myself straight near Itachi and right away from you at the bottom". Genma stared in puzzlement as to how the captain, who was as a matter of fact traveling just meters away from them, got into this. Or even better; how he fitted with their jokes at all. He hadn't seen Itachi near a female other than his mother.

"Right taicho" Shisui carried on teasing, trying to hit a nerve.

This left them with a very annoyed Itachi who let his annoyance be present by the waves of chakra he was letting off. What on earth was this idiot blabbering about? He thought.

"Someone's worked up" Shisui, who had no intent of letting this go, mumbled. He still couldn't understand why the two of them were so secretive about their relationship. Personally, he would just tell them all right away. That was, if he ever did find himself settling down, which he prayed to kami wasn't anytime soon. He was content with the way he was, with no woman nagging down his neck.

"Do not get me involved in your worthless debates" Itachi warned him with killing eyes. "I have no interest in that kind of business".

"Ha! Who's he trying to fool?" Shisui whispered but was not unheard by Itachi.

"Are you trying to provoke him?" Genma paced next to Shisui, seriously wondering if his friend had a death wish. Seeing Itachi on the verge of loss of control was plainly put… frightening.

If only you knew Shisui mentally sighed.

"We will spend the night here" They both heard the voice of Itachi from ahead, making them stop and fall to the ground landing.

"Phew! Just what the doctor ordered, ehh Shisui. A nice mixed hot spring too!" Genma gleamed as they began walking into the village.

Shisui grinned. Oh boy, it had been a record time since Shisui last had female company. The Hokage was dead set on giving him nonstop missions for the past few weeks, and with Mikoto breathing down his neck during his spare time he-

Shit. He remembered. Mikoto's plan needed to get into action. They could not waste time here; she would kill him or better yet, disown him. She had been planning this for quite some time now and there was no room for failure, as she had so clearly put it. Although, the mixed hot spring sounded much better…

"Actually no, we need to head back right away", the man chipped in, quite in shock himself. Genma and Itachi turned around in disbelief. Perhaps he really was ill, after all, there was no way Shisui would reject taking a break, especially from the girls.

"What!"Genma shouted out loud, clearly shocked that Shisui was rejecting his life's ambition.

"I don't think you quite under stood me. I said mixed hot springs… Mixed…" Genma repeated while trying to understand Shisui's logic.

Damn it. Why was this idiot making it sound so tempting? Shisui thought. But no, he wouldn't give in. As Mikoto had said, failure was not an option. Besides, he could find the girls in Konoha too.

To be honest even, Itachi was shocked that his cousin was declining. He knew his cousin's ways very well although he didn't really care. He would only retreat back into his room since he had no time for ridiculous ways like that.

"Yea I heard you, I'm not deaf", he growled back. "But we need to head back right now. Besides we're only 3 hours away". Shisui countered.

He was late as it was and facing an angry Mikoto was not something he wished upon his worst of enemies. He pleaded at Itachi, and he couldn't avoid the mental images of Mikoto strangling Shisui if he failed to get Itachi home today right on time.

"We are in no rush. We will stay the night,"

Why was this rock so stubborn? Shisui didn't see how he could be related with someone with the personality of a rock. Shisui couldn't help but let out another sneeze, and was seriously starting to freak out. This was the second sneeze and it could only mean that Mikoto was going to demolish him without doubt.

"I'm ill, damn it! I need to get home" The shinobi cried, ignoring the looks of his teammates.

Genma smirked and it didn't take long to solve who it was aimed at. "What happened to me wishing?"

Shisui glared with his sharingan, daring him to pursue the matter further. If it was another time he would indeed make a fool out of him.

"Go on ahead then, Shisui. We will meet you at the village." Itachi replied with his clam expression

"What? NO. What if I get ambushed or something?" Seriously, since when did his cousin become this heartless?

Itachi raised an eyebrow at his cousin's behavior. Something was definitely up with him.

"Don't you care about your cousin?"

With the look Itachi was giving it clearly translated to no.

"I'll tell your mother that you were willing to leave me to get attacked whilst low on chakra" Ha! Two can play your game, Itachi, he thought. Not even Itachi Uchiha could stand up to the Mikoto Uchiha.

