Well, I'll say this now. I got this idea from trying to fall asleep last night -.- At first, it was a branch off from another idea, which I can't say cause it will spoil part of the story, (Dont worry ;D It will probably be written out next chapter XD) So what happened was, I thought, hmmm... Why not use this idea to make Itachi single out Sakura? :O And I think my idea worked out pretty well. I just hope no one has the same idea as me! Otherwise I shall be named a copycat D:

Some notes before the story.
1. I do not own Naruto.
2. Sakura never met Itachi during the Sand mission. If worst comes to worst, imagine Tenten And Sakura switched places temporarily during that part of the mission
3. Itachi has no illness :D Therefore he does not allow Sasuke to kill him and crap, and this leads to point number 4 :D
4. This is said somewhere in the story, either in this chapter or the next or upcoming ones ;D ITACHI KILLED MADARA AT SOME POINT OF THE STORY! HENCE! SASUKE DOESNT GO PSYCHO ON US XD And cause of other things which become apparant later
5. I DID NOT COPY THIS STORYLINE, (Cause Im sure there are other fanfics where Itachi forces Sakura to marry him, or when some other character in some other story/book/game/video/show/film/movie etc etc get forced to marry etc etc.) (No, I haven't had complaints yet ;D Im just saying in advance since I have a feeling it will happen somehow ._. Im unlucky)

Anyway :D Read and review people ^^;, I loves reviews ;D This chapter is just a tester for the actual story. If people don't like, I'll probs end it in the next chapter or two, if people do likey :O I shall write everything that I have planned out for this story xD

Returning Favours

Chapter 1

The Trade

Written by eifi

Her name is Uchiha Sakura. Maiden name, Haruno Sakura. Funny how that all her life she had always wanted to have that special surname, the centre of her world had always been that raven haired boy until a few weeks ago. Yet, her husband wasn't the one she had always desperately wanted to love her, and her husband definitely didn't love her.

Sighing as she gazed out the frosty window, she smiled faintly at the sight of little children playing innocently. Thinking back slowly, she couldn't remember the last time she had had fun. No, scratch that. She couldn't even remember the last time she was happy. She longed to be out there, outside this prison of a house, outside the barricaded stone walls that her husband had commanded to be built, just so that no one could escape this joke of a 'peaceful village'. And only a few knew this, and those few were the ones who had survived the wars and rebellion, and those she had sacrificed her freedom for.

Laying out her arms on the window pane, she rested her face on it as she gazed out to the distant clouds, so that at least her face wouldn't get any frostbite. One of her friends had always like cloud watching, and sometimes she would watch them with him. Swallowing painfully, she wondered how he was doing. She knew he wouldn't be great, as he had to bear the full responsibility of her capture most likely, and she could already bet that the guilt was tearing him apart. Squinting as the sun peeped out of the clouds shadows, she shook her head nonchalantly to herself. She had never since the start of her imprisonment had she ever blamed Shikamaru for her capture. This had happened from her own decisions and her own actions, and she prayed that everyone else would understand that too.

Then again, it wasn't like she enjoyed this either. Sighing once again, something that had become a frequent habit of her during the last few weeks, she turned around as soon as she sensed someone else's presence. Looking at her visitors face blankly for a moment, she decided that she had nothing to say to him. Turning away as soon as she realised this, she tensed underneath her flower embroidered yukata as she felt him approach her.

Within a moment, he was behind her. His warmth radiating against her chilled skin and his breath tickling her ear, her body threatened to shudder from pleasure from the warmth. To anyone else, this was an act of love between couples, but with this man, there was no love.

"Sakura. Why are you wearing barely anything in such cold weather. You'll freeze!" He scolded, pulling her closer to him to share his body warmth. Instead of hugging him back like most couples would at this situation, she attempted to detach himself from her, almost feeling disgusted at the fact he touched her. He noticed this, but didn't care. He had a point to make and he would damn well make it.

"Sakura," He said, pulled her back towards him, knocking the wind out of her lungs and crushing her against him, "You promised to agree to my terms on the conditions that you made, and you will abide to those terms or else all your friends, all your villagers, and especially my brother will perish in extreme torture. And by these terms, it means that you need to look after your body. Just think, if they see you suffering they will lose all hope, they will rebel, and I will have no other choice than to kill them in front of you. It'll be all your fault Sakura."

He watched as she suddenly stopped struggling as soon as he mentioned his brother, and felt her face pale as he whispered those words into her ear. Of course, all his words were simple bluffs, he would never do such terrible things unless there was no other option, but she didn't need to know that.

