This is the fourth in a series of stories that were created from my previous fic, "Twenty Men." The theme number can be explained once you read it. I am proud to dedicate "Project: Twenty Men" to Aloha.Laney. She's a dear friend.
Title: Ballroom Masquerade
Author: Ita-ta
Pairings: ItaSaku
Theme: #10
Rating: T for teenagers.
Disclaimer: All Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "Into the Night" belongs to Santana and Chad Kroeger.
Note: Please review, they fuel my writing drive.
Summary: It was surprising how easily she could make him lose his infamous ironclad control.
Ballroom Masquerade
Uchiha Itachi was extremely bored. He was on a solo mission that required him to go to a masquerade ball for feudal lords. He was to retrieve information and assassinate a daimyo for Leader-sama. He had done both already and he was to stay until the end of the ball so as not to raise suspicion. He was clearly irritated that he could not go, also because of the fact the females of all ages looked curiously at him.
Onyx eyes glared back at a few who were whispering excitedly. He was also irritated that he was not permitted to use his Sharingan. He knew it was too recognizable but he still felt a little irritation at not having it on.
He was about to leave because of irritation but his eyes caught onto something. Something...pink? He raised an eyebrow curiously as the pink head moved through the crowd onto the dance floor. He was immediately intrigued at how unknowingly graceful she was. He noticed she had a twinge of discomfort cross her face but it was erased as she composed herself. She was continuing off the dance floor. Her movements were graceful and languid and she held herself well. She had pink hair tied up by senbon needles and at this, he frowned. They would have looked like ordinary needles but to his trained eye, he noticed the sleek design of the senbon. Her emerald eyes were a deep contrast to her light complexion and bright hair. They juxtaposed the daintiness that the rest of her form showed. His curiosity had piqued.
She wore a delicate halter dress, midnight black with a glittering shimmer to it. It fit nicely to her curvaceous body and with her lithe strides he noticed that there were more than pair of eyes on her. There were markings around her eyes and soft lines along cheeks looking like whiskers. She had a small tear at the edge of her left eye and he could tell the 'mask' was irritating her. She gave no indication of it though.
He immediately felt a twinge of curiosity for her as her emerald eyes lit up as a song started to play. He assumed she knew it and she unconsciously started to sway her hips to the music. His aura darkened slightly as he realized a majority of men had their eyes set on her. He already had his air of quiet hostility that was present but a hint of malevolence was leaking through. He blinked, realizing that just the sight of her was making him overprotective.
'Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,' Sakura was starting to enjoy herself. She was a little uncertain at first but she realized that it wasn't going to get any better. A song she liked came on so she was joyful at the sound. 'It was love from above that could save me from hell.'
'She had fire in her soul, it was easy to see,' Itachi watched with intrigue as she got into the music more. She started to dance a little more wildly, alone in the mass of bodies on the dance floor. 'How the devil himself could be pulled out of me.' He decided to come a little closer to the intriguing woman, the strong beat pulsing through the air. His long strides led him into the crowd and he easily navigated through. He could see her clearly though, as the crowd seemed to have given her a circle to move around in. 'There were drums in the air as she started to dance,' He watched as she twirled gracefully and swayed her hips rhythmically to the music. 'Every soul in the room, keeping time with their hands and we sang,' He clearly heard her melodic voice through the crowd and he frowned; surprised as to how attuned his senses were to her.
"Ay oh ay, oh ay, oh ay," She paused as the song continued. 'And the voices rang as the angels sing. We're singing...' "Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay and we danced on into the night." She continued and fell silent. At this point he saw that someone had reached her first. His possessive aura flared dangerously but he dampened it quickly.
"Would you care to join me?" Sakura looked surprised and her doe-like eyes gave it away.
"No thank-you, I'd rather not," She declined rather quickly, an apologetic smile on her face.
"Come now, you were doing well for yourself," His voice was a little more than predatory and she took an instinctual step back when she encountered something hard. She was about to turn around and say sorry but an arm snaked around her waist in an almost possessive manner and she squeaked in surprise.
"Darling, surely I told you not to run off like that," A lilting tenor rumbled behind her.
She was so shocked that she couldn't do anything but nod. She was quickly spun around so that her head rested against this foreign man's chest, his chin tucked over her head.
"Varec-san, would you care to vanish?" The voice rumbled again and Sakura could feel the malevolent aura the man was emitting very acutely.
