Author's Note: To be honest, it took a while to decide whether or not I should type this up because it's pretty painful to write. I think you guys might enjoy this though. I realized that after writing a touching story about friendship instead of romance and love like most of you guys like, this will get more reviews, and maybe I just needed to this out there. I'll just tell you here that I'm in the exact same position as Sakura in this fanfiction, and Itachi represents a completely different person in my life.

Summary: Non-Massacre, Modern setting. Seven years. She was only sixteen when he was twenty-three. And yet, they were still in love, but their love had doubts as well. It was dangerous. Their love for each other was dangerous. ItaSaku

Illegal

Time didn't seem to go any faster as a pale pink haired girl sat outside on the steps of her small apartment she shared with only her two parents who worked constantly in order to keep up with the rent. Sakura was never one to be impatient, but when it came to people—this certain person especially—it was then an acceptation. She gave a small sigh as she looked up passed the thick foliage around her area to see that the sun was beginning to slowly set, and soon, the sky would no longer be bright, a sign for her to head inside soon. "Just admit it Sakura," she muttered to herself, "he isn't going to show up."

"Who isn't going to show up?" the familiar deep voice rang in her ears as she quickly turned around, letting go of the door knob to her own home to see the very person she had been waiting for. "How are you?" he asked, ignoring his own previous question towards her, already knowing the answer.

Sakura gave a wide grin, so he decided to show up after all. The man that makes her world go round, the very person that makes her head spin at just the mention of his name… Uchiha Itachi. "Okay," she gave her normal response, knowing what his next question was already, but let him say it anyways.

The dark haired man finally took a seat on the cold bumpy ground next to her, "Why just okay? Why not good?" This was a normal thing. Most of their conversations would start off like this, one of them first asking the question of, 'how are you' first, and the other would know each response.

Sakura just shrugged, "I don't know. I guess I'm not okay then, hm?" She threw him a small grin, avoiding eye contact. She hated look into his eyes. No matter how gorgeous they really were, each time she would look into his eyes, she would get caught in them and their shiny sleek abyss. It would be like he was staring straight into her soul and reading her mind.

However, Itachi decided to break the usual conversation and he grew concerned, "What's up?" Sakura knew it was his own way of saying, 'what's wrong' or 'what happened'. She only shook her head at this question, the small grin still present on her face. They continued chatting about random things for a moment, until Sakura felt a small pain on the crown of her head.

"Hey!" She growled, looking up at him, "That hurt." It wasn't a surprise that he flicked her head with his thumb and middle finger.

The Uchiha only smirked, his eyes giving her a secret smile, "Good. Now you're looking at me. Remember what I said? It's the Itachi show, not the ground. It's not going anywhere so quit staring at it." He always knew what to say. She smiled at this and stuck her tongue out at him playfully. They always had an inside joke, between the two, of his large ego and his overly-confident attitude, and for the most part, it was partially true.

No one would expect this kind of attitude to be shown to anyone from an Uchiha who were thought to be the honored prodigies in the world of art. Most of the art the Uchihas would exhibit would involve music and/or actual painted or drawn canvas. His little brother, Uchiha Sasuke played the clarinet and was an absolute prodigy, favored by the band director in Konoha High and would give him any clarinet solo during performances or field competitions. His father, a widely famous conductor for choral music was known around the world. His mother, however, was a starving artist herself. She painted, sculpted, and could practically make anything ugly, into something absolutely beautiful again, however not many people saw that as a form of talent.

"How is dance?" Sakura asked, the thought of his family leaving her mind. Dance was the one odd thing about Uchiha Itachi. He began dancing since he was in middle school and had grown a secret passion to it since then. His father didn't know of this passion, seeming to think that Itachi's passion was playing the piano and cello. That was only partially true. He wasn't the greatest pianist, but if he were to ever get his hands on a cello, it would seem like the world would stop, giving him all eyes and ears. He didn't hate playing it, he just preferred to dance.

