I don't own Naruto, just my own ideas

I'm going to write the first two-three chapters to both stories and I advise and hope people will read both of them because the one with the most review is the one I'm gonna continue, the other one gets put away for a long time. So please help me out with this headache and read and review Arigatou.

MIDNIGHT SAKURA

CHAPTER ONE

THE FELINE IN THE RAIN

It was midnight when he neared the village. Midnight, and raining lightly, a small drizzle that promised to grow into a heavy storm later; the moon was raised high up and stood out like a beacon against the pitch blackness of the night, lighting the way home. A ninja leaped through the tree's swiftly and silently without even rustling as much as a leaf in the breeze. After Six months in Snow country on a solo mission, the Shinobi was looking forward to returning, his eyes filled with the bloodline trait of his family, were focused straight ahead.

Itachi barely breathed as he continued foreword. There wasn't really any particular reason as to why he was hurrying to reach him home but for some reason he couldn't seem to stop himself from going so fast.

He was a Shinobi of the Uchiha Clan. True he no longer lived with said clan, he was still a member of them, their blood flowed through his veins and people of his clan were not an emotional people. So this unexplained feeling of urgency made no sense. It had begun as soon as he had reached Konoha's vicinity and had not yet ceased.

But even for an Uchiha, he was strangely isolated. He had no emotional attachments outside a fondness for his younger brother and a friendship with his cousin. He kept himself to himself and preferred not to interact with anyone outside his ANBU team, and even then, he preferred Solo missions. So when he had been offered the Six month Mission in Snow to spy on the Daimyo and his armies to make sure they weren't planning for war, he had taken the mission immediately.

Six months to himself, without any clan members breathing down his neck, or the ANBU master complaining about his lack of accepting team missions. He preferred it this way. It wasn't only that he was anti-social, but he just didn't understand people. He hated that they always seemed to expect something from him, and he disappointed them terribly, or lived up to them perfectly. But it wasn't him. He hated that, so he just ended up avoiding people.

But now the mission was over. While the Daimyo wasn't planning War, but his second in command was. Luckily Itachi was able to disband the rebels and eliminate the problem. But in his opinion, it was over too soon.

Then suddenly, something caught his eye. He stopped and tuned. What was that? He had seen something, something moving out there in the forest. Itachi wasn't a superstitious person, so when he saw it two things came to mind. One-he was imagining it; Two-it was an enemy Nin.

He began to take a step when there it was again, that thing. A silhouette against the moonlight...and it was running away. Normally Itachi didn't care about these things, but he couldn't have someone unknown running about so close to the village. So he took off after it.

But then something was wrong, the thing, whatever it was, began to speed up. Itachi had thought it would be an easy chase, but he found himself...being out run? Now he was even more determined to find whatever it was. He increased his speed by sending chakra to his feet. Soon he wasn't only seeing the creature, but hearing it. It seemed to be also leaping against the trees, an assassin perhaps?

He stopped, this smell, this coppery smell like metal. Itachi stopped for a moment and put his hand on the bark of the tree. The one that the enemy had just passed. Blood. And lots of it. It seemed that whoever he was chasing was injured. Then suddenly he heard something akin to a growl, or a roar of pain. He jumped down from the tree to the ground and looked around. The roar was weakening into whimpers of suffering. Itachi followed the sound to some bushes, and pushed them apart.

Whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been this. It was a cat, or rather, a Black Jaguar. The cat was sprawled on the ground, writhing in pain, it's fur completely stained in blood from the multiple wounds on its body that it was completely coloured red.

Itachi watched the animal. Why was he still here, he wondered after some time. Itachi was not an animal person, he tolerated Inuzuka hounds and he had even once tolerated Kakashi's ninja hounds on a mission. But all in all Itachi just wasn't an animal person. He normally wouldn't care about some cat. Yet for some reason, he couldn't get his feet to move.

He watched the proud animal, once it was probably strong, powerful and beautiful. Now it was only something to be pitied while it slowly and painfully bled to death. Still, it wasn't any of his business, Itachi didn't care about the animal...so why was he still here? And why, despite his dislike for animals, did every aspect of him being want nothing more than to help the creature?

He wanted to help it, but he didn't know why. The Jaguar was so large, it would be too much trouble to carry it, he needed to save his strength.