"Of course sir," The man scurried away in fright, striding quickly through the crowd, face white as a ghost.
'And we sang to the wind as we danced through the night, and we sang...' The music was still heavy and the beat was pulsing through the crowd heavily. 'Ay oh ay, oh ay, oh ay, as the voices rang and the angels sing.'
Sakura placed her hands on his chest and pushed away feeling a sudden urge to run like hell in the other direction. "You can let me go now," She said timidly, not looking up but staring at his chest.
"Who said I wanted to do anything of the sort?" His lilting tenor drawled out lazily and her head shot up to look at him.
He wore a mask that encircled his eyes, crimson in colour. The ends dropped down, swirling over his high cheekbones. His dark onyx eyes caught her own in his gaze and seemed to not let her go. She immediately struggled against the pull, wanting to get away as soon as possible.
"What's the rush, kunoichi?" He asked in a dangerous tone.
Sakura eyes widened almost imperceptibly but his eyes picked up on it. "What do you mean?" She asked, fake curiosity leaking into her eyes. She was trying to play dumb, realizing this shinobi was very dangerous in the fact that she was attuned to his dark chakra.
"Why would a normal woman wear senbon needles in her hair to a masquerade?" He lowered his head to her whisper in her ear. "Unless she expected something unfortunate would happen?"
A tremor quaked throughout her body. She thought she recognized his voice but now she had pinpointed it. "I have no idea what your talking about, so if you'll excuse me–" She pulled away from him and flickered out of the crowd.
His eyebrow raised in interest. She had been able to slip from his grip—which did not happen often. He realized that she had wrenched herself from him quite forcefully, using chakra as a means to escape. He didn't have to concentrate for too long to trace her chakra signature but it was only minute. His Sharingan flickered on as he flash-stepped to where she was. 'And we danced on into the night.'
Sakura had quickly ditched her high-heels and was now sprinting away from the isolated castle that was the location of the masquerade. She ran across the grassy plane, the night already in full flourish. She came to a sudden halt however when she felt that oppressing chakra again.
She made a split second decision and started to run in a different direction only the smack into something hard blindly. "Crap." She thought as she landed hard on her bottom.
Crimson and onyx eyes came into her peripheral vision and she immediately looked away. "What the hell do you want?" She asked irritably.
"Why you seem to want to run away like a scared mouse before a cat." His tenor voice was quiet but she heard it easily. She pulled herself to her feet and took an instinctual three steps back. She heard him take three steps forward and she repeated this until the found herself pressed up against a tree. She rolled her eyes. "How cliché, there's always a freaking tree." She thought sardonically.
"Your presence isn't exactly what one would call 'calming'." Sakura said quietly.
He was now thirty centimetres from her and she was growing just a little irritated. "What would my presence be called then?" His voice was lilting, suggesting he was having fun with her.
"Irritating," She replied easily.
"How so?" He asked calmly.
"I didn't want to have to do this—" Her fist shot out as she plunged it into his chest, sending him back a few feet. She then pulled out a senbon and cut her dress, revealing her black skin-tight shorts and a black skin-tight shirt. Promptly thereafter she bolted, running off into the forested area and navigating it with ease.
Sharingan spun with displeasure as he flickered not ten feet from her. She launched a senbon at him and kept going. He flickered in front of her and his arm shot out grasping her neck, tomoes spinning with anger. "Why the sudden attack, kunoichi?" He asked her in a cold emotionless tone.
"Uchiha Itachi, mass-murder of the Uchiha clan, member of Akatsuki blah, blah, blah." She rattled off some information about him. "Not to mention trying to kill my best-freaking-friends!" She snarled, fiery emerald eyes coming to life. She grasped his hand with her chakra infused hand and burned it with the chakra. Wrenching his hand away from her throat she leaped back in defence.
Tomoe whirled with displeasure as he examined his hand that now had some unpleasant scorch marks on it. Itachi's memory delivered him some interesting information just then and he looked at her with angry Sharngan. "Haruno Sakura I presume?" He asked, gaze unrelenting and uncomprising.
"The one and only," She growled.
He was intrigued once more how she could appeared elegant not fifteen minutes ago but now she was a feral wildcat. "The Kyuubi is your best friend," He stated, retrieving that from his memory banks.
"As is your brother," She snarled.
"That foolish brother of mine has not lived up to the Uchiha name in the slightest," He stated emotionlessly. "The Kyuubi is whom we need and I will kill him if I have that chance." He continued in that same emotionless glare of a tone.