Both Itachi and Genma raised an eyebrow trying to interpret what was wrong with the man.

"What's taking Sakura-chan so long?" Mikoto moaned inwardly, but was loud enough to be heard by the three males waiting at the table. They were patiently absorbing all her remarks as to where the two main characters of the day were, and Naruto, Sasuke and Fugaku had no other option but to take it all in.

"She had work today, so she's most likely on her way". Sasuke replied casually.

"Sakura-chan is always busy with work" Naruto sighed "We hardly ever hang out anymore as a team." Naruto said with genuine concern.

Naruto was right, Sasuke thought, even though he would never word it out loud, especially not in front of his father.

Whenever the dobe would arrange a day out, whether it were just the three of them or even the rookie nine, she would reject stating that she didn't have time.

Whilst the two boys were inwardly sulking, they happened to hear the mother of the house giggling which later progressed into laughter, leaving Fugaku looking blankly at her while easily knowing what she was thinking. This also left a very pale Sasuke looking as if he could vomit on Naruto any second now, after he deciphered the meaning of his mother's laughter.

"Huh?" Naruto looked around for some answers. "What's so funny?"

Dobe Sasuke mentally sighed. How oblivious could a human get?

"Well, Naruto-kun, that's because she's always with my Itachi!" Mikoto beamed, completely forgetting about any kind of lateness.

"Sorry about the lateness, you know how Tsunade-sama can get with paperwork, Mikoto san. And thank you for inviting me" Sakura repeated with genuine sorry. It wasn't really her fault that her master decided to take a day off and go on a drinking binge with that damn old pervert. And now here she was, trying to make up for it.

Mikoto would have none of that. Oh how she loved how adorable and cute her daughter in law was. She even brought some flowers to make up for her lateness. Not that Mikoto was waiting for anything like that, but in comparison to Sasuke and Naruto, this girl was so thoughtful.

"There is no need for you to apologize at all, Sakura-chan. Besides you're part of the family now so there's no need for anyone to invite you anymore." Mikoto beamed.

The pinkette was slightly taken back with that comment. 'No need for her to invite me?' Sakura pondered. 'Family?' Well, there could only be one logical explanation for this, and that was that Mikoto saw her like a daughter, and knowing that she did made Sakura happy, so happy that she couldn't help but smile at the woman.

'Could you not be any more obvious, mother?' Sasuke mumbled to himself, slightly annoyed that just hours ago, she'd been pestering them about the whole discreetness.

"Paperwork, Sakura-chan? Are you sure?" Naruto eyed her suspiciously, clearly knowing her reason for lateness.

"What are you talki-" Sakura started off until she was interrupted by the man of the house. Kind of thinking about it, she hadn't heard the man speak yet. Of course they would have had some decent conversations, although most of that entitles missions and such.

"Let's eat." Fugaku had a hard time believing he was in this situation; where his own wife was being the main trouble. Sure enough, he also wanted Itachi to settle down, but why go through this much effort?

Sakura's curiosity had not vanished and if anything, she was much more curious now after seeing Sasuke strangling the blond. None the less, the two girls walked over to the kitchen.

"What's wrong with those two?" Sakura asked with deep concern.

"You know how those two get, fighting over nothing…" Mikoto assured with a wide grin.

'Something's not right' Sakura concluded.

Meanwhile, the latest group of shinobi to complete their mission entered through the gates of Konoha.

"I'm heading home. After all there's no fun being here with you guys. Don't worry about the mission report I've got it covered", Were Gemma's parting words as the other two headed back to the Uchiha district.

"Selfish bastard" Shisui swore. If only he understand the situation! How could he take his aunt so lightly?

Itachi could only sigh at his team's idiotic behavior. They were without doubt one of the strongest anbu team within the nation, yet its members (excluding himself that is) were morons.

"Hey, what time is it?" Shisui interrupted Itachi's thoughts.

"Coming to 8"

"Shit! I'm late. Mikoto's going to kill me" Shisui cried out loud. He had promised that he'd get Itachi back home at 6!

Itachi could not help but look straight at him with puzzlement and with an expectant of clarification for his statement.

