Sleeping Beauty

An ItaSaku Oneshot

By eifi

They were currently in a thick green bamboo forest, sleeping side by side to each other under the moonlight. Even though I've described it as that, neither of them were asleep. One of them pretended to sleep, but in reality he was checking for any enemies that could be approaching, the other one was tired but restless, insomnia and fear creeping into her, rendering her totally unable to sleep.

"Itachi." A soft melodic but hesitant voice rang in his ears, urging him to answer.

"Itachiiii…" It continued. He rolled over and found her in his arms, and pulled her closer to himself, crushing her against his body.

"Itachi… Are you awake?" Sakura asked, and he grunted sleepily. He heard her sigh. He smiled slightly at her bugging; he knew she knew that he was awake.

"Itachiiiii… Wakeee uppppp…" She urged, and after several more failed attempts, he finally did.

"Hn? What's wrong Sakura?" He asked sleepily, yawning after he buried his face in the crook of her neck.

"I can't sleep…" She murmered into his chest.

"Why not? Are you frightened?" He asked, caressing her cheek gently. Guilt building up in his chest as he watched her tired eyes flicker in the moonlight. He was already starting to regret letting her run away with him from Konoha and Akatsuki.

"Mmm… I don't know… I don't usually sleep anyway…" She murmered tiredly, lifting her cheek to the palm of his hand sleepily, closing her eyes as she did like a pet cat would do to its owner when they petted them. Itachi already could tell she was putting up a strong front, she just didn't want to hurt him or make him have any second thoughts.

"It's ok, you don't have to be frightened. I'm here to protect you, if anything happens, I'll rescue you. I promise Sakura." He whispered calmly to her, smiling as he watched her huddle closer towards him.

"Ne…Tell me a story or something…" She said dazedly whilst weaving her fingers through his silken hair. He sighed helplessly while smiling, rising to sit up slightly.

"A story?" He asked amusedly, wondering what type of story she wanted to hear. Stroking her hair calmly, he watched as she smiled dozily at him.

"Mmm… Any story, can even be one of them from when you had to do stuff from Akatsuki. I just wanna hear your voice…" Itachi wondered what type of story to tell her. If she thought he was going to tell her about some of the horrifying things that he was ordered to do, she was wrong. Thinking back, he remembered one story that his younger brother had once asked him to read out to him to make him sleep. His lips curling up into a smile, he chuckled, making Sakura curious on why he was laughing.

"Hm? Anything funny?"

"No, nothing. Just remembering back to something…" He said dreamily, even though she had run away with him and that he knew she loved him, he didn't want to mention his little brother for one or two insecure reasons, knowing that she used to love him too.

"Mmm… I want a story…" She said, shifting slightly to let her head lay comfortably on his lap facing him, hugging his waist as she did.

"Hmm…" He watched her as her back rose with every breath she took. Placing his hand on her head, he knew she was smiling. He thought carefully before continuing his sentence, looking at the full moon and seeing what the time was. He shuddered slightly as a cold wind picked up, reminding him so cruelly of the events that had took place only around 10 years ago under the very same moon. Sakura noticed his silent tremble, even if he hadn't, and hugged him tighter, bringing herself closer to him.

"What's wrong?" She asked softly, getting one of her arms to unwrap around his waist and finding one of his hands, bringing it to her and placing it on her cheek again.

"Nothing… I'm just thinking of what to tell you…" He said just as softly, gazing down at her and lifting his free hand from her hair, tucking a lock of loose pale pink hair from her face, gazing into her tired emerald eyes again. He smiled for a moment, but then another cold breeze pulled him into reality, totally dispelling the wonderful happy lulling effect that she made him feel whenever she gazed at him. The cold reality of it all was that she should not be here. Nor should he at that. He shouldn't be allowed to come near her in fact. But he did. That was the sad truth that they both were trying to ignore. Sakura noticed his discomfort and knew straight away what he was thinking about, and got up from his lap to sit up, eye level with Itachi.

