Hello and welcome to a new ItaSaku drabble collection! I discovered recently that, while I've actually started quite a few ItaSaku drabbles, I've never posted a lot of them solely because I've felt that they didn't seem really developed or too short to be an actual story. So I've decided to put together a drabble collection for all those ItaSaku drabbles that have been set aside due to length and such and haven't made it here! I hope you guys enjoy them!
Drabbles will be of many genres, each given a title and a "theme" that I kind of went with while writing it.
Also, in case anyone was wondering at the title of this collection..."Quoth the raven, Nevermore". Yes, I was cliche and used Poe and the fact that Itachi uses crows/ravens for some of his jutsu...
Anyway, enjoy! I hope to upload more to this collection soon!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Naruto characters, nor am I making money off of this. I really would like to be though... XD
theme: others (canon-ish)
Title: Kindness is for Other People
Every inch of her body ached. Rising blearily, and unwillingly, from blissful unconsciousness, Sakura knew she had never felt so terrible in her entire life. Her arms felt leaden and heavy. But she should hardly move them to massage the life back into them; they were chained above her head, fastened to an iron ring in the wall at her back.
She came completely awake with a jolt.
Fighting the sudden rush of nausea that twisted her gut, she tried to call up her chakra reserves, only to find nothing.
She was completely dry.
With a chill slowly filtering through her veins, her aching head dredged up unwanted memories.
The ambush.
The battle.
The chakra drain.
That shark-faced Akatsuki had gleefully faced off against her, pushing her to her limit time and again in a pitched battle until, made clumsy by fatigue after several straight hours of fighting, she slipped up. His lethal blade had clipped her shoulder. The remainder of the fight had been a short struggle she could barely remember, but it left no doubt to her whereabouts now.
This was the Akatsuki headquarters.
The very thought of it made her head throb and her stomach clench sickeningly, but she couldn't let her fear and emotions get the better of her; not now. She forced it all back, taking several calming breaths to steady herself.
Right.
She and Naruto had discussed this possibility before. Her immediate duty was to recuperate and attempt an escape as soon as she was able. Any information she gathered was of secondary importance. Her first priority was getting home; she would not be used as bait.
Tired emerald eyes flickered around her surroundings, trying to see into the dungeon-esque gloom.
The walls of her prison were a dull, muted shade of some nondescript grey-brown, the room hardly larger than the one she'd had as a small child in her parents' house in Konoha. Through eyes that were still blurred from pain and the dizziness that accompanied chakra exhaustion she could make out the faded-beige cloud print that adorned the dingy walls. Bedposts were just barely visible in the chamber's gloom, shrouded in shadow in spite of the watery moonlight that spilled into the room from the clichéd, dungeon-regulation barred window near the ceiling of her cell. If she could just-,
"I wouldn't."
She clamped down on her scream before it escaped, though she couldn't stop her moan of pain when bruised and fractured ribs complained at her soft gasp.
She hadn't noticed Uchiha Itachi, sitting across from her on the tiny room's only piece of furniture and almost entirely shrouded in darkness. He had to have been there from the start, and she hadn't realized it.
Sakura hated to admit it, but she couldn't help the sudden knot of fear that suffocated even the nausea in her stomach. Cold terror threatened to engulf her momentarily, and it took a few seconds before she could push the icy feeling away. Through the entire thing, the dark-haired man had watched her with little emotion in the depths of his obsidian eyes. And that was almost more frightening than anything else in that moment.
Silence stretched out between them. He was better at it than even Sasuke; his quiet, almost unassuming, manner just filled the entire chamber until, as beaten down as she was, Sakura felt like every muscle in her body needed to move.
She jerked back in surprise, pain lancing through her arms and torso, when he suddenly flickered from her sight and appeared directly in front of her, a hand forcing her chin up so their eyes met.
His grip on her chin was firm, not cruel, but the obsidian eyes that perused her bruised and torn features were pitiless. She couldn't hold his gaze for long, but he continued to stare long after her exhaustion-glazed viridian orbs had shifted to the floor.
"You put up quite a fight, kunoichi," he said abruptly, startling her with the broken silence, though she didn't do much more than shift uncomfortably in her place. "As expected from the one who defeated Sasori-san at fifteen."
But she hadn't been alone. She had had Chiyo-baasan's expertise in puppetry and long experience in battle; without those she would not have survived. Battling Sasori now…she may have been able to hold her own.
Maybe.
She had certainly put up a fight against the shark-faced Kiri nuke-nin earlier. But in the four years since her battle with Sasori, she had not improved enough to defeat the other Akatsuki member.
