"D-don't move!" Sakura ordered, wincing slightly at the way her voice wavered.
Never, not even for a moment had the pink-haired girl imagined that she would find herself alone with an S-class criminal, it was almost a miracle that she hadn't passed out the moment she saw the red and black cloak adorning the man now pinned beneath her. In her panicked state, she barely registered how easy it was to catch the elder Uchiha in a simple arm-lock and force him to the ground; he'd barely put up a struggle. Hell, he hadn't so much as twitched.
Something was off about the whole situation, making Sakura's palms sweat and the kunai she pressed against the missing-nin's throat grow slick between her fingers.
It wasn't supposed to be this way, not by a long shot. Kakashi-sensei and Naruto were supposed to be right behind her for backup in case she stumbled across Sasuke, who was the target of Team Seven's manhunt. They were supposed to be a team, giving support to each other when they needed it most. Sakura doubted that she'd ever needed support so badly in her life.
After waking up on that cold concrete bench, muscles sore and back aching, the realization of Sasuke's departure weighed on Sakura's heart and mind painfully. The first thing she'd done was run as fast as she could to the Hokage tower, knowing better than to try and find Naruto or Kakashi-sensei - neither could ever be found when she needed them, her present situation was a painful reminder of that.
Tsunade-shishou had immediately sent out several groups of ANBU to find the Uchiha boy, clearly having no intention of letting Team Seven have a part of the search. After Naruto had given one of his determined and remarkably inspirational speeches, however, the Sannin had relented and let the group go out on a brief search for their comrade.
No one had even asked Sakura how she felt.
It was no secret that she loved Sasuke, and she had taken his disappearance harder than anyone could have imagined. They were all so certain that her feeling were no more than a childish crush, the result of a pre-pubescent girl's overactive hormones. Something in the dark recesses of Sakura's mind whispered that they might have been right, but she had quickly quashed that thought.
The 'brief' search had soon bled into hours, and all the members of Team Seven began to grow impatient. Sakura couldn't remember who it was that had suggested that they split up, but no one had asked for her opinion before both her sensei and teammate had disappeared. It was then that Sakura allowed her tears of despair to fall.
Unwilling to let herself stew in pain and misery for too long, the girl had dusted herself off, wiped her eyes, and gone on with her search for Sasuke. For so long he had called her weak, useless… annoying. She refused to prove him right by sobbing in the middle of the forest when there was work to be done.
Not five minutes into her resumed hunt, she had stumbled across him.
The recognition was near-instantaneous, for the resemblance between the two brothers was uncanny. Itachi was a good two feet taller than Sakura, and what she assumed was an intimidating and muscular form was hidden beneath his Akatsuki cloak. Though the bottom half of the man's face was obscured by the high collar of said-cloak, Sakura was fairly sure that she could see the stress lines marking his face and the blood-read gleam of the Sharingan from a mile away.
For several long moments Sakura simply stared at him, body freezing in shock and mind too stunned to look away from his dangerous eyes. Itachi stared right back.
It was the loud caw of a raven that had startled Sakura into movement once more, and within a few quick movements she had the elder Uchiha pinned to the ground. Her knees pinned down his legs as she pulled one of his arms up and pressed a kunai to his throat with another, forcing his other arm and as much of his torso as she could manage against the ground with her body.
She noted that, up close, Itachi looked far younger. Actually, she began to doubt he was more than five years older than herself and - her mind traitorously supplied –way hotter than Sasuke. A blush spread across the girl's features as she realized the semi-intimacy of their position, nearly dropping her kunai in shock.
She, Sakura Haruno, was practically straddling Sasuke-kun's older brother, an S-class missing nin. And she thought he was hot.
If both of the girl's hands weren't otherwise occupied, she would have face-palmed.
"What have you done with Saskue-kun?!" Sakura demanded, trying desperately to remove her mind from how nice the chiseled muscles of his back felt pressed against her-
Perhaps she was just a hormonal pre-pubescent girl after all…
Itachi did not reply. Instead, he tilted his head just slightly to stare up at the pink-haired girl, blinking ever so slowly and deactivating his Sharingan to reveal dark charcoal eyes. Itachi's eyes were way hotter than Sasuke's, Inner declared, and Sakura was inclined to agree. Instead of deadened black orbs, Itachi's eyes were more of a storm cloud grey, and they looked so utterly serene that Sakura barely caught herself before she relaxed her grip on the kunai.
It just wasn't fair that he was so distracting.
In her moment of inner turmoil, Sakura didn't notice Itachi's sudden movement until it was too late. The girl barely had time to squeak in surprise before she was lifted into the air and pressed against the nearest tree, a hand wrapped firmly around her throat.
Itachi still did not speak, instead staring at her with those -beautiful- charcoal eyes. The faintest of smirks tugged at the corner of the man's lips as he tossed Sakura's kuani absently in his hand, gaze never leaving the girl's emerald eyes. Were he a more expressive person, Itachi would have laughed outright at the expression on the girl's face. She looked so utterly indignant!
Oh, he certainly knew who she was. The irritating teammate of his dear younger brother; more than once she had loudly declared her love for Sasuke, something that Itachi had found annoying to no end. Now, though, he noticed a certain fire in her eyes, a spark of anger that was rather interesting. Itachi was well aware of how intimidating he was, and though the girl seemed a bit uncomfortable, she didn't appear quite afraid.
The blush still spreading across the girl's face amused Itachi further. Yes, he was well aware of why her face was coloring, he was hardly ignorant of his charms- the Uchiha were never noted for turning out unattractive children. A sudden, unusual impulse struck Itachi as he stared into the girl's feisty half-glare, and for the first time in his life, he acted on an impulse.
Sakura nearly screamed when the missing-nin's lips collided with hers.
A/N
Grace: Well. . . that was interesting.
Phantom: Yeah. . . interesting. . . just the word I was looking for. . .
Grace: *sigh* alright, I suppose I should start with apologizing for the unfathomable OOCness of Itachi. There I sat, calmly-
Phantom: Squealing and fangirling.
Grace: Scrolling through the ItaSaku pics on Tumblr, when one of them literally-
Phantom: Figuratively. You're delusional.
Grace: Leapt out at me and demanded I write.
Phantom: My point. . .
Grace: And this was the result. Normally I don't write oneshots because I, personally, prefer longer and more in-depth multi-chapter fics, but with the SasuSaku fandom all but exploding over the new manga chapter, I felt obligated to do my rather pathetic best at contributing to ItaSaku, lest my most beloved OTP be forgotten amongst Sasuke's return.
Phantom: *clears throat*
Grace: Ah, yes. Thanks to my awesome Beta, PhantomPrussia. According to her, Love Your Beta Week goes on year round. . .
Phantom: As it well should be.
Grace: Yeah. . . Anywho, though this was intended to be nothing more than a oneshot, I could definitely add on to it, and the rating could be bumped up, but it really depends on whether or not anyone thinks this is worth continuing. Really, I promise that I don't usually write Itachi this OOC, it just sort of. . . happened.
Phantom: What an excellent explanation.
Grace: . . . T_T
Phantom: Well, since Gracie-chan is unable, I'll end this before the Author's Note becomes longer than the actual story. Actually, it already is. . . Review and give love to the Beta.