Just like how I promised, This Chapter has been edited. Sorry for making you re-read it again, but it's all about the experience, right? :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. That belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I am merely borrowing its characters. This goes for all future Chapters.

Blossoms Encounter Roses

Chapter 1
- An Unforgettable Encounter

Crunch. Crunch. The faint sound of leaves crumbling beneath her feet barely reach her ears over the sound of her furiously pumping heartbeat. Sakura had gained a bit a speed, thus making a gap between her and him. Though, she knew it wasn't going to last for long. Sooner or later, he will catch up and she would be forced to fight. 'Just a little further...'Sakura thought to herself as she ferociously sprinted through the forest of trees, wind blowing through her ruffled pink hair. At the speed she was going, Konoha was probably still a few hours away... Before she had finished that thought, a kunai had whizzed through those pink locks as she skidded to a complete halt.

With a sigh, Sakura realized that if she hadn't moved her head of an inch when she did, it would've been a fatal blow to her spinal cord. 'Shit.'Quickly, she pivoted around to see her attacker.

There he stood, erect and almost as if it was a casual greeting between the two. His eyes bled of the deadly crimson with the fearful pitch black teardrops spinning wildly behind his overgrown black hair loosely caressed in a pony tail trailing down his back. His face closely resembling his younger brother's but yet, has its own unique structure with those recognizable crevasses beneath those hollow eyes. His cloak signifying the most notorious criminals to be feared of. She's seen him in the only family portrait ever taken with Sasuke attending it. He certainly looks older and more mature than he was 8 years ago.

"Uchiha Itachi." she spat. His reply was the same, simple monotone expressionless face that hasn't changed for years.

"I bet you're only after me because of Naruto, huh?" breaking the silence as she was trying to glance away from those deadly eyes.

"Hn."

"You're not one for words, are you? Well, I guess actions do speak more than words." as Sakura finished the last few words of her sentence, she had pulled out three kunai already aimed for his vital points. Before she had the chance to throw them, he had already disappeared and reappeared behind her, grappling her wrists together. The sudden shift in movement surprised her and caused Sakura to drop her weapons, gasping as they plunged to the red and orange floor of dead leaves. He had already pinned her to a tree, her face being lacerated by the bark roughened with age.

"Damn you.."

"Words cannot harm me, kunoichi." his last remark was returned with a snarl.

"Why are you chasing after me?" it came out as almost a pleading sound, which Sakura dismissed in pity.

"That is of no concern to you."

"Oh? It should be." while Itachi was slightly caught off guard, Sakura slipped through his fingers using a transportation jutsu, draining most of her chakra. Still panting heavily, Sakura leaned her back against a nearby tree, holding her chest. She had just escaped the legendary Itachi Uchiha. Maybe the rumors were right, about his deteriorating eyesight. There weren't that many possibilities of why Itachi would ever want to capture her, though she could list a few.

Still panting, Sakura slid down to the trunk of the tree and somewhat fell down in a sitting position. She had used a lot more chakra than planned, even through those long-lasting chakra reserves. Why was Itachi here? Of all the people to meet when walking through these dense forests, why Itachi? To a complete stranger, he'd just be a world-class criminal known for being in the Akatsuki. Of course, they'd be scared out of their minds to encounter him, but to Sakura, his presence has a deeper meaning than that. He is the elder brother of her former teammate and first love. He's the one that had driven Sasuke mad. He's the one that caused Sasuke to leave the village and never return. He's the one that drove Naruto crazy to try to find Sasuke. He's the one that split apart Team 7. He's the one that murdered his own family with the exception of one. He's done so many countless crimes that almost makes it unbelievable that he used to be the loving older brother of Sasuke.

She couldn't forgive him. Not for what he's done and still doing to her teammates. Even though ever seeing him is rare, he's psychologically ruining their lives. She couldn't let this continue on any longer. Even if she could never win either Sasuke or Naruto in a fight, there were still the additional points of being a medic nin. She could paralyze someone in less than a few seconds, as long as the target was within the vicinity of the jutsu. If everything goes smoothly as planned, he shouldn't expect her to come from one of his blind sides and paralyze him. It is then that she will finish the job that Sasuke was never able to accomplish. Though, she has to keep in mind that she is attempting to sneak attack the legendary Akatsuki member.