She was infuriated at how he could insult her friends so emotionlessly like that as if they were below his attention. "The next time you encounter them, they will be strong enough to take you down and I will relish in being an accomplice to that act. I want to be there when Sasuke finally avenges his clan and your death-rattle escapes your throat." She hissed furiously. She couldn't even take a breath when she had the wind knocked out of her by the Uchiha tackling her to the ground.
His Sharingan changed then, pinning her down in his gaze as he pulled her into the Mangekyou. The desolate landscape was dreary with a black ground and red sky with black clouds skirting in it. She was tied up to the post as he stood in front of her with a katana.
"For the next forty-two hours—" He was interrupted by a voice that was akin to Sakura's.
"You will torture her to death la dee dah, do you have anything more interesting to say?" Itachi's eyes widened almost imperceptibly as he found Sakura had not moved her mouth at all.
"And you are?" He asked to the air, wondering idly if the girl was talented enough to throw her voice.
"Sakura at your service," An inverted version of Sakura sat next to the post that the real Sakura was tied to.
"You are not Sakura." His eyes narrowed in irritation.
"Of course not," Her voice whispered in his ear but she remained sitting.
"What did you do?" His brow furrowed.
"Well, activating your Mangekyou kind of entered my personal bubble, so I do not appreciate you coming onto my grounds." She answered coolly, the surroundings changing to a green meadow with Sakura lashed to a Sakura tree, the sky blue with white clouds. "Complications arose, ensued and were overcome," She grinned at the deadly Uchiha with much amusement.
Sakura's eyes widened in horror as Inner Sakura appeared by the Uchiha and looked at him with interest in her eyes.
"I've never encountered another being and since Sakura is too freaking modest, I've never had my first kiss yet," She said slyly and leaned in to brush her cheek against his. He flickered away however, turbulent tomoe swirling and making the sky go red.
"You have an inner persona?" The Uchiha asked the original Sakura.
"Duh," She couldn't help but answer cynically.
Inner Sakura was gleeful as the Uchiha tried to take a step back but he was restrained by being lashed to a Sakura tree. Sakura's tree vanished and was replaced with the cross at the Uchiha's fury.
"Let me go," Itachi's eyes showed absolute fury and the whole illusion quaked.
Sakura could only look on in terror as Inner Sakura lowered her head to lick the Uchiha's neck. She felt him shudder as did Sakura. She really hated the situation she was in.
"QUIT THAT!" She shouted to her Inner Self and immediately started struggling in her binds.
"I haven't had fun all my life, I'm just getting started." Inner Sakura stated darkly.
The Uchiha seemed to disagree and the illusion quaked once more as he was released. He then had an idea, in hopes to weaken the inner persona. His movements became predatory as he pounced and forced Inner Sakura to the ground. He crushed his mouth to hers and viciously pushed his tongue in and cruelly invaded her person. He felt her struggle and bit down on her lip hard.
"Son of a—" Sakura breathed as her lips started bleeding. She then resorted some of her inhuman strength and broke free from her binds. She brought her fist to the ground and shattered the illusion.
Sakura flickered her eyes open only to meet furious Sharingan. "Oh bugger," She couldn't help but mutter and try to tear her gaze from his. She finally did and looked off to the side, a blush staining her pretty cheeks.
It was then that she felt something wet run over her the sensitized skin of her lips. Before she could stop herself she flinched, her mouth opening slightly as something soft brushed her lips and a wet tongue ran over the wound again and again in an almost calming manner.
Her wide emerald eyes looked back at the Sharingan of the Uchiha in surprise.
He pulled back after a moment and surveyed her in interest. She made him lose control of his actions, emotions and judgement. For a moment he was incredulous that she even managed to evoke a reaction like that from him. None of this was given away behind the cold façade that stayed on his face.
Slowly she lifted her head up and kissed him. She made him stiffen but when he realized she had no ill-intent toward him he returned the affections with a little hunger. Belatedly she realized he tasted of peaches. She smiled into the kiss and rolled them over so that she sat on his stomach. She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Emerald eyes flew open as she jack-knifed into a sitting position in her bed.
"That was the most bizarre dream I've ever had." She thought and realized she could not go back to bed. She sent a letter to the Hokage the next morning requesting the day off. She was so exhausted and so bewildered by the taste of peaches in her mouth.