Itachi let her stew over his statement for long moments as he watched, patient as his dark-cobalt eyes focused on her pale, injured face. At nineteen, the young kunoichi hadn't yet completely mastered the art of concealing her emotions; in the telltale flickers that passed over her features, he read fear, determination, sorrow.
Memories.
Whatever it was that had crossed her mind had both hurt her as well as steeled her for whatever she expected the Akatsuki to do to her.
He would have been amused if only there wasn't something surprisingly discomfiting about the quick flicker of defeat that had passed over her eyes.
"Why do you want me?" she asked, her voice surprisingly steady even to her own ears, though the words came out softer than she'd intended.
The Uchiha, crouching in front of her so that their faces were level, seemed almost disinclined to answer for several long moments before, with an elegant shrug of his shoulder, he replied, "You are a medic we do not have."
"And that's it," Sakura wanted to know, unable to stop the thread of incredulity from slipping into her voice. "That's all you want me for."
"It is hardly nothing. You are perhaps the most qualified field medic in all five shinobi nations, Sakura-san."
She grimaced then, and not just because he knew her name and therefore probably also all of her accomplishments as well, forcing her bound arms to mimic a shrug to express her feelings on the matter. "Tsunade-shishou-,"
"Is the current Hokage. Another matter entirely," he said, cutting her off.
"Well-,"
"Leader-sama would like to offer you a position as an Akatsuki member. Become the organization's medic."
This time even the clatter of her chains couldn't mask her hiss of surprise, and then of pain, as her head shot up, emerald eyes widening as they met unflinching obsidian. Her lips parted slightly, words coming out as barely a whisper. "You can't be serious…"
"I believe Leader-sama to be quite serious." He took in the glazed confusion in her eyes, "Such an offer will not come again."
They were so close now, barely any space between them as they sat in the darkness, shrouded by gloom. Breath mingled with breath as they spoke, and suddenly it was as though both of them had lost track of the conversation. Her aspen-leaf eyes flickered, fine-rose eyelashes coming to rest against the paleness of her cheeks.
Irresistible.
His lips were startlingly soft and gentle, sweetly coaxing as they pressed to hers and ever so slowly lowered her guard. It wasn't a forceful kiss, to dominate or control her, or a lover's lingering one. But in it was this sense of warm comfort that snuck into her soul and broke down walls until she found herself melting into his touch as though she'd known him for years and loved him better than even her own teammates. There was something familiar about him, and her senses filled with the scent, and taste, and touch of spring leaves.
Lips parted naturally, his tongue and hers sliding against one another until he was all she could taste, the pace slow as if they had all the time in the world to savor this single meeting of their souls.
And it didn't feel like betrayal, because he wasn't a captor or a clan-killer now, only another shinobi who had had to make his own, difficult, decisions during the course of his life.
Neither was out of breath when he pulled away, but there was a sort of softness between them when she met his eyes again.
"Think Leader-sama's offer over," Itachi said quietly as he got to his feet.
Though she didn't answer, the smile that curved Sakura's lips was a wry one, and Itachi knew what her answer would be.
It was only what it could be.
Nodding his acknowledgement, the dark-haired shinobi slid sinuously to the chamber door. "You understand the position you are in."
Though he had his back to her, she knew he could hear the jingle of chains and the rustle of fabric as she nodded.
He turned just a little then, and in the darkness Sakura wondered if it was really regret that she was in his eyes. "Then you know what is in store for you. You know what is necessary. Kindness, Sakura-san," he said softly, "is a luxury that can only be afforded by other people."
She waited until the door had closed between them before replying, "Yes, Itachi-san. I know."
owari
Yup, there you have it ^^ just a weird little drabble about Sakura getting captured by the Akatsuki and Itachi going to talk to her in her cell. Though this isn't written as part of the story (because I couldn't manage to find a way to write it in...T-T) Pein wanted Sakura as their medic, and, like Deidara, she's going to get "persuaded" to join in the end. Itachi only reasoned that perhaps it'd make more sense to get her to agree on her own so that she didn't turn into a loose cannon like the blond Akatsuki member, so this is him trying to persuade her normally. Only, he sees the kind of person she is and decides not to say anything. She wouldn't have agreed anyway.
The kiss was there because I feel like, even in that situation, there would be something surprisingly sensual about the darkness and talking to someone like Itachi when really really tired with inhibitions low due to exhaustion...
Haha okay, that's the end of my explanations, I hope you'll keep reading and not get turned off by the tone of this fic XD there WILL be fluff in the future!
The muse asks for cookies to keep her going, seems like she really needs them lately XD
Aria, out.