"Modern dance was alright. Anko, one of my students, had the worst posture in only plies. She looked like a crab standing upright." He chuckled, thinking about the small class of only seven people he taught. He stared at Sakura who happened to look away again. Slightly irritated, he flicked her head again. "What did I say before?"

Sakura felt the flick on her head, only to turn around to stick her tongue out at him playfully again. At this point, Itachi only smirked, using his strength to easily push her over onto her back. Her jade eyes lit up, knowing that he felt playful suddenly and decided to play along. Pushing herself back up, she grinned and pushed him over as well. Well, attempted to push him over. She gritted her teeth and practically ran at him to get him tall frame down onto the ground as he had did to her, but to no veil, she failed each time.

At some point, the weasel just gave her a gentle smile and decided to let her win this time and fell back to the hard ground, tensing his muscle so the impact wouldn't be so bad. He had a moral that Sakura realized he developed a while ago though, and it was: if he goes down, then she does too with him. Quickly grabbing her wrist, he pulled her into his chest and snaked both arms around her waist, still holding onto both of her wrists, knowing she would struggle to free herself from his grip.

This is what had always amused Itachi though, the way she struggled in his grip, laughing, even though she knew that she rarely slipped out of his grip. It only happened once when she did because he doubted the size of her wrist, but she was easily caught again. It was like a small game of predator and prey. He was the predator, and she easily became the prey, but he would never do anything to harm her or make her feel uncomfortable, and there were times where she had let him know when she felt uncomfortable.

The pink haired soon began to relax in Itachi's arms as they both just laid there, staring passed the foliage and into the starless night sky. There was always a sense of security whenever she was in his arms, but she would never let him know that. That was the sole reason why she pretended to struggle in his arms, because she knew it amused him, but also because whenever she did, he would tighten his grip around her, almost as if his body language were telling her to never leave him, and she didn't. "Ne…" she muttered tiredly, "why are there no stars in the sky Itachi-kun?"

The onyx eyed man looked at her small form curled up on top of him, both of his arms still wrapped around her to keep her warm, and he looked up again, "There are stars." He answered, "Just not visible tonight. The clouds are covering them."

"Why are there clouds?" she muttered, her voice growing softer.

"There are clouds when water is evaporated." He answered simple, his voice lulling her to a light slumber.

It was getting late, even if Sakura's parents were still not home from work yet, he would keep her company until then. "Am I bothering you Itachi-kun?" she said, her voice barely audible now.

He narrowed his eyes at this question, it was always the same. She asked this question constantly, and it was all due to his idiot of a brother Sasuke. "I don't know how many times I'll have to tell you to believe me, or do whatever I can to make you believe when I say when I mean that you are never bothering me." He gently squeezed her hand, telling her that he meant it. He knew that long ago, she and Sasuke used to be magnificent friends until he assumed that Sasuke became emotionally distraught with everything, having to deal with his depression and then began to ignore Sakura despite her offer of help towards him. From then on, she had heard rumors spread about her being annoying, dramatic and bothersome from his brother.

"Ok… Sorry," she mumbled, her eye lids growing heavy as she took in his pine and cinnamon scent. She held a small smile, glad that she had Itachi and that she was safely in his arms.

It came to the time where Itachi had to regretfully wake up the slumbering girl to escort her inside to get some proper sleep and to not catch a cold. The thing that bothered him was that her parents were still not home from work, and it wouldn't be until very late at night when they would be home. He stopped at her door, watching her stumble slightly as he gave a light smirk to himself. "Good night Sakura. See you later." He gave a quick wave before beginning to turn around and walk away.

"Itachi," she stopped him mid-way, "Can I get a hug?" She always asked this, and no matter how many times, she was always shy about asking this, and she hated how he knew she would almost always ask him that question before he departed.

He gave her that Uchiha smirk, turning around to give her a hug that seemed to last too quickly, but Sakura savored the moment. "See you later blossom."

Sakura smiled at this, quickly turning around, knowing that if she turned to look at him again, she wouldn't want him to go, "See you later weasel." As she entered her household, she quickly slumped to the floor as the door shut and she heaved a sigh, staring hopelessly at the ground. 'What are you going to do Sakura?' she thought to herself, the question always came up again.

