This was not a very good day for Sakura.
In fact, the entire week had been going badly. But this day was far worse than the rest.
She took a quick glance behind her and decided to pick up her already fast pace as she narrowly avoided being hit by an arrow.
The pinkette was Férrah, a low ranked, yet rare, magical being known worldwide for their abnormal hair colours. What made them special was that they were able to learn and use any kind of magic, albeit usually not to the greatest extent. Most beings that used magic were able to use two, perhaps three different kinds at most.
She chose to specialize in healing magic and, despite being relatively low on the ranking scale magic level wise, was one of the world's top medics thanks to hard work and a keen intellect. She lived in a small city, keeping its inhabitants healthy and helping travelers who came to the city seeking her assistance.
About a week ago, a young man had come into the city requesting her. Once he met her, he explained that his comrade had been hurt by a group of thugs. The pair had managed to get away, but his partner was gravely injured and had been unable to travel much more. He had helped his partner move into a cave and ran towards the city. He then begged her to come and help his friend. Being the kind-natured and incredibly naive person that she was, she had agreed and followed him out of the city.
Soon after leaving her home, she was bombarded with by a group of humans. She fought back, and had managed to injure quite a few of them. But she had been caught completely by surprise. She had already worked a full day at the hospital and was tired and depleted of magic energy. They were quickly able to strap bindings on her wrists that drained all of her magic and hit her with a few tranquilizer darts.
When she awoke, she found that she was on a wagon with her arms and legs bound. There were a few other people there in the same predicament as her. The medic soon discovered that the man who had asked her for her help was actually part of a group of criminals called Ziego. They made it their goal to capture as many different kinds of magical beings possible; all in order to experiment on them.
For the first few days she had played the defeated damsel, pretending to have given up all hope on ever escaping. Then, on the sixth day, she had stolen the key to the bindings on her wrists and quickly snuck away when the strongest of the criminals were asleep.
She had run nearly nonstop for several hours until she had been certain that they weren't following her.
You'd think that being captured the first time would cure her of her stupidity but no, she foolishly decided that it was safe for her to have a small nap and rest up before running again. She had slept for five hours when a familiar yell jolted her awake. It was the criminals; one yelling that things would go easier on her if she went back to them willingly.
She obviously did not take them up on their offer. When the man walked up to her and tried to grab her arm she fought back and quickly rendered him unconscious. She soon discovered that he had not been travelling alone and decided that, even though she had a portion of her magic energy left, it would not be wise to engage them all. She turned and ran.
That brought her to where she was now; running as fast as her legs could take her. She had been going for about an hour, and lack of sleep and food for the past day and a half was beginning to have an effect on her. Seriously, what was with these guys? She wasn't even that valuable! They were wasting their time kidnapping her, not that she was going to stop and tell them that. Somehow she had a feeling that that wouldn't do much good.
Sakura made another quick turn, just barely escaping the reach of another arrow. How long was she going to have to keep this up? She dared to look back once again. Her captors seemed to be tiring. Good.
She was calculating just how much longer she would likely have to run when she heard the criminals yell at each other to fall back. She slowed, confused about what they were talking about. The medic turned her head and saw that her captors were retreating. This was weird. What was going on?
Then she sensed it.
Shit. She had just entered the territory of a Kaji , one of the highest ranked magical species known. Kaji were known to be extremely territorial and placed special magic sensors around their land to let others know they were entering it; as well as themselves in order to protect their property. And she had just entered one's territory. It probably already knew she was there.
She had two options: run away and likely encounter the criminals again, or try explaining to the Kaji that she didn't mean to trespass. Given the criminals and the Kaji, it was probably safer to take on the criminals. She began to make her retreat when a silky smooth voice interrupted her. "Hello there."
It was then that she realised that she had just stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Itachi had been walking around his home when he had sensed a disturbance in his magic. He hadn't been expecting any visitors today. Which meant that whoever had foolishly stepped into his territory was a possible threat. Not that they would likely be able to harm in any way, but it was better to stay on top of these things. Without a second thought he stopped what he was doing and teleported.
