Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. A fact which I have cried over many times ^_^.

Summary: Non-massacre fic. Sakura had gone in with the intention of finding some way of blackmailing him. So just how did she end up being the one blackmailed into going on a date with him? Damn sneaky geniuses.


Uchiha Itachi. One of Konoha's most revered and celebrated ANBU captains, future leader of the prestigious Uchiha clan, and a prodigy with a genius intellect that would rival even Nara Shikamaru's.

To put it lightly, Sakura was screwed. To put it bluntly, Sakura was totally, undoubtedly screwed. A fact which Inner Sakura was currently helpfully reminding Sakura at this very moment. Now, why was Haruno Sakura in extreme amounts of trouble right now? That would have to be due to the fact that she was attempting to break into the aforementioned genius' room in an attempt to, in Naruto's inspiring words, "Find some dirt on the teme's spying brother and blackmail the hell out of him!"

Dammit. It was all Naruto and Sasuke's fault that she was doing this in this first place, as they all agreed that Naruto probably wouldn't even make it into the Uchiha compound undetected, and if Sasuke was caught ransacking his older brother's room by Itachi he would most likely never be heard from again. So Sakura was unanimously elected to do the dirty work.

This entire thing was actually Naruto and Sasuke's doing from the very beginning. The reason that the trio now had to find something to blackmail Itachi with was that he had caught them doing something they really, really shouldn't have been doing. Something that could potentially land them in lots of trouble with the Hokage if they were ever found out. Something that had been her two idiotic teammates' so-called brilliant idea. Though it seemed Itachi hadn't said anything yet, a fact which mystified the three sixteen-year-old chunins, they needed to ensure he kept his mouth shut about it.

Sakura had hopefully suggested that Sasuke ask Itachi to help him out by not saying anything about the incident out of the brotherly love in his heart, to which Sasuke snorted and gave a disheartening reply of, "Sakura, Itachi used up all the brotherly feelings he ever had for me about ten years ago. Now he exists for the sole purpose of making my life as miserable as possible."

So, here Sakura was picking the lock on the ominous looking door to Itachi's room (how the hell did he manage to make even his door look scary?). She had successfully scaled the walls of the residential area reserved only for the Uchiha clan, stealthily masking her chakra along the way, and had quickly headed towards the grand house that only the head of the clan and his family resided in. For one frightening moment, she had thought Sasuke's cousin Shisui had spotted her in the shadows, but was quickly relieved when he just yawned, scratched his head, and continued on his way. Sasuke had left the window to his room unlocked for her, so it was a simple matter to climb up the conveniently-placed tree outside his window and slip into the house from there. Thank goodness Sasuke had told her his parents would be dining at a relative's house that evening. She really liked Uchiha Mikoto and Fugaku, and they were fond of her in return (she and Naruto were common visitors to the Uchiha compound, what with being best friends with Sasuke and all), but she didn't exactly fancy trying to explain why she was breaking into their house.

Itachi's door suddenly gave a soft click as she triumphed over the lock, and Sakura cautiously pushed the door open. Itachi was one of the top ANBU captains, she wouldn't put it past him to have set up some nasty traps in his room so that he could capture and kill innocent pinkettes like herself that tried to sneak in.

She surveyed the room with a critical eye, making sure there weren't any exploding tags or the man-eating plants that Sasuke swore Itachi grew in his room, and relaxed slightly, finding none. With a deep breath, she crossed the threshold of the doorway and into his room, brushing her face off lightly when what felt like cobwebs or dust floated over her.

Sakura stopped in the middle of the room, looking around incredulously. What in the—? Is this guy OCD or something? Hell, maybe Naruto's right, he IS a robot! For Itachi's room was the most perfect, organized, housekeeper's-dream-room that ever existed. His bed was made up flawlessly, with nary a wrinkle to be seen, and there were no signs of clothing or personal items strewn around the bedroom, like there were in Sasuke's. In fact, the only other furniture in Itachi's room was a sensible looking brown desk and a large chest of drawers. If she was going to find anything even remotely criminating, she'd have to look, as Kakashi said, underneath the underneath. Though I'm sure Kaka-sensei didn't mean that literally, Sakura thought to herself in grim amusement as she hurriedly bent down to peek under Itachi's bed. Please, oh, please let there be dirty magazines or something of that nature here…damn it, nothing!

