A/N: A new story! And it's ItaSaku! XD I love ItaSaku... :Drools:

It was another long day. The days were always long for Uchiha Itachi, Konoha's most well-known contemporary writing critic.

Days tended to become longer and longer when one did the same thing daily for almost five years; get a coffee, read his latest victim's work, get a coffee, reread the pathetic shit, get a coffee, start the critique, get another coffee, then get some more pathetic shit. Yes, the days were very long and the several coffees a day only served to keep Itachi awake.

"Hey, Uchiha," the editor-in-chief, Hatake Kakashi, said, tossing the newspaper Itachi worked for on his desk. "Your column's top in the charts again, keep it up."

Itachi simply nodded in response, in the middle of one of his early-morning coffees. He took the paper and set it to the side of his desk, going back to the pathetic piece of bullshit that was supposed to be a poem and started his critique.

The writer seems to use their lack of specification as their most valuable tool; lack of illustration, lack of feeling, lack of personality. Despite the underlying sense of tragedy, there is no emotion behind the writer's words. Will said writer get out of this slump any time soon? Well, we'll have to see...

Once Itachi finished reading what he'd written, he scoffed, crumpled the piece of paper and threw it in the trash.

Slump, how I hate thee.

"Hey, Itachi-kun!" called Hyuuga Tenten, the wife of the newspaper's CEO. "When are you going to hand in your column? There's a deadline, you know."

The Uchiha sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. "Almost finished," he lied, taking out a new sheet of paper.

He rewrote a new critique and read it over, feeling only half satisfied with it. He stood from his desk and walked over to Kakashi, handing him said critique for the poem.

Kakashi read it over and commented, "Sharp and to the point, as usual, Uchiha, good job."

Itachi nodded once again and looked to his watch.

"Mind if I head home?" he asked, taking off his reading glasses. "I'll email in my next column, I'm just not feeling too great."

"Maybe it's the ten million coffees a day," Kakashi replied, taking off his reading glasses and shoving them in his breast pocket. "Alright, but talk to Hyuuga first. He nearly castrated me the last time I let somebody go home early."

Itachi chuckled slightly then walked to Neji's office. He knocked on the door frame and asked, "Hey, can I go home?"

"Did you hand in your column?" asked the CEO, not even bothering to look at the Uchiha.

"Yeah, just now."

"Go, I expect your next column in on time."

"Isn't it always?" asked Itachi with a smirk.

Finally the Hyuuga looked at him and said, "You know, you're not the typical columnist that's always struggling with deadlines."

"What can I say? I'm a genius."

Neji chuckled and said, "Modest, too," while he waved his hand dismissively.

Itachi left the building quickly and got into is red corvette to head home. As he drove on the almost empty streets, he pressed his cellphone to his ear to find a message waiting for him.

"Hello, Itachi-chan," Itachi's mother said in the recorded message. "It's me again. I'm just calling to see how you've been, you haven't returned any of my calls and I'm starting to wonder if you're dead or not." Itachi noted the half-joking tone in his mother's voice. "We all miss you at home, including your father. Um, I hope you return this message sometime. I love you, bye."

Itachi flipped the phone shut and tossed it onto the other seat, speeding up as he headed into the other line so he could get onto the highway. Instead of being a "responsible driver" and stopping until he had enough room to get onto the highway, he only sped up even more and cut several cars off.

He clenched the wheel and grit his teeth as he pulled into his driveway.

Like hell his father missed him, it was more likely the evil dog that belonged to his parents' neighbors missed him more that his father did.

He was the one that kicked him out three years ago, after all.

He walked into his house and checked his phone to see that his mother left a message on that phone, as well.

When will she get it through her skull that I am not going back there?

Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, he went to his laptop on his desk and turned it on, starting his next critique.

His column, Critique Corner, was a weekly column only going into the Sunday issue of the most widely purchased newspaper, the Konoha Post, and was pretty much giving his own opinion on poems, short stories and other such manuscripts mailed to the newspaper's staff.

Constructive criticism, people called it, he preferred to call it a job where you get paid to insult people's work.

He was thrust out of his thoughts by his phone ringing and he didn't think before answering.

"Oh, you're home," Itachi's mother said and he mentally slapped himself.

"Hello, Mother," he greeted with a sigh.

"How are you, Darling?"

"Been better, been worse, we're all going to die anyways, right?"

"When do you think you're coming home?" his mother asked, cutting to the chase.

"I am home, Mother."

"You know, your father really misses you."

"And, for some reason, I doubt that."

"He really does," she continued. "It was a little disagreement you two had and he feels terrible for what he did."

"Well, I'm not going back," Itachi replied. "Father's just going to have to deal with the fact that I've got an apartment, a job. I know Father only wants me back so I can become a big hot-shot lawyer like himself and I don't want that."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is, and you know it," Itachi corrected. "Make Sasuke do it."

And, with that, he hung up before she could reply.

What was with his family and always giving him a migraine?

He sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose.

No rest for the weary, he thought, getting back to work.

A/N: What do you think? Do you like it? Please review! XD