He could sense that five individuals had stepped onto his land, one of which possessed magic. The ones without magic fled quickly, but the person with magic delayed. There were a few possible explanations for this. The humans could have been chasing the magical being and stopped when they realised whose territory they were stepping onto. On the other hand, it could also be that they all came here to engage him in a fight and only the magical being was brave enough to follow through.
He reached the location of the disturbance just as the individual who dared to enter his homeland turned to leave. They would not be as lucky as the four others who left. Whatever the reason for coming to his home, they were going to regret coming here.
He decided to make his presence known and called out to the person.
Sakura wanted to beat her head against something hard; first falling for the criminal's story, then taking a nap, and now this. Never again could she tease Naruto about his lack of brain cells. That is, if she got out of this alive.
She turned back to face the Kaji, mentally cursing at herself as she did so. Her eyes went wide when she saw him. She never expected the Kaji to be that gorgeous. She had only met one Kaji before and he was far from being attractive. This man was nothing like that. Silky black hair bound at his neck, small nose, high cheekbones and entrancing red eyes. He was beautiful.
The pinkette quickly snapped herself out of the trance. This was definitely not the time to be ogling, especially the guy who was quite capable of kicking her ass. With any luck, if she explained the situation and promised never to return, he would allow her to leave with her head still attached to her body. Yeah, she didn't believe that either, but it was better than doing nothing. "Hi," she greeted the man.
He didn't reply back. The man only stared at her. Ok, so he was either waiting to hear more from her, or didn't feel like she was worth talking to.
"I'm really sorry for entering your territory," she said. "You see, I was being chased by a band of criminals called Ziego and wasn't really paying attention to anything but getting away. Ending up here was completely accidental."
Once again, he was silent.
What should she do now? She had explained her side of the story. Well, she could start pleading now. "With that being said, I would really appreciate if you would let me leave your property now. I promise that I'll never try to come back here again." She hesitantly stepped back.
"What is your name?" He asked her with that same soft tone, stopping her in her tracks.
What did that matter? Shouldn't he be casting an honesty spell to see if she was telling the truth or not? Or telling her if he was or wasn't going to let her go? Somehow her name didn't seem very relevant. Nevertheless, if it helped her get out of this, she'd be willing to cooperate. Besides, just giving her first name couldn't be that harmful could it? "Sakura," she replied.
"Your full name," he replied calmly, his eyes never leaving hers for a moment.
Dang it! She wasn't really comfortable with giving away her full name to this guy. Would he be able to tell if she lied to him? Maybe he wouldn't if she made it sound convincing enough. "Sakura Tseuchi," she said, choosing a last name that was common in her homeland.
Not missing a beat, he said with a hint of irritation, "Your actual name."
Crap, didn't work. She knew that she wasn't the best liar in the world, far from it, but she didn't think that she did too badly on that one. Grudgingly, she told him the truth, "Sakura Haruno."
He didn't respond. Not sure what to make of it, the girl decided to continue talking and to make an escape attempt once again. "Well, now that we got that out of the way. I should probably get going now." She began to back away slowly.
"No," he stated.
She froze. Oh no. "Excuse me?"
"Do not go," he commanded.
This did not sound good. All she wanted was to get back home! Why was that so hard? "Why not?" She asked. "I mean, I'm not trying to threaten your territory, I came here by accident. If you don't believe that, use a truth spell on me."
"I believe you," he informed her. "After all, you already showed me that you're horrible at lying."
That brought her ego down a notch. "Then there's no reason for me to stay!" She insisted. Man this was starting to get frustrating.
He actually looked slightly amused by her statement. "I have a use for you here."
A use? What was she, a tool or something? "Oh, I'm useful to you? Sorry, but I'm not interested."
"You don't have much choice in this," He replied arrogantly.