However, Itachi had always prided himself on his instants, and now they were all telling him to save this cat. So against his better judgment, he bent down and as performed a simple sealing Jutsu to seal all the wounds temporarily staunching the bleeding. Those needed bandaging.

Then, as carefully as possible, he redirected the chakra flowin in his legs to his arms for added strength and managed to scoop the Cat into his arms, with that he proceeded to hurry towards the village.

There was no taking it to the Inuzuka animal centre, it was too late and there was no way any of them would wake up to heal a cat, which wasn't even a Ninja animal. So there was only one thing he could do, he had to bring it back with him to tend to it himself. So that's what he did.

Long time ago, Itachi moved out of the Uchiha Complex. The elders had been against it, his father had been against it, and even though she didn't say, he knew his mother was against it too. But at that time he had felt so...sick of being told what to do about everything that he just wanted to make a decision for himself for once. It turned out to be one of the best decision he ever made.

The peace and quiet as well as the privacy of having his own apartment away from the complex suited Itachi quite well for a long time, just as it was suiting him now, he didn't even want to think about what would have happened if he had shown up at the complex with a giant half-dead jaguar bleeding out in his arms.

But luckily, he just returned to his apartment. The guards at the gate had been a little suspicious, but his being the Uchiha heir, they wisely didn't say anything. Itachi brought the cat to his bathroom, and proceeded to as carefully as possible, wash the wounds clean. The animal had passes out sometime during their journey through the forest, so he was left with little resistance on its part.

He used a towel to gently wipe away the blood and a basin of water to rinse the wounds clean, as he had been taught to a long time ago as a boy by his mother. Then again at the time, he had been taught that with the intention that he would be attending to human wounds, not feline.

After some time, Itachi began to realise something, this Jaguar was partly pink. It seemed inconceivable, Jaguars weren't pink, especially black Jaguar's. But when finally all the blood had been washed away, it was revealed that among the silky dark fur were rings of pink fur; two around the tail and one around the neck. But other than that, the fur was black, the most rich, deep velvet black he had ever seen. Despite being fatally injured and partly pink, Itachi had to admit, it was a beautiful animal.

Itachi paused. Why was he doing this, going all out, just for a cat? He looked down at the pitiful animal, injured, in pain and close to dying. He just didn't want it to die for some reason. He wanted to help it. And for now, just knowing that would have to be enough.

He brought it to his room and laid it on his own bed. Itachi was no medic, but even he knew how to bandage wounds efficiently, which he proceeded to do. However it took some time since there were quite a lot of them. He was just finishing bandaging the deep gash in by the throat when he heard growling.

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It was so warm, so warm it felt like the feline could faint all over again. When was the last time she had been this warm? Must have been years, that was the last time she had been home, or by his side. It been so long the feline had begun to wonder if her cold heart could ever feel warm again.

But why was it so warm? A thought crossed the Jaguar's mind, perhaps it was dead, was this what death felt like? No, the cat had been on the brink of death before, and it was nowhere this warm. But terrifying. So why was it so warm?

As the Cat's senses began to clear and intensify, she began to notice things around her. The smell, this scent was over powering. This smell, that fresh forest. She felt so calm, what a calming scent. The Jaguar felt like it could purr, not only was it so warm, but the scent was so pleasing.

Slowly her senses that had been numbed by pain returned to her, first her Smell, then Taste.

What was this? She could taste blood, her blood, but while her body was still numb, she could at least tell whether she was bleeding or not, and she wasn't.

Why was that? The last thing she remembered was being attacked, and fighting.

It had been a good battle, she killed three of her attackers, but in the end they overpowered her and she was nearly killed. In the end it had taken a lot to escape. But then they began thin out and leave. Why had that been, she was so weak, so useless. It would have been easy to kill her. So why could she taste blood when she wasn't bleeding anymore.

So taste and smell was back. Anything else? Well slowly her hearing was beginning to grow, her hearing as well as her sense of touch. There was something...binding her wounds. Something, something...something! What was that, why could she feel someone touching her. And what was that sound, like a weapon being unsheathed. Or was this it, was she finally going to be killed?

There was no shame in dying, the feline decided, she had fought a good fight, and she had been on the brink of death before, this was no different. And at least, it would be a death in vain, she accomplished what she had set put to do and hidden it were her attackers would never find it. And this way, she could finally see them again.