Sneaking through the trees, Sakura spies for any chakra spikes in the forest. Carefully leaning against one of the thickest trees she could find, she looks to her left, right, and above her. There's no sign of anything, and it's too quiet. No birds are singing their daily song, no leaves are rustling with the wind, and there isn't a single snap of a twig-

Poof! Suddenly, Sakura is surrounded by grey, cloudy, and blinding smoke. It's so dense that she can't tell where it came from, though instinctively, she starts to run. Before she gets far, she is suddenly pulled back by her wrists, and is forced to make an immediate stop. Faster than her brain could comprehend, she reached for her weapon pouch and pulled out a kunai which is quickly thrown in the direction that she was pulled back. Before she could pull out another, her free wrist becomes locked with the other behind her back. She is pinned back into yet, another tree with her cheeks painfully rubbing against the rough, dried out bark. Attempting to crane her neck to get a closer look at her pursuer, she spots that she missed his heart, but it had left a shallow gash in his upper left arm. There's no way that this could possibly be the Itachi that she's been constantly told about. He's too sharp to be hit by someone of her caliber, as high as she may be.

Even if he may have been just recently hit, he still kept his calm, serious complexion, Sakura noticed. 'Of course, because Shinobi who were acknowledged into the ANBU were taught to never show emotion, as that is a sign of weakness.'

"There is no point in running. You are deprived of chakra." and those were the last words before he gently pushed her nerves located behind her neck, and everything went black.

The last thing Sakura remembered was the mission she was recently on. She had gone to a rural village somewhere in Lightning Country to deliver a message. After she was on her journey back, she had encountered Uchiha Itachi, of all people. As she was being relentlessly chased, she had noticed that whoever was pursuing her was much too clever to be a simple thief or bandit. By a good half hour, they would've either stopped and gave up or just plainly attacked using worthless knives and swords. With him, though, he had kept out of her line of sight through the whole chase, but close enough to catch up whenever he wanted to. 'That's right.. He could've caught up to me at anytime he wanted to, considering the range of speeds between us. Question is, why didn't he?'

Slowly cracking open her eyelids only to be met with a faint, dim light. 'Cold. It's cold.' She brought her hands up to lightly tap her face with her slim fingers and she could feel the sudden change of her warm cheeks touched by those chilling fingers. 'I'm so tired.' She slowly slid up from her awkward position on the cold, cement floor. Immediately after she had gotten her head up, a wave of dizziness instantly hit her, almost knocking her back down to the floor again. It was the fact that she was in some unrecognizable place and that she should check herself to see if she's in decent condition before falling back into unconsciousness that kept her sitting up. Everything hurt. Her back was aching, and her wrists had faint blue-ish purple marks on them. She didn't realize that he had held her that tightly; but then again, it was probably out of adrenaline.

The kunoichi quickly scanned the room she had been incapacitated in. It consisted of practically nothing but a simple brick lined window which happened to be matted with bars. As she glanced at her dimmed surroundings, she noticed something around her neck. While craning her neck a little, which proved to be quite difficult, she grasped her hand lightly around the collar that had been on her neck for who-knows-how-long. It was of the purest white she had ever seen and possibly even glowed in this horrible lighting. It had one red orb right in the middle directly below her chin. As she continued to stare at it in confusion, a sounding knock came to the door.

Immediately looking up at the door, she felt a heavy presence leaning on it. Of course though, she knew who it was. Creaking, as the door opened, Itachi stood right by the door frame leaning ever so slightly, as if casual. He had a tray of who-knows-what in one hand, whilst the other hidden away in that deep crimson and black cloak. His eyes were gleaming of the scarlet sharingan ready to be used at any given moment.

"Your meal." it was simple, yet those 2 words strangely made Sakura breathe out in a deep sigh. He set it down so gently and gracefully on the cold cement floor that it had almost made her forget how he was the most dangerous criminal from her village. She stared at the unappealing food scraps that were sitting idly on the floor.

Itachi watched her sitting there as if she was going through the shock of her life. After a long silence, it was then that he decided that he did not have all day to wait for her to recognize the situation she was in.

"Eat. It is not poisoned as we are required to keep you sustained for some time." apparently that had shook her back into the room with him.

"..I'm not hungry."

"I do not care about your preferences of when you decide to eat. As of right now, you are our prisoner."

"What if I escaped and captured you as my prisoner?" without even thinking, a remark that could result in her death came out of her lips. Right after though, Sakura swore that she almost heard a chuckle behind that cloak. But, alas, it only lasted for probably half a second.

"Not possible, kunoichi."

"Oh? and why is that?" smirking as she replied.

"Because of that," pointing his dark purple fingernail to the pearl white collar that surrounded her neck.

"..What? What does it do?"

"To put it simply, it seals and absorbs your chakra. So there is no possible way of you besting me in a fight without your chakra." So that's why she felt so weak and deprived of energy.

"Take it off then!"