Silence entered the room, as well as more chilled drafts. She was trembling slightly like a frightened animal, and her eyes were closed shut, as if anticipating the worst. Understanding how scared she would probably be feeling right now, he slowly let go of her, his hands slightly lingering at the side of her arms. Meanwhile, Sakura was in deep thought, almost scoffing at the fact she had almost thought he cared. Not even noticing the slight disappointment, she decided to remain still, her head filled with fear and worry.

Getting up, he headed for her wardrobe. He then realised the most likely reason for the fact she didn't wear anything more than her yukata, was probably because she didn't have anything more than her yukata and a few shorts, shirts, skirts and underwear.. Hitting himself inwardly, he made a note to make it up to her later. He shouldn't have rushed to the decision that she had tried to freeze herself on purpose. No sane human being would do that after all.

Closing the wardrobe that was in front of him, he looked back at her. She hadn't moved at all. Sighing slightly, something that he also had picked up during the last few weeks, he headed over to the opposite part of the room, stopping before another wardrobe. Opening it, he pulled out the largest and warmest piece of clothing that he could spot within a second. Taking the hanger out of it, he then walked towards Sakura again.

Slowly, he placed the clothing over her gently, feeling her tense as he did. Proud of his gentlemanly act, he turned around and headed for the door, intent on buying her some new clothes. That is of course, until he heard her stutter back.

"I-Itachi… I… I don't want to wear this…" She stuttered, neither of them knew whether it was from the cold or from fear. Itachi preferred to think of it because of the cold. His gaze softening at her trembling form, he already knew the reason why she didn't want to wear his clothes. And it wasn't because they were out of fashion.

"Wear them for today, I'll be getting you new clothes anyway." He replied, and before Sakura could even open her mouth for another rebuttal, he interrupted her again, "Sakura. Don't. It's only fabric." And left without another word.

Soon after he left, she made sure first that no one was near, before bursting into tears. Wiping them away as much as she could, all she wanted to do was to get away from him, to run away to somewhere where he couldn't reach her. But he would always be able to reach her, because she wasn't strong enough to defeat him. She was bound to him by contract, by marriage, and by fear. She had no way of escaping from him, not even with slumber. He would haunt her dreams, and make her scream with fright from the nightmares. Then, whenever she woke up, she would feel so safe because he was gone, only to find that it was his arms that were cradling her.

Many moments later, she had finally calmed down. Looking down sadly, the cold autumn wind took her by surprise, and chilled her to the bone.

Pouting, unsatisfied with the situation, she guessed she had no other choice than to take what she had been offered and pulled her husband's coat around her. It wasn't any different to anything else that she had done in the past that had related to him.

It had only been a week since she had moved in with Itachi, but their marriage had been decided from many weeks before.

She was now 18, still extremely young, but old enough to be of marriageable age. But it wasn't that which led to her downfall. It was the fact that Akatsuki had finally captured Naruto, sealed the kyuubi, and simply put, obtained world domination. Somehow, Uchiha Madara who was also known as 'Tobi' was killed during all of the feuds and war battles, meaning Itachi was to be given control over the fire country. Scoffing, she guessed the country was lucky that it wasn't Madara, since she could bet that he was much less sane than her current husband, and much more 'evil'.

When Itachi came to claim his reward, he was met with welcoming committee. That committee was based on whoever had survived from the failed mission to protect Naruto, and those who weren't there to protect him at all. Sad to say, that committee was small, and was only based of a few chuunin, a jounin or two and around 10 ANBU. The genins and the civilians were all told to hide quietly, as well as herself and many other extremely important characters that they couldn't afford to lose. Those people were part of the back up plan. The plan of rebellion.

Easily said, Itachi wiped the welcoming committee out in a few seconds, not looking back again at the ones that died before him. Instead, he continued on his path to the Hokage tower, and since then no one had dared to attack him.

Until of course, a week after Itachi's arrival, when they had formulated a proper attack plan against the Uchiha and gathered all of their supplies. Their rebellion plan was ready and complete. With Shikamaru as the mastermind and leader of the plan and Sakura as the main attacker, they had hope again. They had gathered the civilians, who were now all armed and ready just in case one of Itachi's subordinates or Akatsuki's henchman attacked them, all together, and Shikamaru gave a wonderful war speech, inspiring every single one of them. After him, it was Sakura's turn. To everyone in the village, Sakura was their treasure. Kind and beautiful, she had always did her best to help and comfort the people of the village. If she was taken or killed, they would have nothing left. And that was the problem that Itachi soon realised.

After giving another inspirational talk on how sacrifices had been made, and many more which will be made, she tried to cushion their pain in advance, just in case something did go wrong.

Which it did.

Soon after the rebellion had started, the majority of them including Sakura had their asses kicked. They weren't dead, leaving suspicion to fill Sakura's mind. Her eyes shut, she could sense his chakra approaching. In a quick scheme to punch him to the country of wind, she gathered all her remaining chakra into her fist, ready to launch her attack as soon as he came close enough.

