Just a short little ItaSaku; would love to do a longer one but haven't thought of a brilliant plot yet, and justus can mess me up ; Read and review!
Disclaimer - If I owned Naruto, there would be multiple universes for all the Sakura pairings I love.
Chance Encounters
It had become a game for him, these chance encounters. Ninjas from his village of origin aroused slightly more interest, as subconsciously expected more. He was generally disappointed; few could measure up to his standards. Which was why the girl surprised him.
She certainly didn't look like much, with her absurdly pink hair clashing with the red of her garments, especially when standing beside her teammates. But then, it would take a mighty ninja to look strong next to the Kyubi container and the Copy Ninja. She did not contribute much to the fight that ensued, but she survived, which was more than he expected. Even at thirty percent, he should have been able to get rid of a slip of a girl like her. So she lived, and he filed the new information in a corner of his mind, not expecting it to be overly important, but never one to overlook details.
However, he found it to be of use soon thereafter, when alerted of the death of the puppet master. It was the girl, along with an old hag, who managed to kill a member of the powerful organization. This did not happen often, so he took note, wondering how the girl he had fought such a short time before managed to defeat one of his associates. He could not have predicted this from what he had witnessed. Clearly, this was not a kunochi to be trifled with.
The next time he saw the pinked haired ninja, she was on a mission, one which did not interest him. By the number and skill level of the ninjas, he assumed it was not of high importance, and she was most likely sent to babysit, little more. Wanting to get a better taste of her fighting style, he allowed her and her squad to discover him. It was a simple matter to dispatch of the two other ninjas with a basic genjitsu, leaving the feisty medic to fight him alone. She sent barrages of kunai at him, their exploding tags designed for maximum damage. With his Sharingan, it was a fairly simple matter to see them coming and dodge, creating a couple of shadow clones to distract her. The girl was keeping her eyes to the ground, knowing better than to look into his dangerous crimson orbs. Suddenly, she leapt into the air, and then drove two chakra powered fists into the ground, breaking it violently. The quake destroyed the shadow clones, but he was safely out of range. It was then that she made her mistake – she looked up, only to see Sharingan. He could have killed her easily, but for some reason, he knocked her out instead, taking her information scroll that she had retrieved as to make it look like there was a reason for the confrontation. Afterwards, he wasn't sure of the reason he had spared her, but he had to admit the girl was an interesting opponent, though no match for him.
It was the last encounter, however, that interested him the most. Business had brought him back to his old village, and, after its completion, he stopped to leave an offering at the stone for old friends long forgotten. It was there that he saw the girl, her hair the brightest thing in the area. She was in civilian clothes, simple green with none of the usual red, a bouquet of white flowers clasped loosely in her hand. Pausing in front of a couple names, she started to scatter the blossoms over the stone, but looked up, and saw him watching her.
Not one to take chances, the Sharingan user decided that she must be dealt with, catching her in Mangekyo. It was to his immense surprise that the kunochi, trapped in his technique, was not quite as trapped as he would have liked. She was there, bound to the cross, but before he could stab even once, a giant figure arose out of the darkness and grabbed him. It took a lot to shock him, genuinely shock him, and this was at the top of the list. No one had ever been able to break free in the illusion before, but here she was, or at least a larger, ruder version, who was shaking him and screaming at him to stop messing with her head. So shocked was he by the turn of events, he broke the illusion and fled, wanting to reflect on the turn of events.
He could find no reason for it, which bothered the prodigy. Try as he might, there was no solid answer. Sure, there had been no harm done to him that time, but there was the possibility. But he had other duties to focus on, so he forced the pink haired ninja to the back of his mind, all the while waiting for the next chance encounter.