Early the next morning, Sakura was getting up from her messy bed and yawned as she was still very tired.

The events from yesterday had made her feel so exhausted that as soon as Hinata had left from their short get-together, she'd walked into her room and fell asleep as soon as her head hit her navy blue fluffy pillow; the pinkette was surprised that she had enough strength to change out of her school uniform and into her cotten pajama shorts and tank top.

As Sakura began to get dressed, her style the same as yesterday (though she swapped her african native wrist bands for a silver chained bracelt with a cherry blossom charm hanging down - more room avaiable for other charms), she began to remember the events that occured after she'd left Tsunade's office. The pinkette was quite surprised that the big-busted women had let her off so easily - even giving off a subtle hint that the pinkette, if she were to get into a fight with Karin again, should at least not get caught. In all of her other schools, Sakura would get in trouble even when they knew she was a modle studen; her punishment would be as harsh as the punishment of the person she fought with.

What happened after leaving the office, however, was what was filling Sakura's mind the most; not in a good way, though. No, she was quite worried about what would happen from now on...

~Flashback - After having left Tsunade's office~

Walking through the deserted hallways, the other students having already left the scene after the fight had dissipated (Ibiki had went back to check and make sure no one stayed behind - if some had, they would have him to deal with), Sakura gulped and a small bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.

Even though the lights were on and the sun was still out and high up in the, somewhat, cloudy sky, the pinkette couldn't help the shivers that were crawling up and down her spine in a continuous movement; There weren't many things that Sakura was afraid of, but the thoughts of monsters and evil spirits on school ground at night time chasing after the lone female as she made her way home from detention... well, this freaked her out considerately. It was always in the horror films that she'd watched that this had happened; it was one of the most common fears as well - being scared of ghosts. When you added the dark to this fear, it would intensify.

The pinkette knew what the cause of her fear was and she was definitely not happy about it; she was younger when it'd started - around 12 years old - almost 4 years after defecting from the orphanage.

Her adoptive mother and father had just gone out for their 22nd anniversary at the new restaurant that had just opened up down the street in their town, which was situated to the north of the city, and had decided that since Raijin - Rai for short (Sakura's brother) - had just turned 16 he was more than capable of taking care of his younger sister for a mere few hours; this way they wouldn't have to waste money on a babysitter who wouldn't even do his/her job correctly.

Every other time the family had decided on a babysitter, said man/woman would always lay on the couth, mooch of off their stocked up food and watch the tv without even bothing to watch what Rai and Sakura were doing; the amount of money they would demand was also too high for such an easy job... Besides, Sakura was at a more than able age to know what she could and could not do; she was a smarter than average 12 year old, at that.

While Rai was upstairs with his mate playing on Playstation/X-Box and chatting about the femals with the nicest, assests in their classes, Sakura was downstairs; a small pot of popcorn filling her fragile arms and a can of fanta on the small coffee table in front of her - left untouched so far. She watched with widened eyes as the gory part of the film that she'd chosen had finally sprung to life.

As the most scary part of the film was about to appear on screan, a creak came from the hallway leading up to the kitchen, resulting in the young pinkette to flinch in slight fear. She wanted to turn around and see what had caused the noise, however, she didn't as a part of her brain was telling her not to; perhaps she knew there was something behind her and just didn't want to take the chance of being scared to death...

Never before had she stayed downstairs and watched a movie, a scary one at that, alone; the babysitters were normally there to 'keep an eye on her' as they said.

Suddenly, the lights lights flicked off, leaving the tv the only thing left that gave off any source of lights. The pinkette become even more frightened for what was going on...

Swallowing the lump that had rised from the back of her throat, Sakura slowly yet surely placed the bowl of popcorn down on the sofa right beside her - making sure that as she did so, her eyes were sill focused on the movie in front of her so that if anyone was behind her, they would think she hadn't yet noticed.

As soon as her arms were free, the pinkette twisted around in her seat, only to scream the house down; so loud that the next door neighbours could hear. She leaped backwards and fell from the sofa, landing on the carpeted floor with a loud 'thump' so hard that her backside began to throb in a slight, annoying pain. She was correct in thinking that there was someone behind her... and oh how she wished she didn't turn around.