Her eyes narrowed. This guy was seriously getting on her nerves. "No offense mister, but even if this is your territory, you have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do."
A black eyebrow rose, he didn't even try to hide his amusement this time. "That is true; I am not your master. However," he took one small step towards her, "it would wise of you to do as I say."
Oh, he found this funny did he? Forgive her for not wanting to be the source of some arrogant man's amusement. "Really?" She replied sarcastically. "Well unfortunately, I don't really think I can stay. I need to get back home and-"
"You're not going," he informed her as he took a step towards her, his tone now firmer than before.
What? First the Ziego tried to capture her, and now he was saying that she, apparently, couldn't leave his territory. This was too much. She was sore, worn out, grouchy, and tired of people telling her where she had to be.
She was leaving, whether he wanted it or not. Based on how fast he had arrived here, she knew it was probably useless to run right now. She knew that the power difference between them was probably large, but she wasn't about to just stand there and let him prevent her from going home. She got in a defensive stance and glared at the handsome man.
There were very few times when Itachi was genuinely surprised, and this was one of those times. She really meant to fight him.
Upon first looking at her, he immediately recognized that she was a Férrah, and a pretty little one at that. She was also physically and magically exhausted.
Her attraction towards him had been obvious. She had been quick to hide it, but that hadn't stopped him from noticing it. That wasn't shocking to him. Most females reacted that way to him.
He also wasn't surprised when she explained that she had been running from Ziego. He was well aware of the group and their intentions. They actually had the audacity to try and take him a while ago. He, of course, quickly disposed of every person they sent and they soon decided to leave him alone. They were likely the group that had left so abruptly when they realized just who's territory they had run into.
Although he had an idea of who this pretty pixie was, after all there were only so many pink haired Férrahs in the world, he wanted to be sure. He asked her what her name was.
At first she only told him her first name, Sakura. It seemed to fit her quite well ,but it didn't tell him enough. It was smart of her to hide her last name from someone who could potentially use it against her. However, that didn't mean he was going to let her hide it from him. He asked again, letting her know that just her first name wasn't going to cut it.
He was able to tell instantly that she lied to him. Itachi was able to read body language extremely well and hence was able to know instantly that her last name was not Tseuchi. It was funny to see her pathetic attempt, but he didn't tolerate being lied to. He asked her once. This time she told him the truth.
Sakura Haruno. She confirmed his suspicions. He prided himself on being well informed and immediately placed her as the old apprentice of Tsunade.
That was rather good timing. He was currently in need of a medic due to his troublesome eyes, and the ones that he had tried before were simply not up to par. Perhaps she would be more successful.
That was why when she had the moved to leave, he stopped her. As expected, she looked like a startled deer when she gaped at him and tried to plea that she really didn't mean him any harm. What surprised him was that, when he informed her that he had a use for her, her attitude changed and she dared to defy his words. Most people would still be cowering in fear at that point. He rather liked the why her eyes had hardened. This medic was proving to be more interesting by the second.
He decided to tell her that in was in her best interests to listen to him, but she did not take his words to heart and once again announced her leave.
His eyes narrowed slightly. She was not going to leave until he wished it, and he told her that.
Then she had done the most surprising of actions. Instead of trying to bargain with him or run away like most would have done, she took on a fighting stance.
Did she really wish to fight him? Just the knowledge that he was a Kaji should tell that that was a foolish thing to do. Add to it that she was obviously exhausted and magically depleted, her chances of winning were close to zero. She was either more skilled than she let on, or was incredibly stupid.
After what the girl had probably just been through, anyone with half a heart would just let her go. Unfortunately for her, Itachi was not known for his kindness and he was not about to show any now.
He moved into a similar stance. It was time to see just what this pixie was capable of.
For a moment, both of them did nothing, waiting for the other to make the first move.
When it seemed like he was never going to move, she decided to do so. She only had about twenty percent of her magic energy, so she had to be smart about this.
