Chapter One : Sakura Or Itachi

It was early in the winter. The days were becoming colder, and there was a constant haze over the village. Sakura had easily convinced Kakashi that it would be better for us to all train a little less every day, at least, until the winter was over. Bless her for that, but Kakashi had decided that, for that day, seeing as he was sick and wouldn't have to be in the cold himself, we would have to train twice as long. Naruto just made the whole situation seem worse by complaining the entire time, but we made it through the day without Naruto giving me sufficient reason to pummel him.

After our long day of training together, we were walking home. We all had neighboring rooms, so we all went home together, every day. It was never too bad. . . . I just had to ignore the very beautiful girl walking next to me. Yes, she was constantly flirting with me, and I was always rejecting her, but . . . I had always loved her. I would not let her get in the way of my goal to kill my older brother, though. I hated that I had to continue pushing her away, and I hated that she was hurting so much and all because of me. . . . But I needed to feel more hate, right? To become stronger? Besides, if I ever revealed the tiniest amount of softness, if she ever observed anything to hint I liked her at all, she would pounce on it and never let it go. Sakura would never leave me alone, and she might eventually make me submit to her loveliness.

Naruto was making a bigger fool of himself than usual, stumbling dumbly over his words as he hit on Sakura. Sakura appeared to be ignoring him, for once, as she walked wearily through the haze. She would have normally put her fist to his face and let him know she wasn't interested in doing anything he was interested in doing with her. Something was up with Sakura, but I wasn't going to ask, though I didn't like seeing her in the state she was in.

Maybe it was just because of the cold. It was definitely cold, and it was only going to be much colder as the winter went on.

We were glad to be out of the cold, when we made it to our rooms. Naruto's was on the right, Sakura's was on the left, and, of course, mine was between theirs. I walked over and sat on my bed.

I thought about Itachi and how angry I felt, at myself, for not being strong enough, and at him for being stronger than me. It wasn't long, though, before Sakura made her way into my mind. I imagined her turning around and smiling at me. I could hear her voice calling my name in that drawn out way. For a moment, I even felt a desire to . . . Be with her.

No, I was not going to let love or Sakura get in my way. I would kill Itachi. I would kill him and nothing was going to stop me. But . . . I loved Sakura. Sometimes I even felt I loved her more than I hated my traitorous brother. I could not stand seeing the sadness in her eyes I saw every time she looked at me lately. . . .

Sakura. Itachi. . . . Sakura . . . Itachi. . . . Sakura. . . .

I would run away. That's what I would do. Sakura was definitely making it harder for me to feel anger all the time. But where would I run to? Preferably somewhere safe. But was there any safe place? Yes, anywhere would be safe enough, and if it wasn't, I would make it safe.

There was a loud noise, similar to several bookshelves falling over, coming from Naruto's room. The idiot, he would wake Sakura! But, a few moments later, a sound, similar to a bear wading through a landfill, coming from Sakura's room told me she was already awake, anyway.

I would think some more, when morning came, but I doubted I would get to sleep any time soon.

There will definitely be more to come. Please review. Hope you enjoyed and will enjoy!! And don't worry. The second chapter will be much more exciting .grins evilly