The face staring down at her was that of a clown. A clown with red hair and the most creepy grin spread across (white and red teeth on view) it's gross-looking face. To top it off... the nose was huge and red - matching the hair well. Of course, Sakura wasn't so stupid as to not notice that the face was in actual, a mask - a mask covering the face of her brother who was currently laughing his ass off, in fact. Rai's friend, the culprit of turning the light off, had also came out from his hiding place (not without first turning the lights back on) and joined with the other in their fits of laughter.

"WHAT THE HELL!" The pinkette screetched, almost as loud as the pitch of her just previous scream. She couldn't even begin to describe how scared she was; tears sprung to her eyes as she thought about what might have happened if it wasn't actually Rai... if there was actually such a person invading her house - the things that could have happened. Sakura's heart thumped at the rate of a rampaging bull as it ran for a piece of red material. She felt as though it was about to explode against her ribcage. Oh how messy things would become. Well, at least Rai would be the one to clean everything up...

Noticing that she had curled up into a ball on the floor and was shaking out of her own skin, Rai quickly stopped and realised that he'd perhaps gone too far. Slowly, yet surely, he apporached his younger sister in care, an apologetic look plastered all over his face. He could tell that he'd taken the joke further than they thought they'd take it and he didn't expect Sakura to respons in such a way. Normally, the pink-haired 12 year old would take any situation with a calm demeaner; with what he'd just done, he had expected her to perhaps tell him off, or point the finger at him with that usual expression of hers.

Never had Rai seen her so scared for the length of the time he'd known her...

Taking the mask off and shaking his head so that his choppy dark brown, almost black hair was back into its correct place, the 16 year olds icy blue eyes fell upon his sisters form once again - guilt clearly passing through them. He crowched down in front of the pinkette and reached out to stroke her silky pink hair; he decided to wait until Sakura had calmed down before speaking. So, craning his neck towards the doorway where his friend stood in an awekward silence - looking like he didn't know what he was supposed to do in such a situation - Rai nodded his head towards the stairs, indicating that he should leave the siblings alone to talk.

When the siblibngs were alone, an uncomfortable silence rung throughout the room - no one spoke, it was silent other than for the almost inaudible sniffing noises coming from Sakura as she stayed curcled up on the floor: knees to her chest, arms around her legs pulling them even closer and her head hung so that her sobbing was muffled.

"Wour howible" Sakura mumbled incoherrently into the fabric of her pajama pants. She didn't want to look up and let her brother see what she looked like; obviously, her eyes were red and puffy, tear stains tracked down her weeks right until her chin where they fell towards the ground and her lip was swollen from biting down so hard until she'd managed to stop herself from making too much noise - she didn't want to sound like a cry-baby, she was 12 years old and had gone through worse things then a simple prank... although it was quite scary for someone who'd never even been alone when a horror movie was on.

Rai stared down at his sister, guilt present in his eyes and a frown gracing his attractive features. Finally, with a deep sigh, he ruffled his hair before leaning down and swooping the upset pinkette into his arms as he stood up. Sakura yelped in the process and clung on as though her life depended on it while her older brother walked back over to the sofa and sat down with her on his lap, her head resting against his well-toned chest.

"I'm sorry Sakura. I didn't think it'd scare you as much as it did" He chuckled at the stubborn look that was plastered over the pink-haired girls face as she turned her neck to the right, crossing her arms angrilly over her chest. Even though he knew Sakura was still angry, Rai continued - grinning widely in amusement, although not forgetting what he was supposed to be doing.

"C'mon Sakura, don't be like that. I'll do anything... forgive me?"

Finally looking back at her brother's face and staring right into his blue eyes which seemed to stare deep into her soul, Sakura suddenly got an idea; the feral grin which seemed to crawl onto her face did not go unnoticed by the older boy of 16 years.

"Anything?"