Sakura stood up after her search under the bed yielded nothing, sighing and heading over to the desk to rummage through the drawers. Mission reports, mission reports, mission reports—huh, he has prettier handwriting than me—receipts, mission reports. No journal or anything?

She slammed the drawers to the desk closed in disgust, quickly glancing at the clock and seeing that she had wasted about six minutes looking through everything already. Now there was only his chest of drawers to snoop in. She flung open the top drawer, finding only socks lying there innocently. Nothing blackmail-worthy in this drawer. She slid it shut, moving on to the next drawer. After another minute passed by, Sakura was pretty much ready to admit defeat, and picked up one of Itachi's shirts that had fallen out of a drawer in her search, planning to put it back in and then make a quick escape out of the house. Sakura let out a small smile of relief, she was beginning to think she preferred A-ranked missions over infiltrating Itachi's room—

A quiet, but amused cough was let out behind her.

And that was when Sakura's whole plan of getting-the-hell-out-of-Sasuke's-house came crashing down around her ears.


Damn. Double damn. Triple damn. As usual, Sakura's innate habit of cursing showed itself in situations like these. For standing there, carelessly lounging against the doorway, was none other than Uchiha Itachi, wearing a dangerous-looking smirk on his aristocratic face.

Sakura's startled green eyes were drawn to his spidery fingers, which were playing with what looked like thin threads of silk, or like…her eyes widened in realization. Shit!

Itachi's quiet voice, slightly condescending, resounded throughout the silent room. "You know, Sakura, I've been experimenting with chakra traps lately." He lazily fingered the green strands of what Sakura now guessed to be chakra-filled threads. "It is…quite amazing, actually, of how much of a thin and delicate form chakra can be compressed into, making for exceedingly efficient traps. The trespasser never even knows they're there, as they are naked to the invisible eye, and near-impossible to detect otherwise. If the chakra is disturbed in any way, the user is immediately aware that someone…unwelcome is where they are not supposed to be."

Well. That explained what the dust she had thought brushed against her face actually was. Sakura swallowed hard, her quick mind rapidly shifting through different possibilities of escaping with all her limbs intact. But this was Itachi right? The man she'd known since she was young, ever since she befriended Sasuke. He wouldn't actually torture her, right? Right? Nevermind, she was screwed. She scowled inwardly, making a mental note to beat Sasuke and Naruto within an inch of their lives after this. Forget what Kakashi-sensei said about bonds, she was so going to give them what they deserved for making her face Sasuke-kun's demon brother alone. Cowards.

Itachi seemed to know what was going through her head, for his lips curled upwards slightly in a semblance of a smile. "Rest assured, Sakura, I will spare you this one time. As long as you tell me exactly why you decided to break into my room, and, ah, steal my shirt apparently?" His dark eyes found the possession that she still clutched onto like a lifeline in her small hands.

Sakura cleared her throat nervously, saying, "Ah. Well, Itachi, that's a very interesting question actually. In fact, I'm not really here for your shirt. Sorry, it just kinda fell out when I was looking through—I mean, when I was—"

Itachi cut through her babble. "I'm still waiting, Sakura."

Ugh, could he not say her name like it was melted chocolate on his tongue? It tended to be a little distracting. Sakura searched for a believable lie to explain why she was in his room.

Itachi was taken off-guard when Sakura suddenly smiled sweetly at him, her leaf-green eyes lighting up, and her voice transforming into a cheery…flirtatious tone?

" 'Kay, you got me, Itachi-kun! I'm in here 'cause I've been in love with you for months, and my fangirlish tendencies finally got the better of me! So, I ended up coming in here to steal your shirt so I could sleep in it!" There. Thank god for her years of acting like an airheaded fool when she had a crush on Sasuke. That ought to be a suitable excuse, one that most men would most likely fall for…

"Really now…" Then again, Uchiha Itachi was not most men. "So, this little excursion has nothing to do with the fact that I recently caught you, my foolish little brother, and the loud-mouth breaking into the Hokage's office at three o'clock in the morning to discover early whether or not you had been recommended for the upcoming jounin exams?"