"Do you really take me as that unintelligent?" his face almost cringing into one of annoyance. Ignoring his question, Sakura glanced up and appeared to be trying to look out the window. 'Freedom.. even in Konoha, I didn't have freedom.'

"..What?"

"What?"

"You said something about freedom."

"Oh." as she returned to looking back at the window blankly.

"Well, I do not have all day to wait for you to finish your meal."

"I thought I told you.."

"It is an order. You are required to eat."

"What if I don't..?"

"I will make you."

She pondered the thought of the Itachi forcing her to gulp down that mystery of a.. what was that? Soup? She slightly giggled at the thought. 'Slightly.' She reminded herself.

"Okay. Make me." without knowing the consequences of her words, Itachi quick and silent as ever, had her pinned down to the floor in less than a second, with him on top of her, clenching her already bruised wrists together once again. With one hand gripping her wrists, he took the spoon from the bowl and shoved the utensil into her mouth without a second's notice. She was facing him, back to the floor and her hands above her head with a very surprised face. She couldn't believe that he had just pinned her to the ground like that, and in that style. She seriously thought that he was going to attempt something else. As these thoughts were coming to her head, she could feel the slight heat rush up to her cheeks as she stared at his chest. She slowly swallowed while trying her best not to look directly into his eyes. He was obviously amused from this as she gulped down that tasteless spoonful.

"Now, do I have to feed you forcefully spoonful by spoonful, or are you capable of eating on your own?" Sakura immediately rolled over and returned to her sitting position. She then picked up the bowl and began sipping the soup forcefully trying to finish it as soon as possible. It was practically heated water with unknown tasteless chunks and salt. When she was done, he took the tray and left, making sure to lock the door as loudly as possible. Obviously, she wouldn't run anywhere, she didn't even know where she was. Even if she did manage to escape the cage, there's no way she could possibly face Itachi in a state with deprived chakra levels.

Though, as she sat in the middle of the room with the bright white moonlight shining down on her staring at the window blankly, she was deep in thought of how all this happened to her so quickly. Just this late afternoon, she was casually returning home from a simple mission of delivering a message. Then.. everything happened so fast.. She discovered that she was being closely followed and picked up her speed a bit, not trying to make it noticeable that she noticed the intruder. He pursued her for roughly an hour, which she then hypothesized that whoever is following her isn't just some common bandit or thief. By that time, she really picked up her pace and began sprinting. Twisting and turning, she attempted to lose this pursuer, but whatever she did, it failed its purpose. He followed closely behind, but far enough that she couldn't see who it was.

Then, he unmasked his chakra. It was so threateningly powerful, that it had temporarily slowed down Sakura's pace because of how dense it was to just be in the vicinity of the attacker. Just as fast as he had unmasked his chakra, he masked it again, just like a vacuum sucking up its mess. Sakura nearly tripped over her own foot with the different changes in atmospheres in such little time. Before she knew it, the kunai that could've ended her life flew through her hair stopping her in her tracks.

The Haruno took a long sigh, before drooping down her posture and staring straight to the window again, where the eerie dim moonlight shone through the crossed bars along the window.

Knock. Knock. The faint sound resonated throughout the empty space. Sakura could see herself standing inside a bland metal cage. 'Why is it so cold?' As she shivered, slowly curling into a ball, she could feel the cage moving. It was being pulled by other cages suddenly surrounding her. 'Oh.. It's a line.' There, she could see blurred faces of all her teammates and elementary friends. Basically everyone she knew in Konoha. They were all caged up too. She noticed that she was near the back of the line, whereas all her teammates were probably at the back of the middle. The line stretched a long ways, and no matter how much she craned her neck, she could never see the front. 'What was everyone waiting for at the front?'

Knock. Knock. The sound came again. This time, louder than it was before. Sakura attempted to open her eyes, but failed, due to the lack of energy that's been sucked away from that chakra seal. So, she just left one eye cracked open at a minuscule amount. Carefully eyeing around, and almost being blinded from the strong rays of sunlight seeping through the cracks of the window. She lifted her head slowly and carefully because of her even more aching back from sleeping another night on the cold, cement floor. Sadly enough, because of this stupid chakra sealer, she's unable to rid herself of this pain with her acknowledged skills as a medic nin. After getting more accustomed to the tense sensation all over her back, she glanced over to her wrists. They were an even more deeper shade of purple because of yesterday's incident. Sakura drew a pair of agitated brows together and decided that she could be strong and face this bit of pain in comparison to losing her life. Though, she really wished that they could at least let her heal her injuries, sad as they may be. 'No, I'm strong enough to fight the aching pain of my back and a couple bruised wrists.' Inner-Sakura cheered on.