First, she cast a basic knock out spell. Unsurprisingly, he deflected it easily. It took him about two seconds to register what she was doing and leap away from it.
Shit he was fast.
He responded by sending a series of fireballs her way. She leapt away from them. Okay, he used fire magic. She had been able to get away from most of them, but one managed to snag her leg. She resisted the urge to swear as she did a quick healing spell to fix the wound.
During the short time that she had been healing it, he had sent more flames at her, this time out his mouth. She didn't have enough time to dodge them, so she sent up a reflective spell. A loud crackling sound came when the fire met her spell. Thankfully, it was strong enough that none of the flames met her.
The battle had just barely started and she was already losing. This was just pitiful. She needed to catch him off guard. She lifted her fist and pounded it into the earth. The ground shook and split as soon as her hit connected.
It did cause him to jump, but he didn't look very surprised. Almost as if he was expecting it. While still in mid-air, he sent another barrage of fire balls at her, which she blocked with another reflect spell.
Fifteen minutes later and she was no closer to winning. Aside from the one hit that she had healed earlier, neither person had been able to harm the other. This was looking bad for Sakura. She needed to win this so that she could get back home. Her magic energy was now at only ten percent and she was even more exhausted than before. She needed to find a way to land a hit, and fast.
If only he wasn't so fast. And it seemed like nothing she did was able to catch him off guard.
She was starting to think that nothing she did was going to work when an idea popped into her head. It wasn't the best plan of attack, and it was really risky. In fact. after this she would only have enough magic to do one final spell. It was probably her only hope now.
When he launched another spout of flames at her, instead of doing another reflective spell, she cast a low-level water spell. When this connected with the flames, not only did it douse them, but it created a wave of smoke, enough for her to move without him seeing.
She quickly did another reflective spell to block any potential attacks before running towards him and slamming her fist into the ground once more. This time she jumped up the same time he did and sent a dark spell at him right before he sent a fire spell at her. Her reflective spell had been able to stop the fire, but the dark spell had hit its target.
Sakura felt the urge to leap for joy. The dark spell was a spell that looked like a black ball that caused extreme damage to its target. Although the Kaji had moved quickly enough to avoid the full impact of the magic, it had made contact with his arm which was now sporting a large welt. Finally things were starting to go her way!
She had been so focused on her small victory that she hadn't noticed the immobilization spell that he cast on her until it was too late.
The pinkette found herself frozen. Shit, this was not how things were supposed to go! She desperately tried to move but none of her muscles would cooperate. How could she let such a stupid spell get the better of her?
Itachi was quite glad that this girl had stumbled onto his land.
He hadn't been expecting much when she fought him. But not only had she been able to hold her own, for a while at least, the medic had also been able to land a hit. Very few people have ever been able to do that. She had actually managed to impress him.
And that was when she had been thoroughly exhausted. He was looking forward to seeing how this pixie of his was going to fare when she was at full strength.
He almost felt sorry for the girl. All that effort on her part, and it only solidified the fact that now he not going to let her go. Luck was definitely not on her side.
He strode up to her. "Will you let me speak now?" He asked gracefully, knowing full well that she was unable to reply to him. There was no doubt in his mind that if he allowed her eyes to move, she would be glaring at him.
"I am in need of a medic for my eyes," he told her, stopping when he was right in front of her. "And it seems as if you are going to be the one to help me, pixie. At first I was contemplating letting you go, but after your little display, I think I've decided on keeping you."
He placed a hand on her cheek. "It seems as if we are going to get very well acquainted with each other, little medic."
He could practically feel the anger rippling off of her. The Kaji smirked. He was going to have to thank the Ziego for unintentionally giving him such an attractive source of entertainment.
"By the way, my name is Itachi."
Hey everyone, this was my first/possibly only attempt at the whole 'possessive Itachi' I know Itachi was slightly ooc in this, but hopefully it wasn't to bad. Please review and tell me what you though of it.