But she refused to be killed so easily like some domestic house pet. She would look her killer in the eyes.

So, despite the pain, the mighty feline groaned and forced her eyes open on sheer will power. At first, everything was white and for a moment, the fear of being blind entered the feline's mind, but then slowly, pictures began to form, blurry pictures becoming clearer by the minuet. She blinked and looked up. The first thing that caught her eyes was the knife being pointed at her neck, and the person doing the pointing was looking away. She didn't want that, she wanted them to look at her when they killed her. So she let out a warning growl and the person's head turned to her.

The feline was taken aback for a moment; this wasn't the man who had attacked her. This wasn't one of the men who had put the wounds in her body. They didn't have Black eyes. Like night, like midnight.

His hair was just as dark and...He was still holding a knife for her neck. She snarled, she had been distracted for a moment, but it didn't matter. The Feline stood her ground.

But then the man did something strange. At first he didn't do anything, he just looked at her, and then he reached forward to her neck without taking his eyes of hers. But there was no pain, no feeling of a knife being plunged into her neck. Instead only the sound of a snip, like fabric being cut before he pulled away with a piece of bandage in his hand. Bandage? She looked down at her paw. Sure enough, around the cut on her front paw, there was a fresh bandage. So that was what that feeling had been, this man was…trying to save her?

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Itachi heard growling and looked down at his large patient. He froze for a moment, which was a big thing for him since he never froze. But he did when he saw its eyes. They were green, the most rich, emerald green he had ever seen. They seemed so deep for some reason he felt himself feeling dizzy.

Pointed eyes of a predator, it seemed almost strange to see something so beautiful on something so dangerous. Itachi just watched her (and he had already guessed that the Jaguar was a her) for a moment.

Though he wasn't one for animals, he admitted to himself, she was a powerful animal. He was almost glad he saved her; it seemed like such a waste for something so interesting to just die in the rain on the ground in some unknown bush. He could imagine it in its prime, prowling on a hunt, those mesmerising emerald eyes focused on its prey.

Itachi blinked and realised that if its eyes were open, then it was awake. But surprisingly, the animal did not attack him, instead it only stared right back at him with what looked like...contempt? So, it thought he was an enemy but was too weak to attack. Itachi almost smirked, and now it wanted to look into the eyes of its killer? Well it was in for a disappointment, he thought as he reached forward with his Kunai and cut away the last of the bandage.

So curious, the feline seemed surprised when it saw the bandage in his hand, such a human emotion. Could cats even show fear, surprise and contempt in their eyes? Itachi didn't know, this would be the first time he had ever taken the time to actually look. But it was there.

He animal continued to watch him; eventually Itachi broke the eye contact and went to cut another bandage to wrap around the last wound on its right front leg. The feline took one look at the kunai and began hissing violently.

"Be still" he said "I am not your enemy" and with that, the Jaguar recognised the authority in his voice and quiet downed, but it tucked its paw away defiantly.

Again, he almost smirked "If you hide that, then I can't bandage it, and it will get infected." He said. To his amusement and utter surprise, the cat's eyes seemed to be...weighing out the choices before it finally extended its paw.

Itachi didn't comment, he just took it and continued to wrap bandages carefully. He could feel the felines gaze on his hands as he wrapped, but made no indication that he knew and soon he was snipping of the last bandage.

He stood and walked over to the stand where he sometimes kept his medicines, all the while he could feel its gaze still on his back. He looked through the multiple bottles till he finally found the one he was looking for and quickly went and grabbed a plate from his kitchen side. With that he carefully set the plate down on the bed and poured some of the medicine in. The mixture was a strange purplish colour and it smelt horrible, Itachi knew from experience that it tasted just as bad as it smelt. "Drink it" he ordered.

The feline took one look at the bowl and gave him a look that seemed to say 'Are you kidding me?'

"It can't be helped" he found himself saying "This helps replenish blood cells, it will help you recover some of the blood you lost".

Itachi didn't really know why he was bothering to explain this to a cat, but in the end he was glad he did since the feline bent its head and drank the mixture obediently without another complaint. Itachi almost felt sorry for it, he knew how bad it tasted and even he wasn't able to drink It in one go, yet the cat was doing well so far and to his surprise and relief, it was lapping in a calm and clean manner so nothing was spilt.