Rai sweet dropped and felt as though it may have been a bad idea by saying that he'd do anything... he did know what his sister could get up to if she really set her mind to it - the crazy ideas that filled her brain were those of a completely different world. He could still remember the last time he'd done something wrong and Sakura decided to get back at him for it. Rai had agreed to doing anything and it ended up with him babysitting a bunch of the neighbours brats (they were a huge family) for the whole weekend - without pay - when he could have been doing something more eventful - like going to the beach to check out the hot girls in small bikinis.

Normally, it was Sakura's job to do so - she did get paid, of course - but that one weekend her friends had asked her if she would want to go on a two day trip to a consert with, they had adults going with them so Rai's parents had let her go. The only problem was babysitting... Now, that's where Rai came in. He'd previously messed up the pinkette's science project completely making her have no chance at winning the first prize - which she would normally achieve at ease - and so, Sakura decided he could help her out in return.

While his sister was out having the time of her life, Rai was left behind to feel the wrath of children. It wasn't the best of weekends, that was for sure and the dark haired boy had decided to never have kids, ever... A shiver cawled up his spine at the mere thoughts of the snotty, crying babies jumping around his living room, laughing as they threw their toys at him while his back was turned.

Letting the evil look that had previously crossed her young features be replaced by a wide grin, Sakura wrapped her hers arms Rai's neck and hugged him tightly - giggles left her lips here and there as she began to concoct a new plan to ruin her brothers weekend; the pink-haired girl could feel the worry radiating off of the dark-haired boy by the second...

"-know that the situation you're in isn't something you should be so calm about, Aniki!" A voice called out from around the corner, just at the end of the hallway, snapping Sakura out of her thoughts about the past and causing her to heighten her senses to listen in further. She wasn't an eavesdropper and knew that it wasn't at all polite to listen in on other people's conversation, but the voice from the person that had spoke sounded oddly familiar; very much like Naruto's best friend - Sasuke. The cherry blossom-haired girl hadn't spoken to Sasuke any more than two or three times, but she could still recognise his deep, cold voice anywhere - Compared to Naruto's, who's was always cheerful and had a mischievous tone to it, there was a large difference.

So far, there was nothing that she knew about the raven-haired boys life. So she didn't know that he had a brother or that said brother was going to the same school as them... perhaps she'd unconsciously met him at some point in one of her classes. The only way to find out? Go up to them and be nosy; see what the problem was to cause Sasuke to add such a soft and concerned tone to his normally distant voice, and perhaps... try and figure out a solution for this problem. Or, if they thought it was none of her business, then she would simply leave it alone.

"Why don't you just reject it? I'm sure okaa-san and otou-san won't push this onto you..." Sasuke's voice trailed off and become a simple whisper towards the end, as if he himself didn't believe what he'd just stated. Of course, he actually didn't and just wanted to try and force himself into believing that his parents wouldn't force Itachi to marry anyone. Although, he knew it couldn't be true as the family needed an heir which had a wife to keep them steady and he was still too young and 'irresponsible', as his father would state. The younger ravenette hated the fact that everything was forced onto his older brother, even if it made him jealous at the same time...

"If not... I'll persuade Otou-san to let me get married in your place!"

Itachi's soft sigh was barely audible for Sakura to hear from such a distance, but the stress it held was still easily noticed; was this problem of his really that heavy-a-burden to carry?

"Sasuke" Itachi's soft and controlled voice resounded throughout the corridor so that Sakura had a clear chance to hear every single syllable pronounced. "This is not your burden to carry. You are still young and need to live the rest of your childhood in freedom - while you can - before committing to such a relationship" He held up his hand in silence before the younger of the two could utter another word. "This conversation is over" and there was no room for any further argument. Itachi had made up his mind and Sasuke would have no say in what was about to happen; this - Itachi decided - was his fate.

Sakura watching with a focused gaze as Itachi turned around and walked away, leaving his brother - Sasuke - to wallow in his own self pity of not being able to help. Just seeing the ravenette act any different from his cool-faced, arrogant self made Sakura want to do something to get the boy back on his feet. So, with what little restraint left - that was actually a small voice in the back of her head telling her to butt out and mind her own business (it's Sakura, she doesnt butt out of things that catch her attention so of course she ignored it) - the pinkette marched right out from her corner and stopped a mere foot or two from her new - sort of - friend.