She sat there for a good ten minutes, staring at the marbled floor and memories of their summer together graced a smile upon her lips, chuckling a bit. She remembered how they first met each other through dance, how he started to go over to her house, just to talk, and sometimes he would improve her dancing even further, knowing that he was a far more experienced teacher than the one she had now. Then, they began to start hanging out at malls, movies, but still mainly at her house where it was more secluded and quiet, or as he first described, "peaceful". It took a long time for him to open and just be himself around her, she remembered, but it definitely worth it.

She remembered a specific time when she had grown so upset, texted him, "I'm not doing so great right now." And he didn't reply for what seemed to be the longest time. She remembered how shocked she was to see his reply when he managed to text her back, "I'm outside," and as soon as she stepped outside, he embraced her in a quick and strong hug, asking her if she was alright, kept his arms around her and let their foreheads touch as they just talked.

Memories flooded back to her when all her friends began to grow suspicious of the older Uchiha often times picking her up after her own dance recitals, and they wondered if he liked her. Soon, their curiosity got Sakura, and she easily remembered the conversation they held on the phone once.

"Ne, Itachi-kun," Sakura lied there on her bed, "Can I ask you another question?"

"Shoot," his deep voice entered her ear through her cell phone.

"This is just out of curiosity since a lot of my friends have been wondering themselves… But I've been curious now too." She gulped, running a hand through her soft short pink hair before asking, "Do you like me?"

There was a long pause over the phone until he asked, "What… What do you mean by 'like'?"

"Do you, you know, like like like me?" she couldn't help but blush.

"…" there it was again, that long silence from his end. Did she make a mistake in asking? Perhaps, but curiosity always got the best of her. She wanted to know. At least, he answered, sighing, "Yes. I do like you… It's just… this whole age thing. Seven years is a lot Sakura."

From then on, they still kept seeing each other, but never fully claimed to have dated, been boyfriend or girlfriend; they were just together, whether as just friends or something else. They had both agreed, though that if Sakura were to just so happen to be single when she was finally eighteen, and he just so happened to be single as well, they would see how things would work. She was only sixteen, and he was twenty-three. It was considered illegal and especially dangerous for someone as young as her to be going out with a twenty-three year old man. And yet, she could bravely use the word 'love' with his name with it.

She didn't feel this way around anyone else, but him. The sheer thought of him, it brings a smile to her face each time. However, she has realized that time is scarce for the both of them, and there had been times where she thought Itachi had no longer cared about her, but would always have been proven otherwise. She knew though, however, that Itachi was truly a being that she could call close, but it was a dangerous kind of close. Often times, she felt like she didn't deserve the kind of immense happiness Itachi gave her, but greatly appreciated it.

Sakura sighed, finally standing back up and prepared to head to bed, worrying more if Itachi were to ever just stop talking to her one day, until she her cell phone buzzed, giving a light ring before lighting up, signaling she got a text message. It read:

"From: Uchiha Itachi

Get some sleep. Don't think so much crazy-face. I'll see you the next time I have some free time again."

With that reassuring message, she lazily smiled, putting her phone under her pillow and slowly drifted off to sleep with the scent of pine and cinnamon still lingering.

Author's Note: Derp. Ironic because this was going to be ten times more depressing if I weren't interrupted by the guy who inspired me to write this. Let's just call him Lemon-head, mkay? It's my nickname for him anyways because of his hair, or, well, what HAD been his hair until he had to cut it a little shorter so the blonde is all gone and grown out. WAY OOC of Itachi to be doing dance, I know, but Lemon-head and I both are in colorguard and we love to spin, so dance was incorporated somehow, and he also plays bass, so I decided to make Itachi play cello since it fitted him better than bass.

I'm a starving artist. Feed me with reviews and feedback of any kind! I'll admit, I didn't put so much effort into this oneshot. Would you guys like me to make this into a chapter-series or keep it a oneshot?