ItaSaku Non massacre universe


Today was a normal day; rather sunny, regular breeze and not too hot. She had had a normal shift at the hospital and now they were having a normal training session with Sasuke's older brother. It was the perfect description of any day that would fit in the normal life of Haruno Sakura…

'Thump thump'

Except she wasn't feeling normal at all.

'Thump thump'

Again. That stupid stammer in her heart every time his hands made contact with her skin.

"Lower your elbow", his velvety voice was as normal as ever, but today, for some unknown reason, it was making her chest tight.

"Like this?", she replied, trying to ignore for the thousand time the strange reactions with which her body decided to bother her.

The spinning set of shuriken that flew from her hand missed one target and her brow creased.

"Sakura", her name on his lips sent an unwelcomed but not unpleasant chill down her spine. "You seem distracted today"

'You have no idea', she thought sarcastically but put on her best fake smile before facing him.

"I'm just tired from the work at the hospital"

Her plain answer seemed to satisfy Itachi's curiosity as he didn't question her anymore, but called everyone for a break nonetheless.

Itachi had been training with them for the past month, as they were all applying for the Jounin exams. His compliance had taken her and Naruto by surprise, since they had thought they would have more luck bringing back the Third to life and asking him to train them instead. Apparently, Sasuke had pushed the matter a lot, and according to his own story, asking him in front of their mother had been the deciding strike.

They were both such mama's boys.

In the end they had been put under a strict regime of training that many people would describe as sadistic, but neither of them cared. They had been doing a lot of progress.

So, for the past four weeks, her routine had been to be beaten, burnt, corrected and reprimanded by a ruthless Itachi, all of that after the usual long shifts at the hospital. Needless to say, she had learnt to hate the young prodigy.

Then why on earth was her body reacting like that to him?

She felt his intense stare on her and met his eyes.

'Thump thump'

And again, her heart jumped.

"Sakura, we're gonna stop for now, you look flustered", he moved in a bit closer and lifted his arm to her. The palm of his hand made contact with her large forehead, and if she was blushing before, now her face put her hair colour to shame.

"Maybe you're sick, your head feels hot", to her, the place where he was touching her felt like it was burning.

"Go home", he commanded.

There was something about the bossiness of his tone that made her stomach clench in an unfamiliar way.

"I'll walk you home, Sakura chan, you really don't look good", Naruto appeared with concern all over his face. She was too confused to reject him.

Maybe she was sick, and all this was just symptoms of her illness.

She should listen and go home.

After a while, when she was in the comfort of her bathroom, she looked at her reflection in the mirror for the longest time.

Her cheeks were blushed, but she didn't feel like she was on a fever.

'This is not good', she thought while a tired sigh escaped her lips.

Morning found her staring at the ceiling with deep purple circles under her eyes.

She hadn't slept a bit.

It would be all for the best to just blame it on some mid-season cold, but the fact was that she was as healthy as ever and still she hadn't been able to conciliate sleep in the whole night, not even for a minute.

After a loaded coffee, the usual work at the hospital kept her from thinking too much about her condition, so she kept herself busy with patients and surgeries and boring clinic hours. But as the day moved forward, the tingle in her stomach became more insistent and she knew she was anticipating the training.

Well, not the training itself, but their current teacher.

Sakura escaped the hospital quickly to deliver a folder to the Hokage, hoping that she would have any mission that would allow her to miss training.

"There's nothing for any of you until the end of the Jounin exams, so go and train yourself to death if necessary, I expect you to pass the exams", the blonde woman said without lifting her eyes from the towers of paperwork on her desk.

"It's not easy to release you all from missions for so long, you know?", Shizune walked Sakura to the exit of the office. "Tsunade sama is being uncommonly stubborn about it", she said, winking an eye at her. Again, she put on her fake smile and said her goodbyes.

She wished her shishou had been this compliant two months ago, when she was dying from stress from non-stopping missions and killer shifts at the hospital.

The midday sun received her at the other side of the threshold as she stepped outside the Hokage tower, and it was probably due to the temporary blindness that she missed the large figure walking straight to her.

She collided with something big and hurried to apologise.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't—", she found herself staring straight into the bottomless eyes of the culprit of all her misfortunes.

"Itachi san….!", his name escaped her lips.

"Are you feeling any better?", he asked plainly, his eyes never leaving hers.

Maybe it was because of the collision, of just the reflection of the sun, but for some reason he seemed to be… glowing?

She rubbed her eyes and tried looking at him again, but the sparkles didn't seem to go away.

'Strange…'

"I'm…", what did he ask again?

"Apparently not", he said with a lopsided smirk, soft and effortless, something so foreign in his features yet so settling…

The thumping of her heart was all she heard and at that precise moment she understood the depth of the mess she had gotten herself into.

She liked Uchiha Itachi.

A gasp was the only sound that left her before she practically escaped the dark haired man.

This was bad.

Her quick steps turned to running and wouldn't stop until she entered her apartment.

This was serious.

She leaned her weight against the closed front door once she was inside and stayed frozen for a few moments.

Her face was burning.

"I'm so screwed".


A/N: This is just an idea I wanted to get off my mind, it's not beta-ed. Don't know if it will continue.