"Don't look at me like that… S- sh- she has medicine to give me!" Shisui swiftly made up. There was no way Itachi could fault that. But knowing him…

"What are you up to Shisui? You are acting out of character." And damn there he went again, always in need of an explanation.

"M-me?" Shisui was trying to play for time, but Itachi could only stare as if to say am I really related to this lunatic?

"Nothing. Why would I be up to anything?"

Itachi's piercing eyes was not helping Shisui out either. He wasn't known for a prodigy for nothing. However, Shisui knew this prodigy inside and out.

"So you're going to interrogate your ill cousin now, is that how it is?" Shisui lashed out in denial. Hoping he would just give up and rush home. Well that's what Shisui was hoping for anyway.

"Besides you're the last person here to enquire about anyone 'being up' to anything" He really was playing on slippery floors. But he just couldn't help what came out of his mouth sometimes.

"AHHHH damn you, teme! You finished the remaining Warishita sauce! Is that how you treat your guest?" Naruto shouted while raising his fist against the table in anger. Unfortunately, one of the many things Naruto loved to kick fuss about was food.

"Shut it dobe. You've already had half the bottle already." Sasuke replied with bemusement and were unable to hold the twitch from his mouth any longer.

"Naruto," Sakura warned. Total embarrassment was what she was always faced with whenever she was with these two, and it certainly did not matter how many times one punched them into oblivion either.

'The maturity of these boys outstands me' Fugaku thought while carrying on eating.

"Mikoto-san, I do apologize about this baka's stupid behavior". Naturally it was always up to Sakura to make amendments too.

However unknown to the girl, Mikoto's thoughts were on 10 ways on how to kill Shisui.

"Huh? What's wrong Sakura-chan?" Finally, she came back to her senses after hearing the soft voice of the girl. Although she also got a glimpse of her own son and his best friend covered in sauce. How typical, she smiled.

"I'll get you boys some more" Mikoto made her way up to stand until she was interrupted by Sakura who stood up straight away.

"No please you carry on. I'll get it" It was the least she could do for their immaturity. She had taken the liberty of putting up with Naruto for as long as she could remember.

"But Sakura, you're a guest, please-" Before Mikoto could protest, the girl was giving her that sincere look telling her she was just as stubborn as she was.

"It's in the room just down the corridor next to the spices cupboard", the mother of the house clarified and waited for the girl to disappear out of sight in desperate need to release some anger.

"That Shisui! Oh he better not come face to face with me if he knows what's best for him." Mikoto growled with killing intent, leaving the three men at the table to stop their eating and stare at her with fear.

As if planned, said man appeared through the door with a clueless look on his face, "What have I done now?" But deep down he knew what he had done, but he sure as hell wasn't going to admit that.

"Shisui!" Mikoto bounced out from her seat, forgetting any anger. "Where's Itachi?" This was her main priority after all.

"He came through the door with me and went upstairs. He's probably getting changed." Shisui explained but paused once he noticed something "But where's Sakura? I thought this whole thing was to get them –"

"Yes I know. She went to go get something. But do tell why you are late! You could have ruined this whole night!" Damn, here he thought he was left off the hook and she had forgotten.

Shisui eyed the other three, silently asking them for help. However, neither of them dared interrupt as they knew how feisty the female Uchiha could get.

"Obasan, you know how stubborn your son can be. He tried to get us to settle down at an inn, so I had to convince him not to." He pleaded with her. This wasn't even his damn fault so why was he getting the earful?

"That's just like him. So what did you do…?"

Shisui carried on explaining in a low voice.

"Where is this damn thing" Sakura muttered to herself while trying to find the bottle. She hated when this happened at work too, she could never find the right things she needed.

She carried on searching reading the labels. "Ahh, found it". Pleased, she headed towards the kitchen. However, she didn't fail to miss the heir himself coming down the stairs in his casual outfit to her right.

"Hello Itachi-san" Sakura greeted with a smile. It was only polite.

"Hn" he spoke back, pausing at the bottom of the stairs to eye the female.

They hadn't seen each other since their last incident, but they could both see the other hadn't changed. Sakura generally liked to talk a lot, whereas Itachi usually answered in one word sentences.