Finally seeing the actual light of the day, Sakura is now able to examine this room of her's a bit closer. 'It really is practically empty space..' It was a somewhat small square room which consisted of nothing but brick walls and cement floor. But, there was an addition to this room of hers today, a bucket. Now what in the world could this be for? It was then that Sakura sat there pondering all the possibilities that you could accomplish with a simple metal bucket. 'You could.. make a drum, or a seat, maybe even an awesome hat. Oh wait, you could be a robot! A highly unadvanced robot.. Though, I highly doubt that they would give me a bucket for those idiotic reasons.. What realistic reason could I ever use a bucket for?' It was then that Sakura nearly gagged on her own vomit.

"I can't believe you expect me to use a bucket!" as he strode away, Itachi quietly chuckled to himself beneath his dark cloak.

"Ugh. There's no way I can do this." squatting next to it, Sakura eyed the simple metal bucket conspicuously, as she argued with herself whether or not to take the chance to ask Itachi if she could possibly use an actual decent restroom. There's also the argument of whether to use the bucket, or not. Preferably, she hoped it would become the latter, though, it's not like she could just go on the floor.. 'No! You may be a prisoner now, but you still have your dignity! Don't let something like that go down in the drains!' Inner-Sakura was right. There's no way that someone of her caliber could ever be known to have gone in a bucket just because she was imprisoned.

As Itachi strolled through the dark hallways of his secret hide-out carrying yet another tray of mysterious food, he could faintly hear Sakura's cries of agitation. He reached her compartment finally, and the cries that became louder and louder suddenly dispersed. He knocked on the door twice, like a polite gentleman, before allowing himself inside.

"You're crazy if you think I'm actually going to use this." Sakura immediately announced having placed the bucket in front of her after he had entered. He walked in further, careful not to stir the full bowl of noodles sitting on the tray. She crossed her legs and arms and turned her head to face the wall, looking like a child who has not gotten what she wants. He silently set the tray down in front of her legs after he carried the bucket back to the corner and noticeably breathed out a long sigh, almost as if trying to erase all his stress.

"I suppose that I cannot force you to.. use it, then." immediately Sakura's posture shot straight up and her face turned a pale white.

"I already said that I am not going to force you." after hearing those words, Sakura slumped back into her original slouch and took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Well? Where am I supposed to use the restroom now?", asked the recently relieved Sakura.

"I believe your answer lies in the corner." staring at Itachi, flabbergasted, she became amazed at how thick his head was. Didn't he get the idea that there was no way that she was going to use that bucket as a restroom?

"W-what? I thought you already got the point that I'm not going to use that bucket as my toilet!"

"That does not mean I am going to go through the trouble of taking you to a restroom and-"

"What?! How in the world is that troublesome? I just go to the bathroom, in and out, right?"

"It would mean that I would have to keep close watch on you so you would not.. send a message through the latrine or anything of the sorts."

"Oh my god. You've got to be kidding me. Even if I did send a message, the water would probably make all the words unreadable. So your logic is flawed, Mr. Perfect." Finishing it with a smirk, Sakura became proud of her amazing abilities at studying situations.

"You are still my prisoner, I have nothing to trust you for."

"But you can't just keep me caged up like an animal! and plus, if I did use that cheap cylinder of a bucket, it would smell! You'd have to smell it too since you come here pretty often."

There was a long pause after that. Sakura figured that she's possibly won the argument, but still can't be sure of it. Itachi looked deep in thought as he thought about the consequences of making her use the bucket. He would have to clean it up.. There was no more trying to decide which choice after that thought.

"You are allowed 2 visits per day to the lavatory." With that, Itachi abruptly left the room, closing the door with a slight bit of annoyance slammed into it. 'YES!' Inner-Sakura immediately starting cheering after he left.

It was a tough feat, but Sakura had won her restroom privileges. It has been a few days after that incident, and everyday Itachi would come in the morning to let her use the lavatory. He would then come again in the early evening. It's become a regular schedule, but there are still things that are complete mysteries to Sakura. Like how Itachi still won't tell her his purposes of capturing her in the first place. 'This is ridiculous. It's not like I want to know why he wants me, but so far, it seems like capturing me has been pointless.' There's also the questionable part where she hasn't seen any other Akatsuki members come in. Of course, it's known world-wide that Itachi Uchiha, world class criminal, is a member of the Akatsuki. So why hasn't she seen any other members bring her food in, or take her to the restroom? Why is only Itachi? There are certainly many questions that Sakura has been wanting to ask, but most likely, only a select few will ever be answered. So she's decided that she shouldn't think about it too much as the answers to those will probably result in disappointment as they always do.