"Itachi…" She started, but she had no words to say. She looked at him with sad eyes, bring her hand up cup his cheek, but he stopped her by grabbing her wrist midway. This shocked her and she immediately withdrew, looked away from him, feeling anxious and out of place by his side. He knew he was out of line, and wanted to apologize, but his common sense and logic was telling him to let her go now, let her go back to the comfortable life that she had back at Konoha, the place that exiled him and forced him to live through years of haunted torture. He didn't move for a long time, and neither did she, until she let out a small whimper when he realised he was still holding her wrist, hard.

"G-Gomen Sakura." He stuttered, completely unaware of him hurting her, but that wouldn't have been the first time. He let go of her wrist and watched her withdraw her hand from his reach, rubbing it as she bit her lip, blinking away tears.

"Gomen…" He repeated, even though he was sure that she heard it the first, he just felt that he should. Looking at her as she looked away from him, he could tell that she was thinking about the same thing, but unlike him, she didn't seem to regret anything. Maybe it was just too early for the reality to sink in, he thought, maybe he really should send her back, before he ruins her life like he had ruined many others.

"Sakura… I…" He started, finding himself actually incapable of forming the words he wanted to say. Taking deep breaths, he wondered if it would be best to knock her out gently and then forcefully take her back knowing that she would put up a fight, and by the time he would win the sun would have probably already risen back up. Twice.

"Itachi… Don't." Sakura interrupted his trail of thought, not letting him finish the sentence that he wanted so desperately for her sake to finish. He looked at her with painful eyes, his gaze lacking the radiant confidence that he used to have as an ANBU, and filled with the same regret he felt when he killed his entire clan.

"But Sakura-" He tried, but was interrupted as a soft finger was pressed against his own soft lips. He made no movement to struggle like he had done so before, instead, he closed his eyes and leant slightly onto her finger, pushing the weight of his lips against it. Soon enough, his heartbeat hastened as he felt her replace her fingers with her lips. It was soft and sweet, and he had succumbed into her kiss immediately, breaking it only to catch his breath. She looked at him with half drooped eyelids, lifting her hand to cup his face once again, and smiled slightly when he didn't move to stop her.

"Itachi… I love you. More than anything and anyone apart from you, you're the most important. No one matters but you Itachi, no one. I… I even don't care if we have to live in the mountains or something, as long as I'm with you, I don't care. Trust me; I knew what I was doing when I said I do." She said, gesturing to the artisan diamond engagement ring that was sitting at the base of her engagement finger. Smirking giddily as she knew he was blushing slightly, she lay back down to his lap making herself comfortable, hugging his waist once again, yawning slightly to remind him.

"Mmm, I want a story Itachi…" She murmured into his lap, closing her eyes and smiling softly.

"Hmm… I don't know one." Itachi teased, giving into the temptation to make her annoyed and seeing what he thought was a cute angry reaction.

"Grr…" She growled, poking him in the tummy lightly, "I know you know one, you're lying."

"Heh, how did you know?" He played along, stroking her hair slightly.

"Hmm… Story. Now. Or else. Your belly button gets it Uchiha." She chuckled, imagining him panicking over the loss of his belly button. He raised his eyebrows in response, and mumbled something about mood swings, only as a joke of course. But it ended up with her punching on the arm lightly, still as a joke.

"Mm… Fine. I think I might know one." He said, leaning over her to block the moonlight from her face, just so that he could get her back for that last strike.

"What's it called?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Sleeping beauty." He said triumphantly, as if he were proud that he knew it or something. Sakura let a huff of laughter escape her lips in the form of a short 'Pfft'. Itachi raised his eyebrows again, confused.

"What?"

"…Nothing."

"Tell me."

"No no. It's nothing. Really… Pfft…"

"Is that so?" He said again, leaning down more and tickling her so she squirmed in his lap. Pouting, Sakura gave in, and just laughed as she said it.

"You just looked so cute when you said that, and it's like, Sleeping Beauty! Pfft! I never knew you were a romantist."

"…" Itachi obviously didn't like being called cute.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way, it was just so cute." She said, but it was the second strike for Itachi.

"Ah… So I'm more cute than handsome… Great…" He said whilst he put on what seemed the closest to being a pout for the Uchiha. Sakura just laughed again, she wanted to say he was cute again, but she guessed it would be another strike to his masculinity.

"Ah… I'm sorry…"

"It's ok, it just means I don't have to tell you the story since you already know it." He smirked evilly as he made to go back to sleep. He knew that they both knew that he was winning and just Sakura gasped in fake disgust.