"Aren't you going to join us?" Sakura asked with curiosity, wondering why he had been upstairs all this time. Taking a closer look at him, she could tell that his hair was wet and he looked slightly more refreshed than usual. Not to mention he smelt good, and familiar.

"I just returned from a mission and was getting ready to join ", he simply stated.

Sakura grinned to herself but made it very visible to Itachi who raised an eyebrow.

"Something funny?"

He inched back when he saw her getting closer. He also happened to notice that she was sniffing.

"Yes. You've used my shampoo". She smiled. She couldn't help but remember their encounter a couple weeks ago when the man was dead set he didn't want her help. But here he was, hair wet and with the smell of the shampoo she had given him. Guess you're not as tough as you make yourself out to be.

Itachi froze, slightly unsure of how to reply, let alone act. She offered to help him, even though he refused her help, at least he had tried to, but that didn't mean she had to point it out.

She decided to walk back to the kitchen after seeing that he didn't have anything to say, and with his current expression she doubted she'd get an answer either. Oh how she loved to make fun of Uchiha's (only stuck up ones like Itachi, which happened to be about 99% of the clan). They always thought they were perfect and seeing Itachi in a mental debate with himself over what she said made her day.

However, she wasn't going to stop there. After taking a few steps she turned around to face the Uchiha, who hadn't moved an inch. "Smells good" she smiled at him adding in a wink while she was at it.

If someone was to walk in and see him, they would certainly mistake him as a wax figure

"Hey, shh you two, I can hear voices." Naruto pointed out, aimed at Shisui and Mikoto who were still be debating Shisui's lateness.

Fugaku gazed outside the door as he also heard the voices. "That could only mean…" and before he could finish, everyone apart from him, ran straight for the door trying to eavesdrop on the conversation that could belong to non-other than Itachi and Sakura, since they were the only ones in the house who weren't in the room.

"Move, dobe, your foot's on my leg", Sasuke hissed.

"I was here first," Naruto shot back.

"Would you idiots be quiet, please?" Shisui tried to squeeze in. He couldn't hear anything from the back.

Fugaku had enough. He had to listen in to know the extent of the relationship. Needless to say, the more he knew about the relationship the more he could act upon meetings with Itachi. He clearly wasn't interested in anything else. "My last warning. Not another word." He sure as hell wasn't going to let three brats intervene either.

The three boys couldn't help but gulp at the threat and became still as statues.

Because of Mikoto's and Shisui's talk they were unfortunately only able to catch the last part of the exchange.

"Something funny… you used my shampoo" They heard both Itachi's and Sakura's voices as they inched closer to the door, intending to hear the rest. Anymore pressure and the door would spring out of place, no doubt.

"Smells good"

Upon hearing that, Sasuke was unable to hold in the choke of his rice in his mouth.

"Since when did Sakura-chan get so bold?" Shisui exclaimed in pure surprise. Looks really could be deceiving.

However, Naruto's observations kicked in again. "I can hear footsteps" and with that they all rushed back to the table -hands on legs, calm as could be.

Mikoto was slightly upset that she hadn't been able to hear all of their exchange. However, she couldn't ponder on it much more because the girl herself walked in, only to stop and watch them with her calculating eyes as if trying to solve them.

Moments later, Itachi, whom also had that knowing look in his eyes, came up behind the girl.

'They're onto us' Mikoto had to come up with something as a distraction. "Shi-Shisui-chan, are you feeling okay? You look a little pale. Let me give you some medication."

Uh-oh. Shisui sweat-dropped, "Su-sure" they both got up from their seats.

In the meantime, Sasuke and Naruto froze, desperately trying to keep their eyes firmly set on their plates. They just couldn't stand seeing their teammate together with him. It felt… strange and so wrong.

Thoughts pushed aside, and as clan head, Fugaku had other duties to think about. "How did the mission go, Itachi?" Fugaku asked. He knew the answer but there was no harm in asking.

"Very well, father".

As was expected, there wasn't a single mission he had failed yet.

"Don't just stand there you two, come sit down and eat". Mikoto composed herself back to normal, giving them both a twitching smile.

Sakura still had a hunch that things were slightly awkward, and she would definitely ask her boys about their behavior later.

Ignoring that at the current time, Sakura made her way back to her original seat and heard Itachi's footsteps right behind her.