Eventually it was all gone and the cat raised its head, some of the purplish mixture had gotten stuck to its fur, but the cat licked it clean with a few swipes of its large pink tongue.

He took back the plate and on returning the plate to the kitchen also brought out a piece of fish that he hadn't eaten yet. "Here" he said handing it out it "Eat, it will take away the taste"

The cat seemed reluctant to eat from his hand, but it was too hungry to worry about its pride. Its tongue felt rough on his palm as it licked away the remaining crumbs of fish once it had devoured the main body. He wiped his hand on his side and watched it. Those mesmerising green eyes looked up at him with a loom of 'So what happens now?'

"Now I sleep" he ended up replying.

The cat growled and then, on sheer will power and with the little strength it received from the medicine and meal, it managed to push itself to its feet as it then lay itself once again into a more comfortable sleeping position.

Itachi this time didn't hide his smirk, who knew saving a cat could be so amusing. The proud creature was trying to show that just because he saved her, he had no dominion over her; she was trying to reclaim some of her pride by ensuring that she wasn't leaving the bed. He sighed, let the proud feline have the bed, he thought as he left to change.

And an hour later he himself was fed and bathed as he returned to find the feline asleep, its body shifting with every breath. Even in sleep it exerted power and beauty. He ended up getting into bed beside the Jaguar, not a smart move but Itachi had confidence that should it decide to attack in the night, he would be able to awaken immediately and subdue it, because he didn't really want to kill it.

So with that he closed his eyes and was soon lulled to sleep by the erythematic sound of the Jaguars breathing which unbeknown to him, grew softer as the night passed.

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The next morning Itachi awoke. The first thought that came to mind was how he had slept?

Itachi was one of the unfortunate people to be plagued with insomnia, but he had trained his body to sleep at least for a few sufficient hours every day. But from the light that was seeping through his windows, it looked like he had slept though almost half the morning!

The second thought was 'what's this?' as his outstretched hand clenched around something, something that felt like...hair?

He was out of bed in a second as whatever was on his bed with him tumbled out onto the floor with a squeak and the covers still wrapped around them. He grabbed the kunai from his dresser and approached the thing doing battle with the sheets on the floor. He reached forward, and grabbed the blanked and with one tug it came away.

Itachi almost dropped his kunai.

In his vague mind, he knew he had saved a cat yesterday...so why was there a girl on his bedroom floor?

The girl was small, but she looked to be about his brother's age at nineteen or twenty. Her body was so slim and petite, her...that's when he realised that she was naked, and turned away in disgust and embarrassment.

He noticed something strange as his eyes travelled to her face, which was petite too, heart shaped and she had a slightly wide forehead, but nothing noticeable and not something that made her look unattractive. But that wasn't the surprising thing, more the long, waist length pink hair cascading down past her shoulders; the girl stretched on the floor, almost feline like and began brushing over her face like a cat trying to clean its whiskers. Wait...cat? Itachi noticed something else on her head.

Cat ears?

There were two, pink, cat ears perched on her head and as his eyes travelled down he saw here was also a long pink tail poking out from under the covers. A long pink cat tail with two rings of black on the tip...a little like the Jaguar from last night.

He did a double take, where did the Jaguar go? He looked around. There was no sign of it and nothing showing it had left. He looked back to a girl and noticed something on her neck...bandages. There were bandages all over her body, in all the places the cat had been injured the night before.

No

No, no, no...No, it couldn't be, he refused to believe it, it wasn't possible.

But then the girl turned to him and he knew it was true when he looked right into her dazzling green eyes. Eyes that seemed to hypnotise. They were her eyes. She blinked and tipped her head to the side in a bright innocent smile and inside Itachi cursed.

What had he done?

SO THERE YOU HAVE THE FIST CHAPTER. I WOPULD JUST LIKE TO WARN IN ADVANCE THAT SAKURA IS GOING TO BE VERY OOC IN THIS FIC AND ITACHI A LITTLE OOC BUT NOT IN AN OVERLY ANNOYING WAY, SINCE I LIKE THE 'IN CHARACTER' ITACHI BEST TOO (EVEN IF HE IS A LITTLE EMOTIONALLY AND SOCIALLY DENCE).

BUT I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE THIS CHAPTER. PLEASE REVEIW IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE NEZT CHAPTER BECAUSE I REALLY WANNA WRITE IT.