Sasuke didnt seem to notice the girl as he stared with newly found interest at the just polished floor tiles. Sakura waited for well over 5 minutes - she was so bored that she bothered to count - before the ravenette even noticed her presence. The boys neck snapped up in such a fast motion that the pinkette worried it might have snapped right off. Although, she was smart enough to know that such things aren't really possible without someone giving a helping hand.

With an awkward smile and a lazy wave of her hand, Sakura greeted Sasuke casually, as though she hadn't heared a single thing of the two brothers conversation.

"Yo!"

Raising an eyebrow in return, Sasuke nodded and wondered what she was doing standing there before him as though she had something to say but was waiting for him to take the initiative and start up a conversation - something that he really couldn't be bothered to do at that very moment. The talk he'd just had with his brother had placed him in a rather bad mood and the raven-haired boy was sure that about anything could make him snap from that point on.

Heaving a small sigh that was barely audible to the pinkette's ears, Sasuke decided to just get it over with and be on his way. "Is there something I can help you with, Sakura?" There... he could see the satisfaction in the girl's eyes as soon as the first word popped out of his mouth.

"I was wondering, just what you and your brother were talking about that made you lose your cool face..." Making it out to be like she hadn't heard the conversation at all was the best thing to do in Sakura's opinion. That way, he could tell her from the beginning and she could understand the situation better.

Sasuke visibly twitched at the pinkette's words and his usual scowl etched its way onto his face. He should have known that someone was watching, he could feel the presence and could hear the soft footsteps as they approached. The only reason he kept on talking as if he didn't know, however, was because his brother didn't seem to care about it.

"...Curiosity killed that cat, Sakura" Surely this would be enough. Sasuke knew that the pink-haired girl was smart enough to get the hint behind his words; he didn't want anyone invading his and Itachi's privacy. The girl before him was someone he knew for barely a day, so why should he tell her anything anyway?

Smiling a smile that would put even the Cheshire cat to shame, Sakura spoke with confidence consuming her voice while her head was held high. "Yes, but satisfaction brought it back. Well, that and the fact that he has 8 other lives" With a small pause to let it sink into the ravenettes mind, she continued. "Besides, I may just be able to help you" Her tone was suggestive and contained confidence that only he was sure he had.

A few moments passed by which felt like much longer to the pinkette, but soon enough Sasuke let out a breath of air from his nose and pinched the bridge of his nose. He shifted his gaze to and fro from the girl before him and towards the ground in thought. Finally coming to a conclusion, he stopped his continuous movement and gave Sakura a sharp look that told her that if she were to act wrongly on anything that he's say, she'd be dead meat.

Suddely, however, before he could even say what he needed to, a lightbult appeared on top of his head and clicked on. Sasuke had thought of something that just might be able to save his older brother from ruining his life and the pinkette was going to have to play a big part of it. Sasuke wondered if Sakura would be able to handle the role he was going to give her, but didn't ponder on the thought for long as by just looking at his new friend, he could tell the she was one tough cookie.

First of all, though... there were two things he'd have to do. 1) He'd have to explain the situation the girl that was becoming slightly impatient from not being told whether or not if he was going to tell her about his and his older brother's situation. And 2) He'd need Itachi's consent if his plan was going to work out. That was going to be even more difficult as his brother could be the most stubborn person in the world if he wanted something his way and this problem was something that he didn't want Sasuke to be involved in.

'Too bad' The raven-haired boy thought as he smirked his usual cocky smirk. Itachi was one of the most important people to him in the world and he wasn't going to let the older boy live his life in complete sadness, or worse... regret.

"Alright Sakura" Sasuke was sure now. "I'll tell you everything-" The happy look the graced the pinkette's face faltered for a second as she realised there would be a catch.

'Of course there would be a catch, there's always a catch. But... I did say I would help'

"But when I tell you everything, I want you to promise to help me through with my plan" There was no going back now. The only missing piece to the puzzle was Itachi's agreement and a little bit of a makeover. He was sure that if everything went according to plan, then his older brother would be free as a bird (not entirely, but he wouldn't have to get married at least) and Sakura... well, she'd probably be pretty angry; he didn't really care about what she would be like, to be honest. The ravenette's main concern was his brother.