He approached slowly, and Sakura could swear he was coming slowly on purpose. Just one more step… One more step an-

"Ufgh!" She cried in pain as he held her by the neck, crushing her against ground with his body. His gaze was daunting, his eyes never leaving her face. Feeling blood rise up her throat, she refused to lose her dignity in front of her enemy by coughing out blood. Losing the feeling in her left arm, the arm that she prepared to smack him with, the world started to feel dizzy as she felt her strength leave her. Eyes widening at him as she realised he was using medical ninjutsu to sap her chakra, she cursed inwardly as she knew he had copied it from when she had tried using it on him.

Looking down at the floor, she guessed that that was it for her. Strange how, she never got around to saying bye to her best friends… Ino… Tenten… They would have to live throughout this mess without her… She failed.

About to close her eyes, she stopped when she heard his voice.

"What is your name?" He asked, his voice sounding unusually caring for some who was about to kill her. She looked at him, and saw black ebony eyes, eyes that reminded her of someone that she held close to her. Feeling his grip on her neck loosen slightly, she watched him gaze at her, as if half expecting something.

Opening her mouth to speak, she found her voice wouldn't come. Instead, sticky warm blood trickled down the side of her mouth, across her chin and into her hair. Her eyes empty as she gazed at him, she tried to mouth the words at him.

Suddenly, she felt the world spin around her as he picked her up bridal style and jumped across a hundred yards within a second, dodging several kunai that had been aimed at Itachi, and only at Itachi. Raising his eyebrow at the fact they had not attached explosive notes to the kunai, he stared at the direction that the kunai had been sent from.

And there standing before him was Shikamaru, with many villagers behind him.

"Let her go." He said with false courage, but to no avail. Itachi could see through his act and could tell that the man standing before him was desperate.

"Why should I?" Itachi asked, acting as if he were interested. Shikamaru looked down to the floor, clenching his fists, before looking back up to see her condition. She was half dead. Inhaling deeply, he got down to the floor and bowed, the villagers following him.

"If you let her go, we swear we will not rebel against you…" Shikamaru said, fighting back the tears of failure, "So please… Do her no more harm…"

Itachi stared at that man and the villagers, and knew immediately that they were sincere. And secretly, he knew they were extremely lucky, as he had no intention to kill her.

Looking back at the half dead girl, he asked her once more.

"What is your name?" He watched her as she coughed more blood, earning glares and worried whispers among the villagers, "If you can't speak, mouth it to me." He said in a more gentler voice, almost giving the impression that he wasn't a monster, and that he was actually human.

Struggling to keep conscious, it took her everything she had to mouth those two words to him.

Staying silent for a moment, he closed his eyes to think. Watching his concentration bewildered her, how could anyone single handedly fight off this many strong people and have a serious decision to make think properly. Obviously, he could.

When he opened his eyes, they were still black, unconsciously making her more comfortable as he didn't activate the sharingan.

"Sakura.," He said loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough for the villagers, saying it in a way she had never heard her name be said before, "Marry me."

Her eyes widened at his demand, and if her throat wasn't the way it was, she would have gasped.

"If you marry me, promise to be well, at least pretend to be happy, then I won't kill your friends or your villagers." He explained, watching her try to mouth the words 'but why?'.

"If you're by my side, these people won't dare to rebel, and you can at least give the image that the village is in peace. I don't want this village to be ruled by fear, but I will use intimidation methods if I must. This is your freedom for their peace Sakura. Choose now." He said, as if giving her the option to choose either one. Which of course, she didn't. She had no choice.

Nodding, he set her down gently, watching her tense as he formed some seals. Putting his palm on her stomach and her forehead, he pushed some chakra into her, giving her at least the strength to move and heal herself. Still talking only to her, he told her that he would collect her within a month, after the preparation has been completed. He told her that even though she didn't want to marry him, he wouldn't take the joy out of a girl's wedding. The last thing he mentioned before he went back to the Hokage's tower, was that she was to tell the people of the village for the sake of their peace and well being, that he would not be a tyrant ruler, and that he would be fair and just. If she said it, then they would surely believe it.

And true to his word, he collected her in a month.

The trade had begun.

Well, I hope you enjoyed it O: Please read and review T^T Like I said at the top, if people don't like it then I wont write as much as I will if people do like it XD If there are grammar mistakes or spelling or even a few tips you can gimme that would be great though xD *is just worried about the main storyline being sucky*

Also, please forgive me if the text has been moved/shifted/basically fucked up in any way possible ;D Fanfic edit/preview document sucks, and it literally rapes the file ¬¬ Yeah, it sucks.

REVIEW PEOPLE! IM A REVIEW WHORE! GET OVER IT XD I wanna see what you guys think :X