Crap. "Er...no."

"There was no desire to, perhaps, find something potentially incriminating that would silence me on the subject forever?"

Sakura had only one thing to ask as she glared at his smug, pretty-boy face: How? How did Itachi always know every single thing? Whenever she talked to him, it was like he could pry open her head at will and see her thoughts written there. Hence the reason she tried to avoid conversation with the infuriating man most of the time. Damn sneaky geniuses.

Sakura straightened up and dropped the flirty act, saying grudgingly to Itachi, "Alright, Uchiha, so you've got us over a barrel. I suppose you'll be going to Shishou tomorrow to tell her we violated the rules you love so much?"

Itachi's disconcerting eyes surveyed her for a moment, before calmly stating, "No, I will not."

Sakura, however, paid no heed to his words, as she was still going off on a childish rant. "—because I can tell you if you do rat us out, I'll never, ever make my special brownies for Sasuke again, I know you eat them, he tells me you steal them from him every time, but the brownie flow will definitely be stopping if you—wait, what?"

Itachi laughed softly, taking a few step towards Sakura, who backed away from him uncertainly. "As much as the threat of losing your brownies does indeed frighten me, Sakura, I will refrain from informing Tsunade of your activities on one condition."

"And what's that?" Sakura questioned him suspiciously.

"One date."

"Eh? With who?"

"Who else is in this room, Sakura?"

Sakura gaped at him, her mouth dropping open in horror. "You aren't serious, Uchiha!"

"I assure you I am."

He smirked. "Besides, just a moment ago you were confessing your undying love for me, Sa-ku-ra." He rolled the syllables of her name out teasingly. "What changed your affections so quickly?"

Sakura swore under her breath, if the Uchiha was trying to get on her nerves, he was succeeding. "I wasn't serious, you prick!"

He raised a single black eyebrow at her words, his smirk becoming slightly sadistic. Itachi fixed his gaze on Sakura, saying in mild tones, "Of course, if you wish to refuse, that is your prerogative, but I believe that if you truly care about your teammates you will not do so."

"This is blackmail!"

"And how is it any different from what you were aspiring to do to me? Call it what you will, Sakura-chan. You can give me your answer tomorrow."

Sakura huffed, thoroughly tired of playing word games with him, gave a curt nod, and stomped past Itachi's tall body towards the open door. A hand descended on her elbow suddenly, and, ever the gentlemen, Itachi told her, "I'll see you out. There is no need for you to leave through Sasuke's window."

Sakura was sure a vein in her forehead was throbbing now. Gritting her teeth, she managed to muster out, as politely as she could, "Thanks, but I'll manage to find the front door on my own." She tried to rein her anger in, as she didn't think the Uchiha clan would appreciate it if they were suddenly short one clan heir.

She yanked her arm from the annoying jerk's grip, stomped out his bedroom door, and down the hallway that led to the staircase. Her eye twitched when she heard what sounded suspiciously like quiet laughter coming from the direction of the elder Uchiha's room. "Bastard," she muttered furiously under her breath. After taking the stairs two at a time, she reached the main room of the Uchiha house and slipped out the sliding door, incredibly thankful to finally be leaving.

Sakura stood outside the main house for a moment, her shoulder-length pink locks stirring gently in the breeze that had picked up sometime in the evening. She looked up at the house in a speculating manner, wondering how much jail time she would be forced to do for burning down the Uchiha manor and the exasperating man inside of it.


Hey! Just wanted to say thanks to anyone who's actually reading this story. I've been dying to write a fic for Itachi and Sakura for a while now, I was inspired by all of the wonderful ItaSaku authors whose works I've read on here. Please review, I'd really appreciate helpful comments, constructive criticism, or just a note saying you enjoyed reading.