She knew that there'd be something she'd have to do, but Sakura really didn't care. Giving a nod of her head in agreement, the two began a slow walk around the school (or to wherever their legs took them) as the ravenette explained his situation. It was a slow and long process in which Sakura found out that Sasuke and Itachi came from a very (VERY) rich and famous family that were soon planning to pass down their company to their oldest heir when he came of age. That child would be Itachi and to do so, his father had planned an arranged marriage for him due to the fact that "Men cope better with females around" a quote from the boys father himself; Sasuke stated from his very pronounced memory.

At least half an hour had passed by since the start of Sasuke's story and the two had somehow wound up with a can of fanta each, slowly sipping as they sat down in front of one of the luscious trees that surrounded the girls' and boys' dorm houses.

"Well..." Sakura began as to break the uncomfortable silence that had come to life after Sasuke had finished what he wanted to say. The pinkette had listened in silence throughout the whole time (which Sasuke was pretty impressed by as the girl seemed to be the kind to not be that patient) as to consume all of which she had to to understand what the problem was. There wasn't really that much that she could say to be honest so Sakura was at a standpoint herself.

Heaving a sigh and giving a sideways glance to the boy at her right, who was staring at her like his life depended on the first word that would come out of her mouth, Sakura decided to just get it over with and ask what his plan was, because obviously there was something that the ravenette wanted the pink-haired girl to help him with. Otherwise he wouldn't have explained the situation to begin with.

"What do you want me to do?"

In some way, Sasuke's eyes lit up in a way that Sakura hadn't seen before. 'Perhaps' she pondered 'this might be a bad idea after all...' Anyone who would have seen the mischevious glint in the boys eyes would have agreed. But there was no way the pinkette was going to back out now that she had just said she would help, besides... it might actually be a bit fun. Sakura didn't know Itachi as she hadn't talked to him since she had just started school in Konoha, but it was always a good thing to help others when they are in need of it... that was something Naruto had taught to her when they were in the orphanage together. Even though Naruto was bullied because of the scars crossing over his cheeks, he would never just stand back and observe as the others were in a bad situation, when they needed someones, anyones help. The blond boy would always be the first to jump in and fight even if it didn't concern him.

~flashback end~

Sakura tugged at the bottom of her short skirt as she walked through the schools halls towards her first lesson. She felt a bit lonely without Temari or any of the others walking with her, but it couldn't be helped. Her blond roommate had to leave early for some unknown reason that she had yet to tell pink-haired girl and the others girls hadn't been in the dorms (there was no way she could be bothered to look around and search for them) so Sakura had decided just to walk alone to homeroom.

Today was pretty much the same lesson wise, with the exception that: instead of history she had geography and instead of art she had biology; the former with Iruka Umino and the latter with Anko Mitarashi. Sakuar just hoped that this science teacher wouldn't be as bad as that Kabuto Yabushi one was. Although he hadn't done much, the creepy look in his eyes was left imprinted in her mind like a tattoo, never to get rid of without intense laser surgery.

Just thinking about him gave her the shivers.

Stepping into homeroom was the same as yesterday, although without having Kakashi talk to her because she's new. She quickly took notice of Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, the girls and of course, Sasuke - Said boy catching her eye for a short second before turning back to glaring at the clouds as though he could set them on fire with his eyes singlehandedly. 'Well' Sakura though with a half-smile 'at least he's pretty much back into his old mood' it wasn't exactly a good thing, but at the same time wasn't a bad thing.

After a few short greeting to all of her new friends, Sakura sat down at an empty seat near the window, took out some notes that would have to memorise for Sasukes plan and began reading in complete silence. Her friends didn't bother asking what she was doing as they took into consideration the scary aura of concentration that surrounded the girl which would seem to suffocate anyone that got too close.

Sasuke sighed in his seat as he eyed the pinkette to his right 'This is surely gonna be one long week'