There was only one visible space left and that was next to his father. However, before he could make his move to sit down, his mother grabbed his arm.

"Itachi, why sit there? It's too cramped". Mikoto asked. However the whole table, excluding the two oblivious ones, knew her intention. "Sit here," she carried on while pointing out the seat which happened to be next to Sakura.

Itachi eyed his mother suspiciously but wouldn't kick up a fuss. He also noticed everyone had their eyes on him.

Everything was silent for a good two minutes. "Well, carry on eating everyone" Mikoto chimed, trying to get rid of the tension, oblivious to the fact that she had created this tension in the first place.

With slight conversations taking place between Team 7 and between husband and wife, things were starting to get back to normal. Well, as normal as they could given the situation.

"Mmm Mikoto, you've outdone yourself" Shisui's mouth was literally watering. He hadn't had a proper meal since before the start of the mission and he sure as hell was going to enjoy this.

"Thought I'd prepare something different" She smiled back at her nephew.

There were times Shisui would avoid going to his home just to sneak away to his aunt's place instead. Mikoto was an amazing cook. "Smells good!" Shisui piped up in complete awe until something familiar struck him, causing him to freeze his movements.

Naruto and Sasuke choked on their food while Fugaku paused his hand movement that was about to take a rice ball to his mouth causing the two crime buddies to look mortified.

Sakura and Itachi noticed the very moment they'd walked into the house that something was off with everyone's behavior, but this was getting ridiculous. Sasuke was in the meantime having a hard time digesting his food.

"What's wrong, brother?" Itachi asked with squinted eyes. However, he received no reply.

"What's up with everyone today?" Sakura asked with a tone of impatience.

"No-nothing. Why would you say that, Sakura-chan?" Naruto managed to spill out and in the meantime manage to spray her dish with the food in his mouth.

"All of you seem to be acting awfully strange" The pinkette replied with a puzzled expression. "Did I miss out on a joke or something?"

"NO!" Shisui blurted out. "I mean no joke, Sakura-chan" Shisui cackled in between coughs.

Strange indeed, Itachi couldn't help but think. His family was definitely up to something…

Mikoto decided to take everyone into the living room after dinner was finished. The two did a fine job acting ignorant. Under other circumstances, such as if she had not known about their relationship, she could have never guessed they were even remotely attached. Mikoto was looking from one to the other but nothing. Not even eye contact. Surely there wouldn't be anything wrong with hinting them to the right direction? She couldn't help but innocently think.

"So, Sakura-chan", Mikoto casually chipped in. "You're a beautiful girl."

Sakura suddenly looked up in bewilderment at the sudden and extremely random compliment. "Thank you?"

"And you're 21." The lady added, which lead to all eyes focusing on the two women.

"Yes?" Sakura eyed the older woman with confusion, wanting her to get to the point. She couldn't understand what was up with the random facts about her. The tension in the room was once again building.

"When do you plan on getting married?" There came the question that made Sakura's, Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes stare wide open, like saucepans, at the older woman. Mikoto, on the other hand, was looking extremely pleased with her achievement. She believed that she had kept to her word, about not mentioning anything about her oldest son's and the pinkette's relationship.

Itachi was most certainly not a curious person; however he had to admit that he was slightly taken aback by his mother's bluntness and desire to meddle in with the kunoichi's life.

Sakura thought that she had better start talking, and tried to do so without stuttering like Hinata would always do. "Well, Mikoto san, for that I would need to find a suitable candidate wouldn't I?" She laughed out, intending to lighten up the situation and very serious mood within the house.

"Candidate?" Mikoto's expression changed from grinning to slight discomfort.

"Yes... candidate." Sakura carried on. "It's difficult to find the right person." Sakura really was not sure how they had gotten into discussing this, but her thoughts were interrupted by a slight chuckle from Sasuke's corner.

"Yea right". He mumbled, although she chose to ignore it.

"Oh but I'm sure the candidate you've got is exceptional." Mikoto continued pestering the girl.

"Exceptional?" Sakura squinted her eyes at the question. Hold on… Why does she think … Sakura tried to dig in deep of her mind, trying to understand the logic in all this. As far as she was aware of, there was no one but the patients she tended to in her life.