She wonders if Konoha is still doing well without her. 'Of course they'd still be fine.' It's not like Konoha would suddenly go into ruins if she suddenly disappeared. Sasuke couldn't even be considered a part of Konoha anymore, yet.. he still does have something to do with this since she is dealing with his brother and all. Though, Naruto, her best friend, might destroy Konoha into ruins if she disappeared.. Her lips curved slightly upwards at the thought. 'I wonder how Naruto and the others are doing without me.' Staring into the beautiful white moonlight, Sakura slowly drifted into a deep sleep, hoping to catch a glimpse of her last dream to find out what everyone was awaiting for.

This time, Sakura had woken before Itachi did his daily morning knock. She became quite proud of that, mainly because he's always been the one to scare her awake every morning. Luckily, the sun was beaming down on her today through the window. It's always cold during the nights and early mornings because he didn't provide her with anything but the clothes on her body. She sat there enjoying the warmth of the sun for some time.

Lifting her head dazedly, she saw how dirty her beautiful pink locks have become. They looked beaten, bruised, and smelled like mold. It was horrifying to see them in such a state as this. Sakura knew though, how hard it would be to be allowed to leave this room and go clean up. She figured that during her bathroom break, she could use the sink to somewhat clean her hair.

Knock. Knock. Perfect timing. Itachi entered quietly with a few simple hand signals signifying that it means a trip to the restroom. He looked nonplussed for a brief second at the already-awake Sakura, but returned to his normal, plain serious complexion. Sakura followed intently as they walked through the dark halls engraved with stone. She noticed that the ceiling and the walls were completely covered in stone, which means that they were probably.. underground..? Why would they be underground? This brought another question to her already long list.

He gestured her to the lavatory door, which she took gratefully. As soon as she entered and locked the door, she quickly paced to the sink and looked into the filthy mirror. There she saw, a horrifyingly dirty girl. Her cheeks were so dirty that they appeared to be a brown in contrast to her normal pale-white skin. Her hair had visible specks of dirt scattered randomly all over the once gleaming pink locks. She also took notice of some fading away scratches that she obtained when in the struggle with Itachi on the first night. Attempting to pick out the noticeably larger clumps of dirt on her hair, she regretted ever taking something as little as a shower as something insignificant.

Twisting the handle on the faucet, Sakura waited for the water to flow through. Although she had already gotten used to the normal way the faucet works, (which is very slow) this isn't right. The water usually flows after three to five seconds after turning the handle, but it's been around twenty now. Worriedly, she walked back to the door where Itachi awaited to bring her back to her cell. Her face pressed on the rough wood of the door and called out, "Itachi?"

"Yes?"

"I think the water's broken."

"What?"

"Water won't come out of the faucet!" right after that, the door opened smoothly. Surprised, Sakura swore that she had locked that door, unless he's able to pick locks? 'Man, this guy can do anything.' , Inner-Sakura commented.

Itachi strolled over to the faucet and fiddled with the handle. No water came out, and Sakura saw him squint his eyes a fraction before returning his gaze on her.

"Do you absolutely need water to use the restroom?"

"Do you know how unhygienic living in that room is?"

"Were you planning on taking a bath? because that is not possible-"

"Well, yeah. I've been meaning to ask you about that.." He paused to stare at her. Again, he squinted his eyes a minuscule amount as he eyed the current state her face and hair were in.

"Come. I will take you somewhere for you to.. clean yourself." an excited Sakura followed her captor intently through the long, twisting hallways after that.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Someplace where there will be enough sufficient water for you to bathe in." she didn't question why he said it that way, as she's already gotten used to his textbook quality choice of vocabulary.

While walking through the hallways, she tried to remember every stone in the wall as a unique rock to keep from becoming lost in this maze, but failed due to every rock looking practically the same. It felt as if they've been travelling a good half hour before Sakura noticed a bright light up ahead the path they were walking on. With each step, she anticipated the moment when she would be able to take a good look at the outside world once again.

Okay, first-timer here! Tell me what you think. Truthfully, I have no idea where this story may turn to, so I'll probably end up editing after chapter 2 is out.. or something. Review so I'll know that someone read it and this isn't just a waste of time! :D

I've edited this chapter, because it didn't have enough emotional tension involved in it. Like, reader-character connections; so I added a bit of that hopefully! Sorry for the past readers for having to re-read this again. D: Made it longer too, for those readers that just LOVE reading long chapters. -hinthint,me,coughcough. I had also deleted Chapter 2 for revision for the few people who were there to read it while it was out there for probably an hour. ^^" I'm just the type of person who'd delete something right after it's been published; so be prepared if you're going to follow these chapters!