"Noo! You just can't not tell that story, that's blasphemy! And like, that's one of my favouriteees too! Pleaseeee?" She begged, trying to put on her best puppy dog eyes to make Itachi give in. And it worked. Kind of.

He sighed before replying. "Fine. But you owe me a favour when we get to the inn we're going to stay at for a while." He ended with a sadistic smirk.

"Eh? What favour?" She asked, her happy smiley expression immediately turned into a slightly horrified, worried and scared expression.

"Heh, you'll find out then."

"Nooo!"

"So you really don't want to listen to the story."

"Noooo!"

"Eh? Which one is it, Sakura?"

"…Fine… I'll do your stinking favour."

"Good. Now. Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess…" Itachi trailed off, then stopped.

"…What's wrong?" Sakura asked confusedly.

"…I can't believe I'm saying this." He said with a slightly disgusted and self defeated expression.

"Keep going! Otherwise you won't get that 'favour'" Sakura encouraged, restraining herself from laughing at his antics.

"Fine… So there was a beautiful princes-"

"Without the sarcasm please. Itachi-kun." Sakura interrupted sweetly, humming innocently as Itachi glared at her half-assedly and continued, ignoring her interruption.

"…who was cursed by an evil witch fairy. She was cursed to die when she reached adulthood by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. Another good fairy tried to weaken the curse, but she couldn't reverse it completely." He said, stroking Sakura's hair again whilst she watched him as he spoke. She gasped as he finished the sentence with sort of mock excitement, and urged him on with an excited 'What next, what happened next!'

"But the fairy could weaken the spell, so she made it so she would only sleep for about a century, after she pricked her finger of course, and would have to be saved by her one true love or a prince or something…"

"Eh? Or something? Don't you know?" She said whilst tilting her head cutely.

"Hush. It's only a minor detail."

"Excuses excuses." She tutted, shaking her head in mock disappointment. Itachi ignored it again, chuckling slightly before carrying on.

"So the King and Queen made every precaution as to ban the use of spindles and spinning wheels in the castle, severely punishing anyone who was found using one. But, when the beautiful-"

"Eh? More beautiful than me?" Sakura interrupted again, pouting and looking up to Itachi with a silent threat in her eyes, telling him 'You better say no, or you're dead meat.' But Itachi didn't need to look at her warning, he already knew what she wanted to hear, and was more than happy to say it.

"No, you're much prettier."

"Yay!" She said, snuggling into his lap again.

"Anyway, she reached the age of 16, but despite the King and Queen's efforts, an old woman in the top room of a tower in the castle was found spinning by the princess, and she wanted to have a go. So she-"

"Oh my gosh! Did she die?"

"…No. She didn't. She pricked her finger on the wheel and-"

"Died?"

"Sakura…"

"Sorry! I'll try to stop..."

"Good. So she pricked her finger on the wheel and…" Itachi waited, teasing her for revenge for interrupting him so many times. Sakura just looked away and pouted childishly.

"She fell asleep, and so did everyone in the castle."

"Eh! Why all of them?"

"Cause."

"Cause?"

"Just cause. And giant thorns grew around the castle tower, not letting anyone in."

"Ouch…"

"And then a hundred years later, a handsome prince-"

"Was he hot?"

"…Came to the castle and found the princess sleeping. None of the people in the castle had aged a bit during those hundreds of years."

"…Wait."

"What?"

"If they had the gas cooker on or something wouldn't the castle have set on fire or something? Or the tap on so the castle would of flooded?"

"Sakura…"

"Yes?"

"This is a story. A make believe story. And it was set in the olden olden days. They didn't invent gas stoves by then."

"A hundred bucks that they did."

"…"

"Ah… Sorry… I did it again didn't I…" She chuckled lightly, her voice softening with every breath that he took.

"Anyway. The prince fell in love with the beautiful princess at first sight, and kissed her."

"Creep." Her words were just a faint murmur now.

"Then she woke up and-" Itachi looked down at her, and waited for another sarcastic reply. When there was none, he smiled when he realised she was asleep. Bending down slightly to kiss her on the lips, he whispered to himself.

"They lived happily ever after."