Mikoto, on the other hand, couldn't take it anymore. She had to stand up and try to get her point across more physically by moving her hands around. "Yes. In looks, wealth, family, respect, the list is endless!" She counted out.

"Except for personality. He must have the personality of a rock even around you". Shisui rambled unaware that he was speaking out loud.

This caused Itachi to jerk his head towards the very man himself. This had nothing to do with him, and maybe this was paranoia, but Shisui would often, if not always, compare his personality to a rock…

"Mikoto-san what makes you think that I –"

"Who are you trying to fool, Sakura?" Came an impatience voice, taking Sakura by surprise.

"Naruto!" Mikoto warned sternly.

This was getting beyond ridiculous in Sakura's mind; she didn't have a clue what anyone was saying.

"Fool? I don't know what's gotten into you guys today." Sakura replied incredulously.

Sasuke had just about had enough of his best friend lying when she was in blatant denial, and the sad thing was that when Sakura would usually 'meet' with guys, he and Naruto would always have some… pervious words with the guys themselves. Although in this case the very idea of it was terrifying. Itachi would massacre them both.

"When do you plan on coming out straight Sakura? I thought we were a team." Sasuke spat out.

"I honestly don't know what you guys are talking about! Enlighten me?" Sakura's voice turned high pitch with genuine disorientation.

"Sakura-chan, why are you hiding it from us? Why are both of you...?" The mother of the house decided to get back into the quizzing, giving the girl the guilt trip. Mikoto was honestly upset that they were not coming out with it already. It wasn't like they would disapprove.

Itachi was starting to feel sympathy for the girl. She really didn't have a clue what they were on about. Neither did he, for that matter. "Mother, all of you are making our guest uncomfortable" Itachi pointed out expressionlessly.

Naruto was unable to contain his anger anymore. It was difficult enough that it was Itachi and he couldn't even have 'words' as he and Sasuke would put it. "You stay out of this, Uchiha, this is your fault anyway".

"What was that?" Itachi asked with an intense desire to know just how he played a role in all this.

The look Itachi was eyeing them all with was also causing them deep desires to flee the place and pretend that none of this ever happened. This explained the silence for the next 60 seconds.

This also made Sakura decide that they were all crazy. All of them... She had better things that she needed to do. They were bombarding her with acquisition that she had no idea about. She was quite upset by their behavior. The only one that had tried to put an end to this also got a good earful.

"I need to go. I have to get up early in the morning". She proceeded while standing up, avoiding eye contact with the others. Even though it didn't seem like anyone was going to stop her; she daren't look up.

Fugaku's voice interrupted the sound of her feet moving along the floor. "Itachi, take her to her home. It's late."

Before Itachi could even think upon the words he had heard, Shisui decided to talk with a rather amused tone.

"Yea taicho take her home" Shisui complemented it with a wink.

Naruto was not going to sit back and let that happen. "I'll take her to her home."

"I'll come too" Sasuke piped in. He couldn't help but look back and forth between the floor and his brother. The looks he was receiving were not very pleasant.

"That's enough! I can manage on my own." Sakura spat clearly pissed that they didn't have enough faith in her. The nerve of these people!

Mikoto's mood was around the negative area at this point. She hadn't hoped for things to be like this, and she most certainly didn't want to see her daughter in law angry at them. What if she never showed the grandchildren?

"Sakura-chan, why are you angry with us?"

"Why am I angry?" Sakura turned around to face the woman head on. "Because I've just been grilled by you guys, that's why!"

"We wouldn't have to grill you if you'd just sucked up to the truth". Oops. Perhaps that wasn't his best move of the day, Sasuke concluded, because the next thing he knew Sakura was getting very close to him.

"What truth?" She asked while grabbing the younger Uchiha around his collar and pinned him to the wall. Oh boy was she pissed! The other house members were mortified to say the least.

"Sakura let go… Now" Sasuke sneered. His dad was watching this, damn it. It wasn't like he could physically pull her off. It would give him a bad impression. Nothing else.

"Not until you tell me just what the hell you guys are on about" Sakura continued with determination. She was going to get them to speak no matter what.

"The truth that you and Itachi are together… That truth!"

They certainly did not see that coming. Never in a thousand years. It hit them like a ton of bricks being thrown at them.

Sakura involuntarily turned to look at Itachi to see his reaction, and she had to admit he didn't look any better than she did.

"Me..? Together with him?" She laughed with disgust at each word she spoke. Well, he was good looking. She had always thought so. But how on earth did they come up with something as mad as that? She slowly let go of Sasuke.

"Hn" She heard Itachi mutter his favourite word, but she did notice that the tone of it was a tad bit harsher.

Not that there was any relevance to their ridiculous theory, but did she have to sound so disgusted? It wasn't like he liked her any more than she did him.

"Please do tell how did you all manage to conclude of something so false and yet so ridiculous?" Itachi questioned with an eyebrow raised towards everyone, apart from the girl who was just as clueless as him.

"We don't owe you two any explanations" Naruto spat out.

Itachi didn't have any more patience with any of them. If this was his parent's way of getting him to settle down, then it was purely sick. He also made a mental side note to see Shisui momentarily afterwards. "Do not push me, Naruto" Itachi warned.

The blonde ninja gulped with fear. This was exactly the reason why Itachi was such a wrong candidate. He scared the crap out of the blonde.

"Itachi-kun, we saw you both in town two weeks ago". Mikoto clarified, saving Naruto the grief.

"Town?" they both said together at the same time. They turned to look at each other without noticing. Sakura's cheeks were red at this point. Didn't they realize how awkward they'd made it for them?

At this point, they (excluding Fugaku of course) started explaining everything they had seen back then. The context of Shisui's explanation was making both Sakura and Itachi cringe, not to mention the fact that Sakura was the reddest she's ever been in her 21 years of life. She took a slight glimpse of Itachi and even he was looking rather disgusted.

Oh god Sakura thought. Why did they have to get Shisui to explain it? He was making it sound so… so… inappropriate!

Itachi didn't know what was more humiliating. The fact that he had been caught in the situation with Sakura back then (even though it was completely not his fault, she just wouldn't leave him alone) or the fact that hearing it like that from an outsider's point of view made it sound rather understandable that they would come up with such a ridiculous explanation as they had done.

"And then the 'smells good' thing," Shisui carried on non-stop. They had asked for it so nothing was going to stop him. Sakura just wanted to be dug into a hole at this point.

Both of them were trying to add up the points, and no matter how hard they thought about it, they couldn't voice out their anger.

Sakura couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out into laughter. Her hands fell onto her knees and her legs felt like they were going to collapse. This was just so humiliating but so funny.

Itachi, who happened to be standing next to her, couldn't help the twitch at the side of his mouth.

This left a really blank look on the others. What exactly were they laughing at? What was so funny?

"I guess we have some explaining to do, eh?" Sakura managed to compose herself and eyed Itachi.

"I suppose we do".

Since Itachi wasn't making a move to start, Sakura thought she'd do the explaining and proceeded to explain from the part where she came into it; from training with her teammates to the part where she laid her hands on the shampoo bottle. But unfortunately it didn't proceed any further than that.

"Then I found the right bottle and grabbed it. That's when-"

"I picked it up" Itachi casually interrupted her.

"Excuse me?" Sakura turned back round to face him.

"I picked the bottle up first" He clarified. If she was going to explain it, she might as well do it more accurately.

"No you didn't ,this is how it went. I grabbed it and then you snatched it out of my hand, then I tried to get it back" Sakura countered back, looking at him with annoyance.

"You are sadly mistaken it was me who-"

"Sorry to interrupt this… adorable quarrel, but are you two sure this whole story doesn't end with a relationship?" Shisui chipped in innocently. Perhaps they were unaware but the image that they portrayed to them this very minute had left everyone speechless as it highly resembled a married couple.

This led to the couple glaring daggers at the man.

And here is chapter two! Beta from Chella again.

Also I honestly don't know where I'm going with this. But I guess it's just a mood lightning version of the whole Itachi Sakura thing. Rather than just reading such blood and dark fics, this is slightly more light hearted.

I hope you all liked it, and that I didn't disappoint.

There is also a poll on my profile that I would like all you amazing readers to vote on.

Review please!